B7, A Comfort Amid the Scarcity of Children's Spiritual Songs

If you ask Christians who were born in the 1970s and 1980s, they could probably easily name children’s spiritual songs. "Big-Bodied King Kong," "Father Abraham," "I’m Glad to Be a Child of God," "Happy Ya Ya Ya," "Higher Than the Highest Heavens," and other spiritual songs. It seems children’s spiritual songs were easy to find.

But this situation changed a decade later; Christian music experienced a scarcity of children’s songs, let alone spiritual idols. And this situation has continued until now.

There have indeed been a few children’s songs from the early 2000s until now, but they do not seem very prominent and have mostly stayed quiet. Only a few of them stood out, such as Nikita, Kevin, and most recently Grezia Ephiphania.

The Christian world seems to be lacking children’s songs and spiritual idols.

Worrying? Of course. This void has ended up being filled by idols from secular music who sometimes set a poor example, and some of their song lyrics are not educational, much less faith-building.

However, hope appears as several church workers have begun to pay attention to this void, one of them being the vocal group B7 (read: B-SEVEN). This vocal group, made up of several young people, focuses on music and spiritual songs specifically for children.

Their latest single, “Don’t You Wanna Go To Bibleland,” was first introduced when they made their debut appearance at the Asian Discipleship Summit 2016 in Bali, Indonesia.

One of the initiators behind the birth of B7, Ferdinand Yance, said that the idea for B7 was born when he and several fellow ministry workers were entrusted with organizing activities for the children attending the spiritual conference. Together with Listiana, Dame, and Eva, the idea emerged to create praise and worship activities for children in a fun atmosphere while teaching them about the LORD. Alongside the idea of creating the Bibleland attraction, the idea of forming this vocal group also emerged. “The name B7 was born from the word Bible and the number 7 (the perfect number in Christianity), so it was shortened to B7,” Ferdinand added. “And the male members are called Bibleboy and the female ones, Biblegirl.” continued the man who is often called Yance.

the idea emerged to create praise and worship activities for children in a fun atmosphere while teaching them about the LORD.

On August 13, 2017, B7 once again held a mini concert at GKDI Bekasi for the third time as part of a collaborative effort to help the children of GKDI Bekasi Sunday School have idols who can inspire them to love Christ and the congregation. This activity itself has become a routine for B7 members Ferdinand (chief), Celinda (coach), Kitty, Lady, Tabitha, Elsa, Jordy, Johan, Robert, Stanley, and Julio.

The children of GKDI BEKASI KIDS (the name for GKDI BEKASI Sunday School) could hardly wait for their new idols. Some of the children were seen wearing B7 shirts with the words Bibleboy and Biblegirl. Around 80 children screamed when the countdown video began to play.

Ferdinand said in an interview that at the beginning of every month B7 routinely appears at KKK (Kerajaan Kanak-Kanak) GKDI Jakarta, and in the third week they appear at several churches around Jabodetabek and Bandung.

Hopefully, this new phenomenon, B7, can become a comfort amid the scarcity of children’s spiritual idols and children’s spiritual songs.

B7 performed at GKDI BEKASI on August 13, 2017. They were presenting a skit about The Shepherd Who Likes to Lie.

with some of the GKDI BEKASI KIDS children who watched the mini concert on August 13, 2017

B7 together with Nowela after their joint performance at GKDI BEKASI

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