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After years of extreme adventuring from the Australian Out back to the bottom of the sea, many publishers are coming home to talk about character and values.

You can still explore the world with VBS. You can take your kids on an Arctic expedition and play glacier games. You can travel to Egypt for an archaeological dig or visit a big game park. You can stage daring rescues or track clues in a mysterious mansion.

But you can travel closer to home. Big Idea Productions, creators of the popular Veggie Tales, only produces programs based on real life. Managing editor Cindy Kenney says the company doesn't offer fantasy ad ventures. "The theme and characters must be from real life," she says.

That follows a trend in teaching today. As Kenney says, "There's really a resurgence in a need for teaching family values and getting family involvement." For example, the Veggie Tales program for 2001, titled "Veggie Town Values for the Family," is an intergenerational program that teaches love, kindness, forgiveness, gentleness, and other fruits of the Spirit.

Rhonda Sawtelle, VBS editor for Regular Baptist Press, says her company is also responding to the family-values trend. "Character building is a big deal in the public schools right now," she says. "We want to show why kids should forgive, respect, and so on." The VBS program from Regular Baptist Press focuses on character traits this year with its FROGS Club, an acronym for forgive, respect, obey, give thanks, and serve.

Other VBS programs this year teach children how to have courage, to have faith instead of fear, to display joy instead of unhappiness, and to trust God instead of oneself.

Just how editors come up with new ideas year after year depends on the publisher. For some, the ideas aren't always new. Kim Fiano, editor at Gospel Light Publishing, says her company will sometimes revamp an old course, adding a new title and a new spin on the activities. The editors rely on focus groups with children's pastors and directors as well as surveys to guide their choices.

Group Publishing does a lot of testing via the Internet and telephone before deciding the theme of a VBS program. "We try to make our programs as flexible as possible to accommodate alternative uses," says editor Judy Brolsma. "The most important thing is that it contain strong Bible stories for church and unchurched kids and that the theme is easy to illustrate."

Big Idea Productions also counts on feedback from customers, says Cindy Kenney. But Cherie Wood of Kids in Action! Publishing says editors at her company get most of their ideas by waiting and praying. "I know this sounds simple but it's honest. That's what really happens," she says. "God knows his little lambs better than we do."

Some of the programs that publishers are offering for VBS in 2001 include:

Veggie Town Values for the Family"
from Big Idea Productions
800-295-0557
www.veggietown.com or www.bigidea.com.

This program encourages people at every stage of life to pass along their faith and to build God's citizens. Settings include a home, church, restaurant, beach, and retirement center. Kids learn about love, kindness, forgiveness, gentleness, patience, and friendship. Ten lessons each for tots, teens, kids, and families. Complete kit, $200.

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