The timeless journey of ‘Pass It On’

Hundreds of thousands have viewed the short, hand-held video taken by a nurse on a bus carrying the surviving young girls from Camp Mystic the morning after the horrific July 4 floods in Kerr County, Texas, that left at least 136 dead and a handful still missing.

In the shaky video, the girls — after long minutes of seeing the sheer devastation and carnage from the fury of the Guadalupe River — suddenly, unexpectedly begin singing Kurt Kaiser’s beloved “Pass It On.”

If you’re a Baby Boomer growing up in evangelical circles primarily (but not exclusively) in Southern California or the South, “Pass It On” is one of the touchstones of your faith journey.

That the children in one of the most beloved religious camps in Texas still sing the gentle little song 55 years after Kaiser first composed it is vivid proof that it is — if your denomination is comfortable with the word — anointed.

For Kaiser, who died in 2018, “Pass It On” was only one of a host of memorable songs he composed during his long career in Christian music. The song was written in 1969 for a youth musical he co-composed with another early contemporary Christian music legend, Ralph Carmichael, Tell It Like It Is.

Kurt, who often played piano at my church, Seventh and James Baptist in Waco, Texas, once told me the lyrics took about 20 minutes to write. They’re vivid, direct and easy to remember — like a spiritual or a folk song. The music is equally accessible, whether in a church on a massive pipe organ or with a battered acoustic guitar around a campfire.

Perhaps the most striking use of “Pass It On” prior to the Camp Mystic tragedy was at Explo ’72 in Dallas, at the time the largest gathering of evangelical youth in history. Explo ’72 was created by Campus Crusade for Christ and other religious organizations to equip and inspire the children of the burgeoning “Youth Revival” that swept through the country in the late 1960s. Following a week of instruction, praise and music, more than 80,000 young people gathered that evening for a massive rally, a candle-lit “Great Commission” service, where each person lit the candle of the person next to them as they sang “Pass It On.”

That night, during the concert, Texas thunderstorms swept through the area. And the rains came — despite the pleas and prayers of the attendees — who continued to sing and worship God.

Contemporary Christian music historian Paul Baker writes that Kaiser told him he watched the news coverage of Explo ’72 from a motel room in Cincinnati. ”It was probably one of the most moving experiences of my life,” he recalled. “I never would have imagined that one simple song would go so far.”

I can remember the young women from First Baptist Woodville, Texas, excitedly going to Camp Mystic in the early 1970s while I attended a small high school in East Texas. Since its founding in 1926, generations of families have considered Mystic a much-loved rite of passage for Christian girls, a magical place full of memories, traditions (Tonkawas vs. Kiowas!), Bible study, outdoor activities, praise and worship sessions — all in a beautiful, idyllic setting.

Will Camp Mystic ever recover? Or was everything lost in those few terrifying minutes? That’s not for us to say.

And it’s also uncertain whether the young girls singing “Pass It On” on the bus understood the scale of the destruction, or if they’ve even been told that some of their friends had been lost. In the longer (8.5 minute) version, they can be heard gasping in horror at the scenes they pass along the Guadalupe on the bus ride to safety.

But at some point in their journey, as if by some unknown and unknowable shared signal, they break into one of the most treasured religious songs of the past 50 years.

And, in that instant, it becomes both a testament to resilience of their faith and a tribute to an inspired song written by a modest man whose lone goal was to create a song that all young people could sing.

I wish for you my friend
This happiness that I’ve found;
You can depend on God
It matters not where you’re bound,
I’ll shout it from the mountain top — praise God!
I want the world to know
The Lord of love has come to me
I want to pass it on.

 

Robert F. Darden is emeritus professor of journalism, public relations and new media at Baylor University where he also founded the Black Gospel Music Preservation Project.

 

Related article:

Kurt Kaiser helped contemporary Christian musicians ‘pass it on’