Dave Matthews Band and Closing Rallies

Someone once said “music’s the language of a generation”.

This is the reason we make music such an integral part of the SpringHill Experience. Our goal’s always to connect with those God’s called us to serve by communicating with them in “their own language.”

This doesn’t mean we’ll use music just because it’s popular. We’re intentional about the music we select so it won’t distract from our mission but instead advance it.

But our intention’s also, if possible, to redeem music and use it to connect with people in a deeper more spiritual way.

One place we’ve been able to do this has been in our closing day rallies. For years we’ve created a drama that depicts the Gospel story and performed it to a recognizable song.

Our goal’s to use the “language of music” to grab the attention of parents, family and friends in attendance so they’ll have a glimpse into the life changing message their kids heard and experienced at camp. The impact of this combination of music and storytelling can be profound.

I remember one summer we performed our drama to Dave Matthews Band’s Ants Marching. It’s a song that engaged many parents and campers and thus gave us an opportunity to present a captivating picture of the Gospel. Almost without exception at the end of each rally we’d have parents and campers asking if we sold this CD in our Trading Post (as you might imagine we don’t carry Dave Matthews Band’s music in our camp stores).

It demonstrated the power of music and the ability to engage and create a new association for people so that every time they heard Ants Marching instead of thinking of Dave Matthews they would once again saw in their mind’s eye the story of the Gospel.