Nearly every summer of Christian camp that I have been involved in has had a theme song. A theme song is a way to help the campers remember something of the spiritual lessons learned at camp through singing. Colleen and I have written most of the Passport theme songs through the years.
I have mentioned the theme song a couple of times in my summer blog series about Following the Road, and several groups have asked for the words or music, to use as they report back to their churches about their week at camp. So I thought today I would include the entire text of the theme song, and a PDF of the lead sheet with the melody line and chords. The theme song is always included in the Worship Packet that is available for purchase at camp and on our store. The Worship Packet has the prayer experiences, theme song, any dramas or interpretive movements – the things that were used in worship for that year’s camps.
Some trivia about the theme songs:
+ Every team (Kids, Choices, Missions, M2) sings the melody to the theme song somewhat differently. I call it the Curious Arbitrary Musician’s Personality effect, or CAMP for short. (Or if that isn’t funny, then how about this one: I call it the Uniqueness of Group Harmonization effect, or UGH for short.)
+ We try to make the song easy to sing to, but interesting, because while a group of campers will sing it 5 or 6 times in a week, the staff will have to sing it about 50 times across the summer! #OneMoreTime! vs #NotAgain!
+ Most former staffers can still remember their favorite theme song from their years of working camp and will gladly break into the chorus if you ask them.
All kidding aside, the theme song is one piece of the complicated puzzle we call Passport Camp! One of the most common questions we get in our national office is this: “You run a summer camp – so what do you do the rest of the year?”
The answer is, we work on each individual piece of that puzzle, from the theme, to the logo, to the Bible study, to the parties, to the worship services, to hiring the staff, to coordinating the logistics of camp supplies, to staff training and travel arrangements, to registering thousands of students… it is a complicated puzzle. But it is our calling and we feel blessed to be part of this ministry. And we thank you for your part in joining us.
Here is a video of the PASSPORTkids! camp singing the theme song, led by their Worship Coordinator, David Warren.
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David Burroughs
David Burroughs is the president & founder of of Passport, Inc.