Value of a musical one-trick pony?

There are some moments when I'm certain I've gotten old.

Last week was my local church's Vacation Bible School. This year's theme, Galactic Blast (brought to you by Cokesbury) featured a bright green gorilla puppet by the name of Galileo (wait, didn't the Church put Galileo under house arrest?), and lots of space-themed decorations, activities and songs. As is tradition in our congregation, the Sunday following VBS features the kids singing those songs (complete with choreography) as part of worship.

Pretty much every year, the songs deliver afresh the news that I'm old.

I understand that the lyrics, though downright goofy at times, are scripturally sound. I understand that in a culture where we receive marketing messages from birth to death, it's helpful to have a cohesive theme for Christian education.

What gets me is that these songs will only be sung for one week, one year. They're written to be disposable -- to land in the hopper with all the other old VBS curriculum that will be replaced with something new next summer.

Here's the line you've been waiting to read (hat tip to Dana Carvey's Grumpy Old Man character on SNL):

"In my day, Vacation Bible School didn't have themes! We didn't have puppets! We sang the same songs every year, and that's the way it was and we liked it! Yeah, we loved it!"

Yes, I still remember some of the songs we sang at Vacation Bible School in the 1980s. (Especially the ones involving one half of the sanctuary trying to out-sing [read: out-yell] the other half.) I don't particularly enjoy singing every one of them today, but I think singing them year-in, year-out had something to do with my faith formation. I wonder if, by switching out songs every time we switch out themes, we're losing some of the value and power of lyrics and their repetition.

I'm not trying to knock VBS themes here. I just wonder if we should hold onto a few things for a bit longer than one week.

Comments

[Allen]

At our church, our praise band has incorporated some of the songs (same words, different sound, tempo, etc) we use them in our blended(contemporary) service. And most of them work well, there are the ones that are theme specific that are harder to use though.

[Cynthia Kepler-Karrer]

I think that's why some of the VBS's are trying to incorporate more already-in-use songs into their curriculum. I agree that the kids didn't exactly have "Livin on the Edge" past that week, but I also think that it helps to solidify some of the messages. The theme song for the camp is almost always a throw-away thing. Of course, I still have youth running around singing "Beach Beatitudes" (they helped with the music that year), so what do I know?

I also try to incorporate some of the camp songs of old into the VBS (who says you only have to use their songs?) as well as incorporating them into worship. Part of our problem, methinks, is that we expect our capacity for song remembrance to expand every year new stuff comes out (and I'm speaking of new hymnody and contemporary music as well!). I wonder what is our maximum capacity of hymns, songs and spiritual songs, before we begin losing some of the old ones.

More to your point--that repetition helps to bring about formation...that is true. I wonder how we could incorporate repetition even when we change the music? Maybe if Abingdon, etc., committed to including a core group of songs for a certain amount of time--say 5 songs that would rotate through 5 years, each year dropping one and adding another which would go onto a 5 year cycle so that every year in the "core", one song would change while 4 others would be the same from last year and then everything else would be built into the theme?

[Mary Beth Smith]

Yes, that would be officially old - Thank you for making me grin!

I think you make a valid point regarding the lack of sustainability of the songs. Back in the 1950s (yes, I know...) the songs were little more than what we sang at camp or Sunday School; yet, 50 years later, I can still sing them, and still find them filled with simple truths that have lasted a lifetime. Of equal joy has been the opportunity to teach them to my grandchildren, who enjoy singing with GrandMommy.

Candidly, the themed literature and accompanying music, CDs, songbooks, posters, etc., generate much needed revenue for the publishers, and relieve a volunteer VBS staff of having to create a curriculum that might hold the attention of hordes of children with 90-second attention spans who are acculturated to sophisticated visual and aural stimulation as part of their learning and activity process.

Is it better or worse than what we had 'back in the day'? I don't know - it may be, or it may not make any difference at all, other than being much more expensive!

Somehow, though, I wonder if gluing a ping-pong ball to the top of a Dr. Pepper bottle and using scraps from mom's sewing basket to dress the whole thing up like the apostle Paul is might still make for a fun morning at VBS!

[JNors]

I've had the same thoughts--what's wrong with Deep and Wide? What about Hallelu-Hallelu-Hallelu-Hallelujah? And even Joy Joy Joy Joy Down in My Heart...? We are losing these songs, along with many others--"Arky, Arky" anyone?--with the urge to treat church, VBS, Sunday School--like a Billboard record chart.
I think that it comes down to the publishers thinking that kids are motivated by "new" and "contemporary" music and therefore, they churn it out--although it all sounds suspiciously the same. So I think they are sometimes washing it and hanging it back out after a few years.
My kids have their faves, though, that they request from VBS of years gone by. I think those are the songs that they will remember.
A mix of both would be welcome at my house. Thanks for the "that's what I was thinking!" post.