Review of Modern Parables DVD Curriculum

We in the church know that we are living in the electronic generation and that attention can be riveted to a television when it can't be caught by a speaker.  I saw this when I was in youth ministry.  Speakers were very rarely able to keep the attention of the kids, for any length of time.  We had adult volunteers who spent the better part of meetings giving kids dirty looks, telling them to shush and sometimes confronting them directly.

But, when we played a video, if it was a good video, there would be absolute silence.  No crowd control was necessary.  Well, that is, if it was a good video.  We could show clips from a secular movie for illustration purposes and the kids would be riveted.  On other videos they would at least give their attention for the first few minutes and give it a go.

The trouble is that most Christian films, and particularly educational films aren't very good.  And that's not only the case with kids.  In three churches I have seen that most people aren't all that thrilled about watching a video, even if it is by a well known or particularly good speaker.

Enter Modern Parables, a DVD teaching curriculum on the parables of Jesus.  It's a series of teaching on six parables of Jesus, with a dramatic story, a teaching video and a director's commentary.  A study guide is also included.

Now, I'm not saying these things were directed by Spielberg or Francis Ford Coppola, and it's not Meryl Streep and Anthony Hopkins doing the acting.  But the production values and acting is very good - way better than the standard Christian fare.  Each parable film is influenced by a well known director, like Orson Welles, Woody Allen, Frank Capra or Ingmar Bergman.

And the teaching is well done.  It is by several well known pastors (and I was glad to recognize three well-known PCA guys) who talk to you, not at you.  The teaching is thorough, it is Christ centered and frankly, well done.

I can enthusiastically recommend this series to any church group looking to use videos.  I think this is a step in the right direction for Christian educational videos.  I also think this can be used with just about any group, age high school and up.  I'm giving away a bias here, I think high schoolers can handle more "adult" curriculums with more strenuous exegetical and theological depth.  This series fits the bill and I do hope they come out with more very soon.

The DVD set is $129 but you can also download individual films digitally.  And, they have free low-res versions for the iPod.

Comments

[Kevin Sorensen]

We're just finishing up this series and have found it not only very well done, but, when used in the two-session per parable format gives a great deal of teaching and interaction time for all involved. We'll have a final review and evaluation from the adult class, but so far the verbals comments have all been glowing. I highly recommend this series and have left notice on their web site that I hope they'll do more.