NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–Leading worship in different churches around the country, working in Centri-KID camps each summer and being around so many children helps Jeff Slaughter keep his Vacation Bible School music fresh and age-appropriate.
Slaughter, a musician and composer from Nashville, Tenn., writes kid-friendly lyrics with biblical truths, sets those lyrics to music that kids can sing and then adds sign language and choreography to give kids a whole musical experience.
And, he does all this in two weeks!
“I get the VBS theme and the Scriptures from the people at LifeWay, then I have about two weeks to get it all written so the writers of the VBS materials will have it,” Slaughter said.
LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention publishes two lines of Vacation Bible School materials. This year’s themes are “Game Day Central: Where Heroes are Made!” and “Club VBS: Jungle Jaunt.”
“I try to write music that will appeal to the fifth- and sixth-grade boys,” Slaughter said with a laugh. “If I can connect with them, then I figure all the kids will like it. The younger kids look up to those guys and if they think the music is cool, so will everyone else.”
Slaughter has been writing VBS music since 1996, when he wrote the music for “Wild, Wonderful, Good News Stampede.” After 11 years, he’s had time for some kids to move into adulthood.
He was in the airport in Minneapolis last year when he noticed a young man in his early 20s walking near him. They both went to the food area to grab a quick meal before getting on their next flights.
“It was funny, but God was telling me to talk to this young guy,” Slaughter said.” I was thinking, ‘No, I don’t want to. I don’t know him. He’ll think I’m weird or something.’ But we wound up at the same food line, so I made some comment like, ‘You hungry, too?’ The guy got his food and sat down, but I still felt like God wanted me to talk to him. So, I walked by his table and asked if he wanted some company and he said, ‘Sure.’
“We started talking about where we were going and what we did for a living. I told him I wrote Christian music and I was mostly involved in writing music for a program called Vacation Bible School.
“Then this guy got a big grin on his face and said he’d been to Vacation Bible School when he was a kid. Then he started singing the theme song from the Good News Stampede. I said, ‘Hey, I wrote that!’ Then he said, ‘No way!’
“Then I said, ‘So you’re a Christian too!’ But, he said, ‘Not anymore. I’ve sort of given up on that.’”
Slaughter said his heart broke for the young man. “I told him, ‘God has not left you. He is still holding you in the palm of His hand. What do you think the odds are that out of all the people in all the airports that we would wind up sitting at the same table talking about Vacation Bible School? I think God has given us a divine appointment.’ So we talked until we both had to leave.”
Slaughter said that experience reminded him again how God uses VBS to penetrate the lives of so many kids all over the country. “He had drifted away from Jesus, but that song was still there in his memory almost 10 years later,” Slaughter said.
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All of the VBS music written by Jeff Slaughter is available for download on iTunes. For more information about VBS, go to www.lifeway.com/vbs; for more information about Slaughter, go to www.jeffslaughter.com.
