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Is Sea Quest the right VBS for your church? Read my review to learn some pros and cons of the 2010 Vacation Bible School from Regular Baptist Press. The tagline for Sea Quest is “Diving for God’s Treasure” and each daily lesson is build around one of Jesus’ parables. The key Bible verse is Jeremiah 31:3, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love.”
In previous years, I have not paid much attention to the VBS curriculum from Regular Baptist Press (RBP). I knew they offered a VBS theme that used the King James Version (KJV). I also knew that the Independent Baptist Church in my town used their material. But this is my first year to take a closer look. RBP was kind enough to send me a free starter kit for review.
Learn More About Sea Quest: visit the official site or check out their VBS Community website, Facebook page or Twitter account.
Sea Quest VBS Review
When I opened the box, I was impressed with the quality of the materials. I could tell right away that RBP was not a second rate curriculum publisher. All their teacher guides, posters, and theme elements were comparable to the other major VBS publishers. After spending 2 hours browsing their VBS content, I was still very pleased. This review cannot cover all the details about their theme, but I will share some of the strong points.
Salvation Message: Regular Baptist Press has made evangelism a central feature in their Sea Quest VBS. “How Can I Become God’s Child?” is easy to find on each teacher and rotation guides. This lays out the “ABCs” of responding to the Gospel. There is also an article titled “Leading a student to the Savior” in each teacher’s guide and offers practical advice for evangelizing children.
Craft Options: RBP really goes the extra mile in providing options for your craft time. Each daily lesson has over four choices, plus six general grafts related to the Gospel and even more related to the Sea Quest theme. The craft guide includes some great tips and even a section addressing special needs children.
Mission Offering: Most churches do some kind of VBS missions offering, but RBP is taking it one step farther. They have linked Sea Quest with project titled “Operation Love: Kenya” that is working to build a Christian home for orphans.
Bible Teaching: RBP has written some great lesson plans in this VBS. The content is biblically correct and educationally sound. Every lesson is laser focused on Jesus and God’s love for us through the Gospel. This Bible School is truly centered on the Bible.
Online Support: Like several other VBS publishers, RBP is offering support online. In addition to their website, they have launched a VBS community site where you can share ideas with other Sea Quest churches. The theme also has its own Facebook page and Twitter profile.
Puppet Scripts: Right away you could tell RBP puts real effort into the puppet element of their curriculum. The puppet scripts get their own booklet. This includes directions for setting up the puppet stage and tips for integrating the puppets into your VBS.
Concerns About Sea Quest
Music Is Not Kid Friendly: This was my one concern with Sea Quest. At first, I was excited to learn the VBS songs include some music written by Keith Getty. I really respect his songs for their theological depth. All of the Sea Quest music has great content and are appropriate worship songs for grown-up church. But I question how this music will appeal to children. Both versions of the music (piano and synthesized instrumental) seem overly reflective and stylized for kids. The un-churched children who need the message of these songs will not be able to get past the musical style. I appreciate what RBP is trying to do, but the music is just not fun. If our church picked Sea Quest, we would only be able to use a few songs.
Not Right For Every Church: One thing I respect about Regular Baptist Press is their distinct identity. They do not hide their beliefs to increase sales. They treat VBS as a time to evangelize children. They stick close to their King James Version (NKJV also available). They have serious Bible doctrine even in their children’s music. If that is your kind of church, then you will love Sea Quest. But if the more fundamentalist approach to Christianity is not thing, you might look elsewhere.
What Do You Think About Sea Quest?
I hope this review will help you choose your VBS theme for 2010. Of course, this is just one opinion. I would love to hear what you think about this Vacation Bible School theme. Just leave a comment in the box below.
My Video Review of SeaQuest
More VBS Reviews: Browse all my 2010 Vacation Bible School reviews.
Related posts:
- Praise Party VBS from Abington Press for 2010
- SonQuest Rainforest VBS 2010 from Gospel Light
- Group’s 2010 VBS Theme Teaser!
- Group’s High Sea Expedition VBS Theme for 2010
- Hero Headquaters VBS 2010 from Standard Publishing
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
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We need to get children OUT OF the world, not use worldly music to “draw” them. What truly draws a person to Jesus is Him! (John 12:32) through the Holy Spirit’a conviction ministry (JOhn 16:7-11). Rock music has co-opted our culture and, now, our churches. It is a fallacy that rock music must be used to reach children.
What about the Kenya Mission? How and where do you contact them and forward any /all contributions. We cannot find any contact Material/ info
We are in the middle of using SeaQuest at our church this week. We always use RBP material and like this year as well. I was disappointed in the music as well. We don’t use contemporary music at our church, but we do want the music to be fun, exciting and Biblical. This year we are improvising. RBP usually writes fun words to the kid’s song “I May Never March in the Infantry”, but they didn’t include that song this year, so we wrote our own version. Here are the words if you are interested: “I may never swim like the clown fish do, Find a sunken ship or two, Ride on a bid Shamu “whoa! whoa! whoa! whoa! I may never dive in the ocean blue, but what God says I’ll do. (chorus) What God says I’ll do, What God says I’ll do. I may never swim….” Repeat verse. We also used several Patch the Pirate songs that went well with the ocean theme.
I love the RBP SeaQuest – but I agree – the music is not kid friendly. We searched for songs that would go with our theme and are using those instead.
Interested in using this as our VBS but we also agree the music isn’t going to work… What are some suggestions or ideas on what music to use instead??? Anyone have anything to offer as a suggestion?
Here are two of my favorites. Either would work well for VBS if you selected about 5 songs.
http://ministry-to-children.com/review-to-be-like-jesus/
http://www.sovereigngracestore.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=M4010-00-21
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