Scuba is Next to Godliness

By Michael Menduno. Images courtesy of Desert Chapel and Group Publishing as noted. Lede image: SCUBA VBS logo.

Imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered the full page ad on the back of my weekly hometown (Palm Springs, California) newspaper for a local Vacation Bible School. The ad read, and I quote, “On this scuba quest, kids dive into a relationship with Jesus, and bring His Love and Hope to the surface in everyday life!” 

Wow! I was ready to take the plunge. OK, I’m not a Christian, but I was ecstatic. A California Vacation Bible School is teaching kids to dive? I figured that—religious or not—this is good news. The diving community welcomes more divers! Who knew churches taught scuba? There had to be a story here, to be sure. So, of course I called the number and spoke to a representative from Desert Chapel. 

Ah hah! 

Turns out they were using the word SCUBA as metaphor—dive into a friendship with Jesus? Diving is arguably a divine activity. However, sadly, there were NO SCUBA classes being held. They were using SCUBA to market GOD?

BAIT and SAVE?!?

A short time later I got a call from Desert Chapel’s Associate Pastor, and headmaster of the school David Miller, who, it turns out, is an enthusiastic master diver. After the two of us swapped a few diving stories, Pastor Miller explained that they were excited to choose SCUBA as the theme for their Vacation Bible School (VBS) this year.  “We use SCUBA to share the love of GOD. He doesn’t need our help with marketing,” he offered in response to my queries. Apparently, both teachers—one was a diver—and the students loved the exposure!

Pastor Miller explained that the church created a life-sized coral reef scene in their auditorium, replete with a scuba diver suspended from the ceiling, to help attendees immerse themselves in the environment. And don’t forget the T-shirts! That’s one way to create awareness about diving. Thank you for spreading the good word Desert Chapel!

The Pastor said that the church purchased VBS theme kits each year from a company called Group Publishing based in Colorado. That piqued my interest. How and why did they come up with a SCUBA theme? I placed the call. 

It turns out that Group Publishing, which has been in existence for 50 years, has been serving the VBS market for the last 35 years—roughly 70,000 churches offer some kind of bible study program. Who knew there was such a market? Group sells themed starter kits to these programs with the goal of “helping make Jesus real to students.” The kits include curriculum, study guides, collateral, T-shirt art, banners, and even a theme song, and new themes are offered each year.

In addition to SCUBA—Take Your VBS Deeper Than Ever Before!—Group’s 2024 themes include “Hometown Nazareth” and “Outback Rock—Explore God’s Monumental Love.” You get the idea. Next year’s themes include a “Holy Land Adventure,” and “True North,” to point them to Jesus. But I digress.

How and why did they come up with SCUBA? I had to know. I reached out to Group’s Executive Director of Content Creation, Jody Brolsma, who explained their approach to creating VBS themes includes looking at trends among kids and families, vacation destinations, popular hobbies or movies, and even things schools might be doing. They also talk with children’s ministry leaders and try to find themes that “really make their eyes light up.” 

Like SCUBA? How did they come by that?

“We did a similar theme way back in 2003 with completely different content, graphics, and music,” Brolsma explained. “Back then it was a great success, so we knew our friends in ministry would have fun with it again in 2024. We actually have a couple of scuba divers on our team who gave great direction and insight.” 

How has the SCUBA theme been received so far? 

“We’ve had phenomenal feedback,” Brolsma exclaimed. “Children’s leaders are a creative bunch, and they’ve gone a bit scuba-crazy with their decorations, costuming, and clever theme tie-ins.” Case in point: Desert Chapel. “We think SCUBA is pretty divine!” she added. 

Wouldn’t it be great if the kids actually had the option to learn to dive, for example, in cooperation with a local dive center? Brolsma acknowledged that would be a challenging ask. “Of course, the actual scuba diving experience is hard to replicate for kids, but there are so many wonderful connections with diving and faith,” she explained. “We loved helping kids go beyond a cool, eye-catching setting to take their faith a bit deeper.”

More good news—It took their awareness of diving and the underwater world a bit deeper as well!

It seems to me that programs like SCUBA VBS can only help create and inspire curiosity among kids about diving—VBS as an unlikely Jacques Cousteau?!? The result? Some of those children will likely go on to become divers—like each one of us did—and some of those will become enthralled—like we did—and those lucky ones will find that scuba diving adds deeper meaning to their lives. That can only be a good thing for the diving community, and the survival of our water planet!

We just have to have a little faith. Amen.

P.S. Pastor Miller has subsequently invited me to visit the church and continue a dialogue as to how they might arrange to make scuba lessons available to interested bible students. A match made in heaven? Stay tuned.

DIVER DEEPER

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Michael Menduno/M2 is InDepth’s editor-in-chief and an award-winning journalist and technologist who has written about diving and diving technology for more than 30 years. He coined the term “technical diving.” His magazine “aquaCORPS: The Journal for Technical Diving” (1990-1996) helped usher tech diving into mainstream sports diving, and he produced the first tek.Conferences and Rebreather Forums 1.0 , 2.0 and 4.0. In addition to InDepth, Menduno serves as Senior Editor for DAN Europe’s Alert Diver magazine. He is a member of the Rebreather Training Council (RTC).