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:
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
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
I really like this theme and your review of it. This is my first year starting up a VBS. Our church hasn’t had one in a few years because of lack of interest. I’d really love to have this one as our theme.
Greetings,
I think your review hits the nail on the head, This will be the 3rd year that we will be using, RBP material because of items you listed. But the music, as stated is, not as kid friendly as I would perfer. This year they require you purchase a music Cd for everyone who needs one, as it is requested you cannot copy it.
We will be adding our own songs to help this. They got lost trying to have panio tracks and keyboard tracks and not how the kids will react to it. We want our Sailors singing VBS songs at home, on the bus, everywher.
RBP is as you say not for everyone and they don’t try to be and that’s rare now days.
God Bless
Jimmy
I think the music should be the last thing to worry about. It is the Word we as youth leaders and teachers should focus on. The greatest songs ever penned are the hymns not the fluffy feel good worship songs of today that focus on making me feel better not glorifying our HOLY God. Kids will enjoy this VBS. There is so much more potential than last years.
THanks for the review. ALthough I personally do like the songs, you are right, it is a little ‘slower’ than what we’ve used in the past. Also we won’t be able to include a re-produced copy of the CD in the kids’ goody bags at the end of the week (cost wise) as we usually do. It would be great if RBP would sell CD’s more cost effectively (w/o the 2nd track) for kids’ distribution. If anyone is putting together a CD w/o rights protection needed – please let me know. Thanks!
Sounds like a theme our kids would enjoy alot. Since I have helped with VBS we have done the County Fair and the Safari themes and know they would enjoy this one. I teach children’s church and we only have 2 – 6 children per week. Our church is small and congregation mainly over 50 years old and needing ways to bring younger families into the church. VBS is great time to do this and the kit would help alot. Any suggestions from others would be greatly appreciated, too.
We are a very small church, and the only one in our community to have VBS. We bought some beach-summer items on clearance at the end of the summer hoping we could figure out how to put them to use for a VBS. This would be the perfect answer to that question. Please consider us for your givaway.
As a sunday school teacher of a small struggling church, I would recommend this to our advisor, pastor and youth pastor. It is wonderful to see such a focus on our savior in this age.
The information was fascinating. I think this might be a program which would interest our church.
Thank you.
Thank you for the VBS review! I find them very helpful as I am a novice in this world. Can you tell me when you might have the other programs reviewed as well? I am hoping to narrow in soon but would love some additional insight.
I have several more reviews coming out this month, plus you can see even more on my 2010 VBS page.
Thanks for your input. Our city is very far from the place where i could get any VBS materials or sunday school lessons. I am always searching for the internet for my lessons which i know it is not good. I want to have that VBS lesson cause i want to have serious bible doctrines for my pupils.. those lessons seems to be exciting…i would be very interesting in winning this program.
These sound like great activities! :)
A lot of children would enjoy the theme.
I would be very interested in winning this VBS program! We are a small church, and budget is a BIG issue right now. I’m on the hunt for a good VBS program for this summer! Thanks for your input!
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to review the SeaQuest theme. I actually went to the website to check it out, and it looks very interesting. I think our kids will have a ball with it. I’m in charge of Arts & Crafts at our VBS, and I just love the clown fish photo frames! As far as the music, we would probably find other music that is more kid-friendly and relates to the theme or just rearrange the music that is provided. Overall, I think this is a wonderful theme for the kids for VBS.
I would love to win the SeaQuest VBS for our Children’s Ministries Dept. Always looking for new material
I’m a member of a very small church. I would like to win this VBS package as we might not otherwise have VBS.
The SeaQuest VBS sounds like just what we need! Thanks for the in-depth review of the product!
I would love to win SeaQuest for our 2010 VBS Curriculum! Thanks for offering such great products!
Thank you so much for this site .I teach toddlers through the 2nd grade and i always know i can find lessons that will be good for all these age groups.And we are a very small church so i have to find free materials.May God bless and thanks again
This VBS study by Seaquest seems interesting. I agree with you that for children the music should be catered to them as they are the target of VBS. We love to have this program for our VBS. The music will be changed to a more appropriate age level. We are fortunate in that we have someone who writes beautiful music and will help us adapt iit.
It would be exciting to use this VBS curriculum since one of our main rooms is a beach/diner theme. My concern is the music as well. Since the kids are listening to secular music because of the sound/beat which also makes them listen to the lyrics it would have to be changed. What I could do is utilize our praise and worship team to revamp the songs to make it kid friendly if it is at all possible.
Thank you for allowing us to provide feedback. You’re totally awesome. Praise God!!!