By Caleb Kaltenbach
CANE RIDGE, KY—Several Restoration Movement churches tried out the first “Cane Ridge Revival VBS” this past summer.
“There’s really nothing else like it,” said Tim North, who created the program. “The idea is to help children not only encounter Jesus, but also to experience what it was like to attend this August 1801 revival!”
“I’ve never seen a VBS like ‘Cane Ridge,’” said Frank Stone, minister with Ebenezer Christian Church. “There were no fancy decorations, take-home trinkets, crafts, or anything. They wanted these kids to have a true Cane Ridge experience, so they didn’t even need microphones.”
“That’s right,” North confirmed. “You don’t even need air conditioning, so you can save on the electricity bill this summer, and you can let the kids feel what it was like to have an outdoors August revival like in 1801. We even gave churches the option of meeting for six or seven days solid, like the original revival, but they all decided to send the kids home each night, and most churches met for five nights or less.”
“We followed the VBS instructions as closely as we could,” Stone said. “We brought in wooden wagons and scattered some tree stumps in the field behind the church, and then let volunteers just start preaching whatever they wanted to. The kids went from wagon to wagon to hear different sermons.
“When I picked up my child, he was hot, sweaty, and asleep,” reported Idela Swan of Ebenezer Christian. “The way I see it, ‘The Cane Ridge Revival VBS’ was a huge win. It took VBS to the next level!”
North reports he’s putting the finishing touches on next year’s VBS experience: “The Raccoon John Smith Roundup.”
Caleb Kaltenbach is just kidding.
Author: Christian Standard
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