Bible Song + Frequently Asked Questions

What is Bible Song?

Bible Song is an arts-based Sunday (or weekday) Christian education system that starts a basic Bible theme at church and connects it with the home seven nights a week. Bible Song is a Children and Family Ministry resource where children and parents as well as extended family learn the content and context of 120 key Scriptures for the rest of their lives. You can find a list of included materials here.

How do I get started with Bible Song?

You can download a membership form and send it to us via email or post. A congregation,school or faith community wishing to use Bible Song joins as a member in order to receive their resources for the year.

What will be the membership year?

Membership runs from January 1-December 31 and is automatically renewed unless you advise that you are not continuing your membership.

Do I have to become a member to receive materials?

Yes. This is more like a curriculum club than a purchase transaction. You are paying an annual membership to have access to the PowerPoint® presentations, music, art, and handouts, as well as the intellectual property rights to a Children and Family Ministry resource that works! Members are licensed to print what they need, when they need it.

What are the Bible Song Home Journals?

Bible Song Home Journals are the home component for Bible Song. Designed to connect Sunday’s theme to nightly faith conversation, each journal contains 15 themes in interactive, full-colour cartoons. Journals include a place to record highs, lows, and prayers for your nightly FAITH 5— the cornerstone of our “every night in every home” goal. Our journals provide an effective “how to” guide for parents as faith mentors. We recommend you pay for the membership with the church budget, but pass the Bible Song Home Journal cost to the parents. Why? To help encourage their commitment to doing the FAITH 5. For the price of a family take-away meal, parents can be connecting with their child every night of the year!

Do I have to become a member to order a Home Journal?

No. You can order and use these new resources like you'd purchase any book. Parents, families, or individuals are welcome to buy the journals and begin using them any time they want. Access to the church teaching curriculum including PowerPoint presentations, music, art, and handouts is purchased by the church on an annual membership basis.

Do I have to purchase the journals to do Bible Song?

Take a look at them and decide for yourself. You can do Bible Song using only the black and white photo-reproducible hand outs. However, if you want a tool that connects the parents every night and reinforces Sunday’s theme all week long, there is no better tool!

Do you check on our average weekly worship attendance (AWWA)?

You are paying for intellectual property rights, like you would do for C.C.L.I. or like you would do if you were performing a musical such as Godspell.

Membership fees are based on a church's average weekly worship attendance. This is an honour system-we ask you to be honest and we'll trust you.

What if I want out?

If you choose to cancel membership for any reason or choose not to renew (and we hope you won't) please advise that you will not be continuing your membership.. Because your membership is a right to use the Bible Song copyrighted materials, doing so also means that you agree to stop using all Bible Song resources and intellectual property at the end of your licensed membership year. And of course, we will miss you!

How many themes do I need to cover in a year?

Bible Song membership entitles you to 75 themes for the year. This is more than you will need. Some churches plan to do an Old and New Testament theme set and use the appropriate Bible Songs for Easter and Christmas. You are free to use the remaining materials for camps or holiday programming. Some churches use our Seasonal Advent or Lent resource system as a special way to prepare for Christmas or Easter.

What kind of a team do I need to pull this off?

Because of the large-group to small-group process to create their arts, you won't need Sunday School teachers in the traditional sense. An adult or high school youth to guide each small group through Highs & Lows and then create the arts, learn the sign language, and monitor the computer with them is all you need for each 4-6 children. We recommend that you recruit a handful of additional specialists including:

1. Host/Host Team - Will greet children, put them at ease, and coordinate the up-front teaching time.
2. Story Team - Will coach readers and lead participants through the Readers' Theatre.
3. Signer/Signing Team - Will teach key words for each verse. (The DVD we provide can be used to teach the kids if you have no signers, but live signers make the teaching that much more effective.)
4. Tech Team - Turn on the PowerPoint® presentations, monitor the sound, and make sure any computer labs are up and running. If you are using Bible Song PowerPoint® templates for your presentations in worship, this group will also digitally photograph all art the youth create and drop it into the presentation for the Closing and for use in worship.
5. Travelling Guides - Bond with a small group of 4-6 children, take them from opening to art time to closing, and help facilitate the creation of their chosen arts.
6. Specialty Coaches - Lead drama, art, cooking, computer games, puppets, and all the other arts you may wish to include in your Bible Song program.

Important Note: Every role in Bible Song is designed simply enough to be led by anyonein Year 8 and above.. All of the jobs would be great assignments for a team of high school youth. Redesign your youth ministry as youth doing ministry by handing the whole process over to them!

When will the children share their art in worship?

As quickly as possible! If created on a Sunday, the Bible Song presentations may be performed later that same morning in worship. (Create it at 9:30; teach it at 11:00!) If done in a rotational model, the art projects could begin one week and be presented the following week, allowing more time to polish the PowerPoint® presentation. If done as Bible Song Weekday, the art may be created on a weeknight, then presented the following Sunday.

But whatever you do, Bible Song worship sharing should be done in a regularly scheduled slot during the worship service:

1. The Offering - "The 'offering that doesn't fit in the plate' this morning is brought to you by..."
2. As a Lesson Replacement - "Our Old Testament lesson today will be acted and 'arted' by..."
3. The Children's Sermon - "Our children's sermon today will be done by the children."
4. A Children's Choir Performance - "Our song today comes directly from the first chapter of Genesis, verses 1-3, and is being enhanced by our children's arts to help you understand the context for the text..."

Announce the song's theme verse as children enter so congregation members are able to find and highlight it in their own Bibles. Then, add your original art to the song and sign language and get going teaching the Bible to the whole church...with arts and hands and voices!

Aside from the songs and sign language, what kinds of arts will the children create?

Resources and ideas for all of the projects are included. We call them Art Attacks. You can find them on the Support CD-ROM and they are for preschool ages, years 1-3, years 4-6, as well as all the ages together. In a rotation format, children will rotate in and out of arts creation stations from week to week, using drawings, paintings, magazine photos, banners, dimensional art, photography, games, and other visual arts to supplement the theme and present in worship.

The system looks pretty involved. Do I need a lot of training?

No. If you love God, like children, and are willing to do some reading and networking, you will be fine. You can implement Bible Song using the manual, instructions, and resources found in the Leader’s Toolbox on the CD-Rom included with your membership. However, if you would rather read people than manuals and spend significant time with the designers of this ground-breaking system, Faith Inkubators offers a variety of training events.

What's this about infecting the whole church?

Bible Song is not simply another Sunday School curriculum. It is specifically designed to help you strengthen your congregation's families - one night at a time - through the implementation of the Nightly Home Huddle™ process.

It is also a subtle adult education tool, taking parents from one end of the Bible to the other in a survey-of-Bible course right along with their own children.

Used properly, Bible Song can also be an outreach tool - children will bring friends to this. As a stewardship tool, Bible Song will help bring most of your Sunday School parents into worship most of the Sundays, involving them directly in the sharing of their time, talents, and treasure.

Finally, it is a worship enhancement tool - bringing the gifts and talents of the children directly into worship to enliven the experience for the whole church.

To get Bible Song started on transforming your whole church, your on-fire education committee might consider making at least five stops within your congregation prior to launch. These stops will get people fired up about your Bible Song program and will facilitate the "sharing of wealth" from a funding perspective.

Stop One: To the Stewardship Committee, ask: "What do you have in your plans for next year to get stewardship of time, talents, and treasure discussions into our homes each night and into worship each week?" and "Would it be worth $X from your budget if we were able to combine stewardship, family education and worship?"

Stop Two: To the Adult Education Committee, ask: "What plans do you have to get parents in this church to get into their Bibles next year?" and "Would it be worth $X from your budget if we were able to get most of our Sunday School children's parents into a four-year ongoing survey of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation?"

Step Three: To the Outreach/Evangelism Committee, ask: "What plans do you have to get people inviting friends and neighbours into the regular worship life of this church next year?" and "If we had a steady, ongoing feeder system where children were inviting friends and neighbours 15-30 times a year, would you have $X in your budget to help us give it a try this year?"

Step Four: To the Worship & Music Committee, ask: "What plans do you have to enliven worship and increase attendance next year?" and "If we had a plan to involve and engage children on a more meaningful, consistent level and if that plan meant that our attendance would go up 15-30 Sundays a year, would you have $X in your budget to help us give it a try this year?"

A fifth stop might be to a wealthy tither who cares about the future of the church and who might be willing to write a check for every family who can't afford the Home Journal. If they see your vision and passion come across clearly, ask: "What would it be worth if a majority of the parents in this church were praying and reading scripture with their kids every night?" and "What would it be worth if a majority of the Sunday School parents weren't just dropping their childrenoff, but were in worship with their childrena majority of the Sundays?" and "What would it be worth if a majority of our children knew 120 key scriptures from Genesis to Revelation verbatim four years from today and would remember these verses the rest of their lives? To help make this happen, would you be willing to write a cheque for every family that can't afford a Home Journal?"

What's this I hear about having fun & funding the whole deal with a Dinner Theatre every year?

If you want to pay for the entire program in two fell swoops, get your most creative drama folks together with the best cooks in the church and explore creating a dinner theatre twice a year (January & May) where children sell tickets, parents grill steaks, and everyone shows off the 15 themes, 15 songs, 15 cartoon Readers Theatres, and 15 sets of original artwork as the show. At the end of each dinner, auction off their art and the 15 large Bible murals they have created over the semester. Do this the right and aside from being a huge outreach opportunity to the neighbourhood, Bible Song can fund the purchase of Home Journals, youth Bibles, and other designated mission projects twice each year.