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Start…Sing…Stop…Rewind
Praising God is a wonderful way to begin any Bible class. Singing praise and worship songs ministers to God and prepares the hearts of those who are about to learn God’s word. God loves it when we praise Him out of love, reverence and respect.
We should praise God regardless of the circumstances in our lives (good or bad) because He is worthy of our praise. God is worthy of our praise because of who He is, our divine creator. God is also worthy because He loves us and because He loves us so much that He gave His one and only Son to pay the penalty for our sins, and to make a way for us to become adopted children of God. Everything God did, does, and will do—from the beginning until the end—is worthy of our giving praise, thanksgiving, obedience and worship to Him.
Many of the curriculums I used, while teaching in Children’s ministry, had praise songs recorded on audio tapes, and later on CDs and DVDs. Though audio tapes are almost obsolete, they were wonderful teaching tools. Today audio tapes are being replaced by CDs, DVDs, and a variety of other media. Regardless of the media used, these teaching tools can be used in a variety of ways to aid classroom teachers.
The media that came with curriculum packages usually had praise and worship songs for the children to learn and sing. Song sheets with the words would also be included. But learning new songs from those media sources was somewhat inconvenient.
One main reason learning new songs, from audio tapes or compact discs, was inconvenient is that they would only go through the new song one time before moving onto the next song. Though this arrangement was convenient for those who just wanted to listen to the music, it wasn’t convenient for teaching new songs.
To teach new songs to the students requires repetition of the chorus or the verses. Students need to hear these several times before the words and music will begin to stick in their memory. In my opinion, each line, chorus or verse should be repeated a minimum of three times before moving on to the next part of the song. The challenge of using media to teach new songs becomes apparent when the teacher has to spend a lot of time stopping, forwarding, and rewinding the media to return it to the beginning of the chorus or verse again. While the teacher is trying to get the media in the appropriate place to start over, the students have forgotten what they learned and they begin misbehaving by talking in class, poking each other, and leaning back on their chairs, etc. Consequently, the cycle of start…sing…stop…rewind becomes a “Time Killer.”
A repetition of song choruses or verses on the media would be a handy teaching tool. The curriculum manufacturer could possibly work this out. But unfortunately, because of copyright and/or other circumstances, church workers cannot copy the music onto new media to make a better teaching tool. In addition, the repetition of songs on the media might be useful for background music in a short praise and worship segment.
Many Bible curriculums also come with sheet music or the words and cords to the songs typed out on paper. Though a musician can repeatedly play the song, copyrights prevent the teacher from copying the music for the students. However, a teacher can verbally sing the song lines, repeating them several times. Without the words in front of the students, this can take a lot of time. Also visitors and irregular attendees are handicapped because they can’t join in as quickly without seeing the words.
Several years ago I purchased a beautiful songbook, full of children’s songs—music, words, and hand motions to accompany the song. I paid about twenty dollars for that book because I thought it would be a great teaching tool. At that time, the copyright laws had not been a problem so I didn’t think about checking out the book’s copyright notice.
When I took this songbook to church to use it, I found the copyright statement in the book and it said that no pages could be photocopied for any purpose without written permission from the author. Therefore I couldn’t even use it to make an overhead transparency so that the students could see the words to the songs.
I have to confess that, after paying twenty dollars for this book, I was angry about having to go through red tape in order to use the it. The last thing I wanted to do then was to take time to write a letter to the author and wait for a response. My excitement for the book just left, and I was so disappointed that I put the songbook on a bookshelf in my office as a reminder of how copyright and greed can ruin a beautiful teaching tool. Now, twenty years later, the book is still on the shelf in my office and has not been used.
In conclusion, companies that make music and other media to include with their curriculum packages should consider their copyright statements and how the rules can prevent a beautiful teaching tool from being used. Perhaps the manufacturers can loosen the rules slightly so those who pay for the teaching materials can at least copy them for their classes.
Also, perhaps one day these media can be improved so Christian workers can more easily find the start and finish of each song so the challenge of start…sing…stop…rewind can be improved or eliminated. Then teachers won’t have to waste so much time trying to find the starting and ending points of each song.
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