By Marissa Postell Sullivan
SMYRNA, Tenn. — Giant flowers filled the screen as kids filed into LifePoint Church Smyrna for the final day of their 2025 Vacation Bible School (VBS). Reflecting Lifeway’s 2025 theme—Magnified!—the worship center was decorated with large ants, squirrels, caterpillars, fireflies, flowers and dragonflies. The week was all about magnifying the bigness of God in the smallest of things.
Each day of VBS began with a morning large group session where kids learned impactful truths about God, learned and practiced the theme Bible verse for the week, cheered for their team during games on the stage, worshiped together and heard that day’s Bible story.
For the rest of the morning, kids moved through rotations with their groups and leaders—going deeper into that day’s Bible story, playing games and participating in a week-long missions project.
Sharing Christ with the community
This year, children at all four campuses of LifePoint Church in the Middle Tennessee area spent time each day during VBS preparing backpacks to distribute to kids and students in their communities. In total, they filled 2,000 backpacks.
During the first three days of VBS, kids assembled packets they would include in the backpacks. Each packet had a theme, including a spiritual packet with a gospel tract and information about the church, a hygiene packet, a LifePoint Church water bottle filled with snacks and a packet of school supplies. Kids wrote and included notes of encouragement in the packet for each day.
In addition to assembling the packets, throughout the week, VBS participants prepared Bibles to include in the backpacks. Through a partnership between Lifeway and LifePoint Church, each backpack would include a CSB Bible with decorated bookmarks indicating passages of Scripture the kids learned about during VBS.
“Lifeway’s generosity made this week’s Bible distribution possible,” said Zach Baker, lead kids minister at LifePoint Church Smyrna. “Initially, we thought we would only be able to include a Bible in each backpack—nothing else. And truthfully, if that was the only item we could include, it would have been enough. But because of Lifeway’s willingness to help reduce the cost, we were able to include the Bible and so much more. That partnership has been a tremendous blessing, and we are truly grateful.”
For Baker, this missions project was not only an opportunity to reach the surrounding community but also to increase biblical literacy among VBS attendees. Each day, kids decorated bookmarks that included the biblical reference to that day’s Bible story, found that passage of Scripture in the Bible and placed the bookmark at that reference. Baker said this allowed the kids to handle the Bible every day of VBS and get familiar with finding passages in it.
“We are deeply grateful for the opportunity to walk alongside LifePoint as they seek to invest in kids and families by providing God’s Word to those in need,” said Andy McLean, Lifeway’s publisher of Bibles and References. “The return of their spiritual investment will offer generational dividends as individuals and families dive deeply into the pages of Scripture and hide its truths within their hearts.”
Inviting kids into missions
At LifePoint Church in Smyrna, 1,000 Bibles filled a table in the missions room. Another 1,000 Bibles were distributed among the other three LifePoint Church campuses.
In Smyrna, sister team Amanda Norris and Ashley Zehr led the kids through the missions project each day with the help of a team of volunteers. Norris and Zehr have been providing leadership for each year’s VBS missions rotation and project at LifePoint Church for around a decade.
Together, they led kids through a similar missions project at last year’s VBS, but last year’s backpacks didn’t include Bibles. As they were distributing backpacks last year, they recognized the opportunity to include biblical resources in these backpacks since people were coming to the church to receive the bags. This year, Norris and Zehr were excited to include Bibles in each bag that will be distributed.
“Our hope is that these backpacks will bring real relief to families preparing for the school year—especially in light of rising costs,” Baker said. “Beyond practical supplies, we pray each item, especially the Bible, will serve as a source of hope and encouragement.”
But they couldn’t do it alone. Norris credited a room full of volunteers who helped make this year’s missions project a success, many of whom are teachers or retired teachers. But it was the kids who got to assemble the bags, write notes of encouragement and place bookmarks in Bibles.
To Norris and Zehr, this was a tangible way for VBS kids to serve their community. Zehr emphasized the importance of teaching and equipping kids to serve others—something she sought to do with her own kids, and the fruit was evident as two of her adult children were also serving at VBS that week.
“This week’s mission project gave kids the opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus. They learned people in their own community have real needs and that everyone carries a story,” Baker said. “Our prayer is they will begin to see others the way Jesus does and, in light of what Jesus has done for them, would long to live a life of service to both people around them and to the church.”
Impact of VBS
This summer, over 1,600 kids attended VBS at a LifePoint Church campus, with more than 680 volunteers leading for the sake of the gospel. And LifePoint Church is only one of nearly 25,000 churches expected to host VBS this summer, with a combined reach of around 2.8 million participants. As Norris and Zehr said, VBS week is exhausting in many ways, but it’s worth it.
According to a study from Lifeway Research, 6 in 10 Americans say they went to VBS growing up. And most American adults who attended VBS as children say it helped them understand the Bible better and positively influenced their spiritual growth. Today, 7 in 10 parents (69%) say they would encourage their child to attend VBS at a church they don’t attend if a friend invited them.
Each VBS happening across the country results in around 15 hours of intense discipleship, the gospel being shared daily and seven months of ministry in one week, according to Lifeway VBS specialist Melita Thomas.
“VBS began as a way to reach kids with the gospel and continues to be the number one evangelistic outreach many churches do all year,” Thomas said. “Many missionaries share as part of their testimony that God called them to missions while they were a child at VBS. So we’re proud of the ways that VBS introduces children to missions and how God continues to use it to call forth the next generation of missionaries.”
More information about Lifeway’s VBS—including the 2026 theme “Illumination Station”—can be found at Lifeway.com/VBS.
-30-
Marissa Postell Sullivan is a writer for Lifeway Christian Resources.
In operation since 1891, Lifeway Christian Resources is one of the leading providers of Christian resources, including Bibles, books, Bible studies, group curriculum, Christian music and movies, Vacation Bible School and church supplies, as well as camps and events for all ages. Lifeway is the world’s largest provider of Spanish Bibles. Based in Brentwood, Tennessee, Lifeway operates as a self-supporting nonprofit. For more information, visit Lifeway.com.
