Monday, July 21, 2003
Churches are searching for innovative programs.
WASHINGTON POST
Paper fish hung from the basement ceiling recently at Calvary United Methodist Church in Annapolis, Md.
A year ago, that same basement had swarms of bugs taped to the walls. And two years ago, longer than many children in the room could remember, it was a 19th-century mining town.
For churches across the country, summer means vacation Bible school and new decorations on church walls. But these days, the programs are a lot more complex and at the same time much easier to produce.
Prepackaged kits
Vacation Bible schools, more than a century old, now come in elaborately prepackaged kits that provide not only the usual Bible lessons, crafts and songs, but squirt toys, personalized Web sites and DVD presentations with behind-the-scenes features and "director's cut" versions.
"In my time, we sat in class and made things out of Popsicle sticks and construction paper," said Debbie Hiponia, a Bible school teacher at Calvary. "Last night, they made snow globes with little floating divers. And it came from SCUBA along with everything else."
SCUBA, short for Super Cool Undersea Bible Adventure, is one of the most popular of at least 15 vacation Bible school programs produced each year by Christian publishers. And the competition is fierce.
An estimated 180,000 mainline Protestant and evangelical churches nationwide hold vacation Bible school, and many are looking for innovative programming that will keep children -- and parents -- interested, said Bill Korte, vice president of marketing for Group Publishing in Loveland, Colo., the creators of SCUBA.
Every year, the five biggest companies try to outdo one another with a new theme, each of which is scrutinized, market-tested and prayed over. This year's themes range from Egypt to England, scuba diving to farming.
"The one drawback is that it's not inexpensive," said Beverly Henry, children's director at Calvary. The church spent more than $4,000 this year on the 110 children who attended last week's sessions without charge. About $2,900 went to Group Publishing for its SCUBA videos, manuals, toys and decorations.
Cost breakdown
Sitting in the basement cafeteria, children wore shirts with ironed-on SCUBA logos ($13 for 10 logos) and played with SCUBA squirt toys ($3 for five), which they carried in SCUBA dive bags ($16 for 10). Teachers studied SCUBA manuals ($10 each) while they prepared for that night's project -- decorating picture frames ($12 for 10).
But prepackaged programs are worth the cost, Henry said.
"The time and energy it takes -- I think people just figure, 'Why reinvent the wheel?'" she said. "It would be like each elementary school writing their own textbook."
Upstairs in the Bible lesson room, children acted out the day's Bible story by following recorded instructions from a Group CD.
Bible teacher Jane Elberty said the CD lessons are a lifesaver.
"We'd be winging it if we had to write it ourselves," said Elberty, 40, "and it would take us forever to plan all of this."
It took Group Publishing a year and a half, two field tests and a team of 10 full-time writers and artists to produce this year's underwater-themed program, said senior editor Jody Brolsma.
"And that's not even counting the people in field testing, inventory and marketing," she said.
Other companies said they employ as many as 20 full-time workers to develop vacation Bible school programs.
Much advertising
Judging from the mail he gets, Pastor Mike Emerson of Leesburg Church of the Nazarene thinks every company in the business has his address. "There must be 50 tons of [advertising] paper that come through here every year," he said.
Out of all the programs, Emerson picked the farm theme for his 210-member church, located on 20 acres in Virginia horse country. He spent about $2,500 on the program, and about 85 kids attended for free.
Son Harvest County Fair, published by Gospel Light in Ventura, Calif., was the most usable, with detailed instructions down to average time estimates for crafts, he said. Most important, it had great high-tech features.
Parents registered their children on a personalized Web site designed by Gospel Light. As children entered, Michelle Krone punched their names into an Excel spreadsheet downloaded from the Web site, while her husband snapped digital pictures later sent to a photo printer for blue ribbon name tags.
On stage, adults in farm costumes were fed their lines by TelePrompTers below. On the projection screen, song lyrics flashed alongside cartoon cows and pigs copied from a Gospel Light CD with clip art. A second CD provided 17 sound effects for the skits.