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Welcome to Into the Red Doors – Stories from the St. John’s Archives!

As we approach St. John’s 150th anniversary in 2026, we are digging deep into the church archives to connect with the stories that shaped us. John Hendricks, our Photographer and Archivist, has worked faithfully for 15 years to maintain and share important pieces of our history. Leaning on his extensive knowledge and storytelling ability, we are excited to share these artifacts and anecdotes as a way to honor the past and imagine what the next 150 years could bring.

Summertime is St. John’s VBS Time!

image: photocopy of a July 6, 1951 newspaper photograph captioned “The 1951 Vacation bible School at St. John’s Reformed Church, Lansdale, held its final session this morning, and the children are shown as they leave the church on their way to a picnic.”

Vacation Bible School (VBS) has a long history at St. John’s. In fact, we celebrated our 100th VBS during Fellowship on August 6, 2023! In looking through the St. John’s archives, we learned some interesting facts about St. John’s VBS history.

On May 28, 1924, it was announced in The Reporter newspaper that at St. John’s “in the summer months… a limited number of boys and girls will be able to obtain instruction in matter of religion”. VBS began on June 30 with 70 students attending, and ended August 1 after five weeks of sessions, closing with a Friday evening commencement ceremony and exhibit of what was learned! The cost to run the VBS was $155.00 for the five weeks.

VBS continued to grow in the next decade, with expanded classes and activities including class picnics over the five weeks and an ice cream treat the last week. The closing evening event displaying handiwork also continued. Initially a $1.00 registration fee was collected from each student, but this was dropped during the depression so no child would be left out who couldn’t afford that fee. In 1929 another tradition began, collecting items for youth organizations in need. The first few years was for an African American school supported by the Reformed and Presbyterian denominations. In the past few years we collected for Urban Promise in Camden, with many other organizations helped in-between.

Over the years the sessions shortened, 1935 to four weeks, 1950 to three weeks, 1953 to two weeks, and 1975 to one week. The sessions included Bible study, Bible quiz, worship, handiwork and recreation. St. John’s members who grew up here fondly remember the daily Kool-Aid and pretzel rod snacks, too!

In 1999 VBS moved from mornings to evenings and added a class for adults. This continued until the 2020 pandemic, when VBS “Take-Out” boxes were made available to the children. In 2021 we combined take-out with 3 in person gatherings. In 2023 and 2024 VBS was “reimagined” as “Volunteer. Believe. Serve.”, with hands-on service projects for all ages.

On Saturday morning, August 23, we will gather for the 102nd year for a 3-hour session for all ages. The theme is “Building on the Rock”, and we are certainly building on the foundation that our St. John’s VBS teachers, administrators and students laid out for us over a century ago!