Thursday, August 18, 2005

Harry Potter and VBS in same sentence?

Saint John's Episcopal Church in Carlisle, PA is using Harry Potter tails in its Bible School. They claim to have doubled attendance.

Before I go any further, let me say I am neither a HP supporter or basher. I have never read any of the books and doubt that I ever will. Fantasy is not something I enjoy.

My contention here is the thought that we can take what is hip (dating myself with this language) with the kids and use it to reach them. Yes you have to go where the kids are but at the expense of trying to draw parallels from Harry Potter (substitute what ever trend) to the Bible. There in lies the problem. I once participated in a Bible Study many years back that actually used script from the Archie Bunker TV show to draw parallels. Let's just use the Bible to draw from.

Now some may say well all VBS is theme based and that is true. Again my problem is not with the theme. My issue is drawing parallels from the theme.

No comments: