FRANKLIN, Tenn. (BP)–Every Wednesday they have come by the dozens.
The middle-schoolers showed up for the midweek services for various reasons, but their youth minister aimed for an experience that would leave a lasting impression.
So he hired a rock band.
“Music captures the emotions that simple words or even a youth minister can’t touch,” said Paul Teller, who has served as youth minister at Clearview Baptist Church in Franklin, Tenn., for two years. “Music touches on a level emotionally that traditional Bible study cannot.”
The independent Christian rock band Even Isaac anchors the multi-sensory middle school worship. And the band’s songs are among those featured on “Fuel,” a DVD-based youth Bible study produced by LifeWay Christian Resources.
Fuel producer Rick Simms, creative director Bill Cox and producer Debbie Beavers give plenty of attention to the musical aspects of the digital Bible study.
“It’s the driving force of connecting with people, especially when you marry film and music,” Sims said.
Simms explained that LifeWay designed Fuel to supply a multimedia Bible study experience for a generation accustomed to flashy MTV images and ever-present MP3 players providing life’s soundtrack.
Over the course of two years, the eight-volume study presents 96 Bible stories through dramatic Hollywood-quality scenes, comedy sketches, applicable student interviews, straightforward presentations from youth leaders and various other means likely to impact youth.
Music, Simms said, plays a lead role in making Fuel relevant to its student audience.
“Music is such a huge piece of people’s lives,” he said. “You can set your mood through the perspective of the music you’re listening to.
“When we can bring that power of music, it’s a way to help kids relate to some of the stories we’re telling.”
Simms said choosing the perfect music for a particular Fuel segment often happens in a “know it when you hear it” fashion, but that isn’t to say the process is haphazard.
“Part of it is just to include deep music so we can share the message,” Simms said. “Anything that will engage them and make them go deeper.”
When it came to finding the right song for a Fuel vol. 2.3 music video titled “Fairytale,” Simms knew “One Way,” a song from Even Isaac’s “Revamped” CD, fit the bill.
The segment portrays a teenage girl beautifully outfitted and happily headed to a costume party. Soon after arriving, however, she discovers her boyfriend with another girl and the evening takes a turn.
As she drives away with tears smearing her carefully applied makeup, Even Isaac sings, “Searching for someplace to find love she deserves, I wish that I could make her see … there’s only one place to find love like that; a love this world could never be. There’s only one place to find love like that; a love that sets the captive free.”
The segment, intended to point to the Father’s love, ends with the main character’s earthly father comforting her while she cries and Even Isaac intones, “There’s only one man who gives love like that; a man who died upon a tree. There’s only one man who gives love like that; a man who came for you and me.”
Paul Reter, acoustic guitarist for Even Isaac, said providing music for Fuel allowed the six-year-old band to expand its calling.
“Fuel gave Even Isaac a new opportunity to reach people,” said Reter, who fronts the band that includes his brother, keyboardist Stephen Reter; bassist Doug Price; drummer Adam Silverman; and guitarist Danny Zaverl.
Reter said his experience with the band and leading youth has taught him that students respond to quality, relevant material and are quick to overlook the sometimes-mediocre Christian multimedia offerings in favor of higher budget secular productions.
“Kids are your best critics,” Reter said. “If something isn’t done on a level that is excellent, they can tell. Fuel is very well done and looks professional. It fits a sorely needed role.”
That multimedia, particularly musical, role in youth ministry is one that Mike Harland, director of the LifeWay Worship Music Group, expects to only gain importance in coming years.
“Student ministers are gravitating to music in their ministries because they’re smart,” said Harland, who led multiple youth and music ministries before joining LifeWay a year ago. “Music is a hook. Fuel has to have a worship music component for it to be effective with that generation and for it to be what it should be.”
Label-signed artists have contributed their talents to the digital Bible study, but the Fuel production team also has found that a record contract isn’t necessarily a prerequisite for relevant, quality music. Simms said he is always on the lookout for independent artists eager to present God’s message any way they can, but aren’t restricted by ties to the mainstream music industry.
“It’s a neat thing to work with guys like Even Isaac because they’re doing great music and using what God’s called them to do,” Simms said. “There’s been a mass move to more independent music and the more people say, ‘I want to hear something new and fresh,’ that’s great for us.”
For the members of Even Isaac, their call to share God’s message and music just happens to be their method of communication as well as their passion.
“We don’t just want to be entertainers,” Reter said. “We don’t want to be just a distraction from [secular music]. We want to mean something.
“They don’t need to just remember the music -– they need to be changed by it.”
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For more information about Fuel, visit www.lifeway.com/fuel, while Even Isaac is on the Web at evenisaac.com. Artists and bands interested in contributing to future volumes of Fuel are invited to submit professional quality CDs to Rick Simms at One LifeWay Plaza, MSN 195, Nashville, TN 37234.
