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Where is God in this???

Part of my job right now is to take clients to their places of worship. I don't mind taking them, in fact I encourage it if it's what they want to do. I can generally set aside my wants and tastes in worship for my clients because it's not about me. But this past weekend I hit a limit of what I could take in. With two of my clients with me I walked into VBS hell. While I applaud the congregations' desire to offer programing and to come up with their own curriculum, that's about the most positive I can offer. The church ripped off Mario brothers for their theme of "Game On with Jesus." No main characters but there was the coins, stars, plants, tubes, a large scale game controller and other things. Decorations were every where: hallways, worship centers (yes plural) and even in bathrooms. Do you really need to decorate the bathroom? Just just gross in general. Let the bathroom be the bathroom please. Apparently the "bad guy" (I have a whole other thought about that concept) spent the entire VBS coming in on a 4 wheeler around 1400 children. What is safe about that? What about individuals who are sensitive to sounds and smells? The 4 wheeler was used during worship to bring in someone during the sermon. It scared one of my clients and I don't believe that it was safe to use the vehicle inside and around people who weren't expecting it. A song that was offered in worship contained the lyrics "Jesus is on 9-1-1." What happened to being of this world and not in the world? What the hell are we saying and encouraging people to learn? I'm not saying don't write your own stuff but is this really the best we can come up with today? And then lets talk some stewardship. The cost of putting all of this on was probably more then some churches have in their entire budget for a year. Was it all really needed? In my opinion no. Some very wise folks from my days in seminary recommended, so I pass it onto you, asking yourself the following questions when doing any church programming. What are we teaching explicitly? What are we teaching implicitly? What are we teaching in the null (not saying but it's being taught)? What is worshipful to God in this? I have my own answers regarding this situation but won't share as I'd rather you make up your own. What I will say is that I believe God and faith development were lacking in this place. I hope that lessons can be learned and God can be honored in different ways.
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