Groups Guy

It’s Tim – the new intern. Hi.

Dane asked me to take a look at some of the resources we have here at the office, and describe them so you can evaluate if they’d be helpful for you. So here’s the stuff I looked at today:

1. “Liquid” DVD. This DVD contains five shorts (8-9 minutes each) in which there is a reenacting of a biblical parable in a modern-day setting and a teaching time. The teaching time is an explanation and application of the reenactment.
The acting and writing is a little on the cheeseball side, but this DVD may still be worth your time. The reenactments themselves are highly memorable, if only because of the unintentional comedy of their over-the-top Christian-ness. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to edit out the teaching time, and allow your H/ABF to explore the biblical text on their own. The DVD is accompanied by a leaders’ guide with questions to draw out your group. You could either use the questions provided, or write your own.
There is certainly value in using video to illustrate your points. It will take a little creativity to use the Liquid shorts AND avoid sounding clichéd or removed from reality, but if you can pull it off, the stories (and hopefully your lesson!) will stick in your group members’ minds.

2. Standard Lesson Commentary. This is a collection of 52 lesson plans for Sunday school, each assigned to a specific week and designed for use throughout an entire year.
Each lesson plan is 8-10 pages long and includes an exposition of the text, questions to prompt discussion and student interaction, and activities to assist in student comprehension. The activities can be a little elementary, but oftentimes simple and concrete is best. With a little tweaking, I’m sure they could work with adults.

I doubt any of you are looking to have your lessons written for you, and I wouldn’t encourage you to use this book that way. It may, however, be a good idea-starter, especially if you feel like you’ve been short on creativity lately. You’d need to put your own spin on the lesson, and perhaps even cut out and replace sections of it, but you’re H/ABF leaders. That’s exactly the sort of thing you’re qualified to do.

So that’s what I looked at today. We’ve got a few copies of the Liquid DVD and Standard Lesson Commentary at the Green office, so let Dane or Jeff or myself know if you’d like to look at one of them. We could have them at the front desk on a Sunday, and you could take them home for a week to look them over.

Hope this helps! Let us know.