I just spoke with a Presbyterian pastor who is interested in using clips from the History channel's The Bible show as part of his adult education class. He is looking for a study guide or questions that he could use along with clips to spark discussion and help everyone reflect on the stories. Any ideas? I'm going to recommend that he check out pieces of the inductive Bible studies from Faith Alive, but I also thought someone out there might have already developed lesson plans they'd be willing to share. Let me know!
Comments
I followed some links from the TV series website and there are some study guides for sale here:
http://www.outreach.com/the-bible/church-engagement.aspx
Thanks Jonathan! I didn't know that was available. I passed along the website to the pastor who was asking for resources.
I saw that several people have read this question, so I thought others might be interested in this idea and wanted to post an update. I checked with our adult Bible study editor, Paul Faber. He recommended that checking out a few of our Discover Your Bible study guides and using the TV show clips as a starter, then reading the story from Scripture and using questions from the study guide to help explore the meaning. He has done similar things using video clips and he finds it very interesting to have the group talk about the text and compare it with the interpretation presented on screen. Sounds like it would be a fun study.
Paul suggested these titles in the DYB series: Genesis, Exodus, 1&2 Samuel and Judges because they cover many of the narrative portions of the OT that would probably be included in the TV show. For the NT the studies on Mark, John, and Acts would likely cover all or most of the episodes that deal with the New Testament stories. The episodes are likely based on stories, and those books contain most of the narratives of the NT. We also have Esther and Jonah from the Infuse Bible series (which is also inductive).
The two episodes I watched covered quite a lot of Biblical ground in short segments in each episode. I imagine that if a group watched individual segments over time it could use this approach for a few years! The History Channel offers the videos for streaming over the internet, so churches interested in using the videos would probably need to make sure they have streaming capabilities in their building. I'm not sure if there are any copyright issues to be concerned about. I think that if the videos are posted online for free at the network's website and you're playing them from that source then there shouldn't be any infringement for using the videos as part of a Bible study.
Please post other ideas here if you give this a try or have a different suggestion. Thanks!
Let's Discuss
We love your comments! Thank you for helping us uphold the Community Guidelines to make this an encouraging and respectful community for everyone.