Last summer our church took a chance on the first Vacation Bible School from Answers In Genesis. Overall, I was very impressed with the quality. That’s why I am excited about their 2009 VBS theme, “Operation Space: A Close Encounter With God’s Word.”
Here is my preview of the Operation Space VBS for 2009. Be sure to visit my Vacation Bible school resource page and my theme reviews for VBS 2009.
Please leave a comment below if you are using this theme. Everyone will benefit from your feedback.
2009 Operation Space Vacation Bible School
Here are my first impressions of the Operation Space VBS theme.
- Bible Content: AIG is setting the standard.
- Theme Appeal: Excellent, I’m already excited.
- Supporting Materials: Improving each year.
- VBS Music: Samples on their website, good quality but nothing remarkable.
- Overall grade:A-
Operation Space Theme
I can’t imagine a better direction than a space themed VBS. Disney’s movie WALL-E has really brought back science fiction, space and robots back into the popular imagination of children. The WALL-E DVD will be out by Christmas 2008, so many kids will have it memorized before Vacation Bible School time.
Operation Space Bible Lessons
These Vacation Bible School lessons present a basic introduction to Evangelical Christian teaching. The focus is on the Bible and its superiority for knowing truth. The lessons follow a traditional 5 day VBS with each day having its own mini-theme.
Last year the Answers In Genesis teaching was a mix of apologetic and Bible teaching. I expect this year will be similar. At times the transitions seemed a little forced to our teachers, but the variety made for a strong learning experience. Here are the 5 daily VBS themes.
- The Uniqueness of the Bible
- The Authority of the Bible
- The Gospel
- The Impact of the Bible
- Learn, Love, Live the Bible
Concerns About Operation Space
Very Focused On Young Earth Creationism:This may not be an issue for your church, but many protestant churches do not insist on a particular explanation of the creation beyond the fact that God make all things from nothing. Answers In Genesis works very hard to defend traditional Christian interpretations of the Bible by offering a form of Creation Science. Because their approach is apologetic, they do not leave much room for disagreements that exist in many churches over issues such as the age of the earth, the role of faith in science, and particular extra-biblical theories about the effects of Noah’s Flood.
Bible or Jesus – Where Should We Focus: You can guess from the Bible lessons above that AIG is very committed to teaching the Bible as God’s Word. While I agree with their theology, I sometimes wonder if overly focusing on the doctrine of scripture actually de-emphasizes the doctrine of Christ. Of course, we don’t know much about Jesus without the Bible, but we should never forget that Jesus is the focus of the Bible, not the Bible itself. This is even more of an issue if your church considers VBS an evangelistic event. The Gospel is about Jesus dying for our sins, rising again as the Lord, and reigning over God’s explanding Kingdom. We must remember that Jesus Christ is the Gospel, not the book.
What Do You Think?
Please share your opinions about Operation Space VBS in the comment selection below. My comments are just one opinion, so let me know what you think.
Need More Help? You can find even more practical ideas on my Vacation Bible School resource page and my Vacation Bible School crafts page.
Similar Posts You May Enjoy
- An Interview with Ken Ham, President of Answers In Genesis (Part 3 of 3)
- An Interview with Ken Ham, President of Answers In Genesis (Part 2 of 3)
- An Interview with Ken Ham, President of Answers In Genesis (Part 1 of 3)
- Answers In Genesis 2008 VBS Creation Theme Bible School
- Operation Christmas Child: A Service Project for Students
- The Genesis Standard for Families: Ryan Rush
- Video “Genesis” by the Fabulous Bentley Brothers
{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
I was also impressed with their V.B.S. curriculum-the only thing is the cost for a small church. We loved the whole set-up with the exception of not teaching about baptism. It’s in the bible-why do we avoid it?
I know this is old, but I would like to answer your question. We do not teach baptism, because it is not a requirement by God to be saved. After we are saved we are to be baptized as an example to others to follow Christ. Baptism does not save you, so there is no reason to mention it right now.
Tony:
Thanks for the review on our 2009 VBS. You have and/or contribute to a great website here. I wonder if you could edit your page that indicates that our 2009 VBS is still in production?
It is here on your site http://ministry-to-children.com/vacation-bible-school-2009/. Just a thought, since it is finished! By the way our VBS website is http://www.answersvbs.com.
Contact me if you have any questions. And again, thanks for encouraging and equipping Children’s Ministry workers to commend God’s work and wondrous deed to the next generation! (Psalm 145:4)
Since baptism washes away our sins, Acts 22:16. It is very important that we teach this fact. One can have store bought VBS, and still add other scriptures than what is in the VBS package. Since you have a small congregation, have you ever thought about making your own material? We have done many VBS’s on our own, The Savior, The Sea, And Me, Whisper A Prayer, Let My People Go, and this year’s theme, In the Beginning. In the Beginning is doing creation, but also the first sin. If you are interested in making your own material, contact me. I can help you out.
I am very disappointed with the AIG VBS program after reading your review. I ordered the program but have not received it yet. My original concern was that AIG would focus on a “young earth”. I called AIG before ordering the program and the person I talked with looked through the curriculum and told me that she didn’t see any strong emphasis on “young earth” within the program. Our pastor is an “old earth” believer and was willing to look at the program, upon my information, but now I think I will be just sending it back.
Well we did end up keeping the AIG VBS program. I did not find the “new earth” vs “old earth” emphasis to be that great. In my opinion the music DVD lacks enthusiasm. Plus they voiced over little kid voices on top of big kids singing. It looks and sounds very strange. My kids picked up on it right away and kept asking me why those big kids are singing like little kids. We may opt out of most of the music video. However, overall, after reading through everything, I beleive it is a good program.
No theme is perfect, but I have always liked the apologetic content idea. Thanks for keeping this comment thread active!
Lily,
I hope that you are not teaching your children that baptism washes away their sins. At face value, that appears what is said, but in the context of Scripture, that would be a works based salvation which, the Bible does not teach.
I would refer you to 1 Pet 3:21
“And corresponding to that, baptism now saves you– not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience– through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,..” (NAS) Peter is not saying the act of water baptism saves, but is referring to the baptism of repentence and regeneration by the Holy Spirit.
the creationism ruins this for me. Since we are a catholic church we are much more open to science. Also I agree that overly biblical is not the way to. To me the bible is a huge part of faith but certainly not 100%
Russell, Wow, I think you really need to talk to your priest about faith and science. They are not independent of each other, rather interdependent. And the Bible is how we know Jesus IS the Savior… Teaching children is a huge responsibility for your church, Catholic or Protestant.
Laurie,
I completely agree with you. I reread my post, and I dont think that I made my point clear at all. Of course science and faith are interdependent, but what I mean is that I am not a fundamentalist interpretor of the bible. I think a lot of the old testament is symbolic and maybe not all mean tto be taken literally and at face value. What I meant about th bible “not being %100″ (which was a terrible way to put that) was that I also believe that we need to study the bible and really understand it, but also listen to other things such as conscience and theologians ect. I also agree that teaching children is imperative to all faiths. They are our future and I think this website is a wonderful oppurtunity for people of deferent churches and even denominations to get together and discuss it.
thank you for making me reread that and realizing that i certainly didn’t choose my words well
Russell,
Thanks for your comments. We used AIG last year and will again this year. But I’ve told our teachers not to make “earth age” a cardinal doctrine of the faith. There is room for Christians to disagree on some details – I’ve changed my mind on those issues several times. There are many things in the Bible that challenge even the most mature believers. That doesn’t mean everyone is right, we just all need to be humble and wait for God to clear it up when Christ returns.
The bottom line is that God did create us for a special relationship with him, and since the earliest people we’ve rejected Him and need a savior.
Our Communittee is doing this theme (6 churches joined together). I am in charge of the Nursery. Any thoughts about decorations or easy projects to do with them?
Tony,
Well said. Your parish is VERY luckey to have someone like you who obviously has a great talent and is passionate about educating our future about Christ.
and Kellie, I think that if I were doing this theme I would really play up the stars and planets. Maybe you could get styrofoam balls and paint theme to represent the planets and then hang them accross the rooms. As for projects stay away from the glue! Check oriental trading, you can always find a bargain there. Hope that helped!
We used AIG’s Amazon Expedition last year with great success. We are a small, fundamentalist church and love the AIG content. We did find every aspect of the program very comprehensive – even snacks (which were a little too complicated. This year we’re simplifying snacks considerably).
Our one disappointment is AIG’s music. It is all very contemporary (last year’s CD actually had a song based on “I love rock ‘n roll”!) We used just one or two of their songs last year. This year, we were excited to see they had a “traditional” option – our hopes were dashed when we got our kit – there is just NO WAY we can use this music. Their “traditional” version is just a piano – the songs are all the same and they are certainly not appropriate for a fundamentalist church. We are praying that AIG will get a burden to produce music that is really God honoring and not contemporary.
Otherwise, we love the AIG apologetic content of their VBS programs.
Kelly, AIG has very detailed decoration ideas and how to’s in their program – no real need to even think outside the box and they cover every aspect.
Russell,
I would encourage you to visit AIG’s Creation Museum regarding science/creationism. Ken Ham and company have done a tremendous job exploring this issue, I mean a really great job.
One thing that made me stop and think: Why is it that the ONLY place where the definition of the word “day” is challenged about not being a 24-hour period is in the creation account? No one ever says, for example, Jonah was in the belly of the fish for 30 million years.
The bible is THE AUTHORITY & THE ONLY place we should be placing our faith, NOT traditions, science, or one particular denomination. This is not the place for a debate, but I prayerfully ask you to consider an open-minded visit to the Creation Museum and going the the Lord and His Word for the answers.
Diana, I agree this is not the place to discuss this but thanks for your reccomendation. If I had the oppurtunuty to go the museum I most certainly would, but I think this is just difference in our beliefs. And unfortunattely, the museum is just too far for me to go.
Russell, I would like to point out one important fact the word for day in Genesis, is the same as the word for in Exodus when God said “Keep the sabbath day holy”. Whereas in Peter(I believe) when he states “one day is to one thousand years” it is a totally different word in Greek and the word in Greek does not translate to the same word in Hebrew as the others do.
I am setting up a face book for networking about Operation Space VBS 2009. Do you mind if I post the location?
Please do.
William, please let us know what your FB page name is. I saw a church has already set up an OS VBS page for their own VBS session but it would be great to have one that was more generic and a resource for all of us who are using AIG’s curriculum could congregate. Thanks!
I just created a FaceBook page, since I couldn’t find one, but I’m not sure how to post the link to get there. I titled it
“Operation Space VBS 2009 ~ networking”
so you can at least do a search to find it. It should pop up if you just enter “Operation Space networking” (I wouldn’t think you’d need the whole title). I’m interested in hearing how everyone else is doing their VBS, so please look it up and post!
)
We are ready for Operation Space. Excellent content, excellent ideas, but WHAT HAPPENED to the music? Last year’s music was absolutelly excellent. This years it is…( country?). With the exception of Blast off!, Absolutelly authority, and the last one ( walk, and talk…), the other ones did not really belong to such an excellent VBS. I understand that some people have a problem with good music ( they want “traditional” – or old), and it was interesting to see a “traditional” version. I guess you cannot please everyone. Anyway, the content itself is marvelous, but I do miss the old good DNA!!
Our church used Operation Space this summer, but we rewrote much of the content. I deeply appreciate the apologetics in the program, but our church wanted to focus on Christ as the center of the week. We rearranged the week to revolve around Ephesians 6, the full armor of God and the kids created a space suit in craft time, with each piece reinforcing the day’s lesson; i.e.- Helmet of Salvation was the space helmet, breastplate of righteousness was the top piece of the space suit, etc. We also chose our own music and our music director helped us create upbeat songs for the kids. Overall AIG is a wonderful tool to start your own program; but our church tends to rewrite to fit our church and children’s needs.
Our church utilized “Operation Space” this summer and our teachers and leaders fell in love with the curriculum. One commented that, “It’s refreshing for VBS material to have some meat.” Addressing the issue of a young earth, prompts kids to rethink the indoctrination of today’s public school science classes. For those who claim it doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you believe in Jesus, are forgetting an important fact. If the world is millions of years old, and dinosaurs died out before mankind appeared, then death entered the world before sin. According to Genesis, death was a consequence of sin, and this consequence began after the Fall in the Garden of Eden.
The kids also thought it cool that Job possibly describes dinosaurs in his book, in chapters 40 and 41.
AIG teaches that the authority of God’s word begins in Genesis chapter one and runs through the end of Revelation. It’s about time VBS material re-enforces this truth in minds being filled by worldly propaganda.
Our church still has a family night, so one drawback to the music was that preschoolers had no music to learn on their level. I thought the DVD to be super. Some question big kids with little kid voice overs, but I find the choice brilliant by the folks at Answers in Genesis. First, little kid voices singing, helps all children to better match pitch. Most children attending VBS have not gone through vocal changes yet. Secondly, using older kids or teens encourages the older children who question whether they are too mature to to jump right in.
Decision day resulted in one salvation and several kids re-comitted their hearts to Christ.
Our church gives “Operation Space” two thumbs up!
My church is using Operation Space this year (it’s cheaper to use it when it’s old). I’m the Bible Lesson teacher, and I wanted to express a concern.
At my church, we use our VBS as a prime evangelistic opportunity. Over half of the children who attend are without a gospel-preaching church home. For this reason, I was dismayed with the curriculum’s lack of emphasis on the gospel.
The Gospel message is presented in its full form only on day 3, and is allotted just 10 minutes – in the same lesson, I’m to spend 10 minutes explaining God’s “recipe” for earth. The gospel is not emphasized at any other place in the curriculum. It’s not that I’m against the apologetics and scientific information included – I think it’s great! It’s just that, for our purposes, the gospel needs to be central.
One of my coworkers is sending her 9-year old son to our VBS. When he gets home and his (unsaved) mother asks him what he learned, he’s likely to say “God made the world in just 7 days!” – that’s the point of the curriculum. How much more helpful would it be if the point – what he parroted back to his mother – was “Jesus died to pay for sin!”
We just finished Day 3 and are on Day 4 tonight. Much of the curriculum and resources have been fantastic. I agree with Elizabeth, though, that the gospel is not exalted and emphasized as much as it should be. With that said, I was disappointed that AIG supports this “decisional” perspective on salvation. So much damage is done by talking kids (or even adults) into making a “decision” for Christ and getting them to repeat a prayer. This isn’t found in Scripture. We are called to repent and believe with all of our heart. This can only be accomplished by the aid of God’s Spirit when we are under conviction for sin. No man can tell us that we are saved. God alone is the One who will bear witness with our spirit that we are saved. This “decisional” salvation produces many false conversions, which just contributes to the spiritual decay of churches. I have been to the Creation Museum, subscribe to Answers Magazine, and appreciate all of the hard work done by AIG. I do disagree with Mr. Ken Ham though that the biggest problem with many churches is that they have not properly emphasized a literal interpretation of Scripture. That is a big problem, but the larger issue is that many churches are not truly churches because they are filled with unconverted people who do not truly know or love Jesus. How can they then know or love His Word as He intended? I hope anyone who reads this has more than a “decision” to lean on but instead have truly experienced a real conversion and has the tangible fruit of salvation as evidence in their life. If not, seek the Lord until you find Him. Seek Him until He forgives your sin and replaces the guilt of condemnation with the peace of the presence of His Spirit.
We may use AIG curriculum again, but will continue to adapt the curriculum toward a more Scriptural form of evangelism.
Hi, am new at teaching Sunday school and find your website very valuable and informative, please assist me if you have a lesson on the 10 Commandments.
Our church is in the fouth day of Operation Space!! When I was looking for material, I was looking for a VBS that would lay a lifetime foundation in a child’s life that would last a lifetime. I have seen the statistics about a great portion of young people who declare a faith in Jesus Christ, losing their faith when they reach collage age. I believe that we as churches have not laid that foundation. That is why I have chosen Operation space, as I think this is the first step in that foundation. The bible is the Word of God and is the Absolute Authority. Even though the gospel was presented on day 3, we as director’s and teachers should be emphasing this ourselves, every day. I thought that AIG did a good job! Most of the songs have good content and the kids really got into Blast Off and Absolute Authority. There are a couple that could be more enthusiastic and I don’t like the two parts on Blast Off, as I feel this confuses everyone. The kids loved the sound effects in the drama, but I would have liked it to be a little easier, than putting it on MP3. Just being on the CD would be better and easier. All in all I think this is a good 1st step in laying a good foundation. I will be looking for another good VBS to lay the second foundation. I had no problem with the creation account. The Bible and Science have no problem with each other. Evolution isn’t Science, but is just another part of the religion, Humanism. Don’t forget that Jesus Christ is mentioned in the whole Bible from Genesis 1 through Revelation 22. Jesus Christ is the center of the whole Bible. If the Bible isn’t the Absolute Authority of our lives, than Jesus Christ can’t be the Absolute Authority either. Jesus, himself declared the Bible to be God’s Word! So thumbs up to AIG for a great VBS.
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