Vacation Bible School album reaches No. 1 on Apple music chart
Lifeway's Vacation Bible School soundtrack “Spark Studios” reached the No. 1 spot on Apple Music’s Top 100 Children’s Music Albums chart in recent weeks.
While the album is now at No. 9 on the iTop Chart for children's music albums, it reached the top spot during the Southern Baptist Convention's Annual Meeting in Anaheim, California, in mid-June, announced Lifeway, which, though self-funded, is the SBC’s publishing and distribution division.
Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Lifeway said the album also reached the 63rd spot on the overall Apple Music Top 100 chart for all genres.
The album’s popularity proves that “VBS is returning in full force across the country” after a gap of two years due to the pandemic", said Lifeway’s VBS and kids ministry specialist Melita Thomas to Baptist Press.
“We’re very proud of the role music plays in Lifeway’s VBS as it’s an intentional part of our strategy. You’ll find the daily Bible verses embedded in the daily songs and the theme song often includes the theme verse in its entirety, which makes it easy for kids to memorize,” Thomas continued.
Released Dec. 3, 2021, the album features six tracks, including this year’s VBS theme song titled “Spark Studios,” which is based on this year’s VBS theme verse of Ephesians 2:10, "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
The goal of memorizing is for the kids to “internalize those truths as they listen to and sing the words over and over again … getting the truth of God’s Word into the hearts and minds of children and their families,” Thomas added.
Independent contractors Paul Marino and Jeremy Johnson helped write and produce the album.
“It’s a real honor to write this and to use it for God’s kingdom,” Marino told Baptist Press.
“Our challenge is to take the overall theme and what they want to say with the theme, and put music to it with lyrics that rhyme and work with the Scripture verses,” he added. “We try to put it all together so it’s one cohesive album, and from the beginning to end it takes you on a journey through the week of the VBS. This year’s theme is different from many other years of our theme songs, but it gives it a new freshness and the kids really grabbed onto it.”
Johnson added, “It’s more than just entertainment or an album just to listen to, it is God’s Word that has the power to change kids’ lives forever.”