Summer 2027 Partnerships
Last summer, we went “on the road” to 12 congregations in the Metro-DC Synod to bring a week of Vacation Bible School (VBS) to their church and community. We cannot wait to see what summer 2027 holds as we go on the road again.
How does it work?
Abiding Presence provides staff, curriculum and supplies for a week of VBS for preschool and elementary age kids at no expense* to the partner congregation.
The partner congregation advertises the VBS, opens the doors to the church and provides on-site rostered leader support during the week of camp. VBS runs from 12:00-3:00 p.m. with the Abiding Presence team arriving around 11:00 a.m. for set up, lunch and devotions.
If the partner church has teens (7th-11th grade) or college-age young adults (graduated 12th grade - age 22), they are welcome and encouraged to volunteer/work alongside the Abiding Presence team for the week. This allows us to spread the model of leadership development, vocational discernment and faith formation we use at Abiding Presence with teens and college-age young adults.
Why does Abiding Presence do this?
We run a nine-week summer program on-site at Abiding Presence. More than just a summer camp program for preschool and elementary school age kids, our summer ministry includes employing close to 100 high school and college-age young adults from the church to enter into a time of intentional faith formation, leadership development and vocational discernment. These high school and college-age young adults become the staff for our summer camp.
We are blessed to have more staff than we need for our program at Abiding Presence. So, we go “on the road” to other churches in the synod to share our abundance of staff in places where getting enough volunteers or having the financial resources to support a week of VBS isn’t possible. We think this is what it means to be church together. Our summer camp program has been key to our congregation’s growth, vitality and outreach and we want to make that possible for other churches.
We are grateful for the support of the Metro-DC Synod that helps make the program possible, as well as the strong commitment of staff time and finances by the people of Abiding Presence.
Ideal partner congregations are:
Looking for ways to intentionally reach out to their neighborhood
Excited about doing something new
Able to provide on-site pastoral support to welcome and interact with families, inviting them to worship on the Sunday after VBS
Located no more than about 20 miles away from Abiding Presence
*A word about “no expense”
We believe that every congregation should have the opportunity to have VBS for their community. Each of our partner churches are in different places when it comes to their ability to financially support the program. Partner churches will be asked to contribute in some way based on their ability. That could look like making a financial donation to Abiding Presence, providing lunch for the leadership team or something else that we haven’t yet dreamed up. We want partner churches to be able to try something new, dream big dreams and not be held back by the question, “But, how are we going to pay for it?”
Interested in Learning More?
Contact Rev. Meredith Keseley, Senior Pastor.
