Books, Books and More Books
Doug Fields and Eddie James now offer four volumes of Videos that Teach. With Videos That Teach you can use clips from 75 of the best recent movies on video–already collected an organized by topic and Bible reference, complete with start and stop times–to illustrate your lessons and launch provocative discussion among your students. Discussions that get kids talking about themselves and life, about God and the Bible.
Brian Belknap, through Group Publishing and St. Mary’s Press, has published three volumes of Group’s Blockbuster Movie Illustrations. Now you can use clips from today’s most popular movies to vividly illustrate what the Bible has to say about the important issues teenagers face. These ideas work well as attention-getting openings, memorable closings, or starting points to build a lesson on. Reach students through a medium they appreciate and understand (videos not included). Jeff Smith reviews a sampling of each series.
- VIDEOS THAT TEACH
- Paperback: 176 pages
- Publisher: Zondervan/Youth Specialties (September 1, 1999)
- ISBN-10: 0310231159
- ISBN-13: 978-0310231158
- Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
- VIDEOS THAT TEACH 2
- Publisher: Zondervan/Youth Specialties (January 1, 2002)
- ISBN-10: 0310238188
- ISBN-13: 978-0310238188
- Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
- VIDEOS THAT TEACH 3
- Paperback: 176 pages
- Publisher: Zondervan/Youth Specialties (June 1, 2004)
- ISBN-10: 0310251079
- ISBN-13: 978-0310251071
- Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
- VIDEOS THAT TEACH 4
- Paperback: 176 pages
- Publisher: Zondervan/Youth Specialties; illustrated edition (January 1, 2006)
- ISBN-10: 0310256623
- ISBN-13: 978-0310256625
- Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
- GROUP’S BLOCKBUSTER MOVIE ILLUSTRATIONS
- Paperback: 159 pages
- Publisher: Group Publishing (January 1, 2001)
- ISBN-10: 0764422561
- ISBN-13: 978-0764422560
- Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.3 x 0.4 inches
- GROUP’S BLOCKBUSTER MOVIE ILLUSTRATIONS: THE SEQUEL
- Paperback: 160 pages
- Publisher: Saint Mary’s Press (January 1, 2006)
- ISBN-10: 0764424548
- ISBN-13: 978-0764424540
- Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.5 x 0.5 inches
- GROUP’S BLOCKBUSTER MOVIE ILLUSTRATIONS: THE RETURN
- Paperback: 158 pages
- Publisher: Group Publishing(CO) (June 2006)
- ISBN-10: 0764429817
- ISBN-13: 978-0764429811
- Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
REVIEW OF A RESOURCE ON THEOLOGY AND FILM by Jeff Smith Title of Resource: Videos That Teach I & II and Group’s Blockbuster Movie Illustrations Fields, Doug, and Eddie James. Videos That Teach: Teachable Movie Moments from 75 Modern Film Classics. Grand Rapids, Mich: Youth Specialties/Zondervan, 1999. Fields, Doug, and Eddie James. Videos That Teach 2: Another 75 Scenes from Popular Films to Spark Discussion. Grand Rapids, Mich: Youth Specialties, 2002. Belknap, Bryan. Group’s Blockbuster Movie Illustrations. Loveland, Colo: Group, 2001.
What it is: Both resources are books that outline short movie clip lessons. Lessons can be found by theme, or by movie titles.
Publisher or Source: Videos That Teach I & II are both published by Zondervan. Zondervan Publishing is an evangelical publishing organization that has no particular denominational affiliation. Zondervan is responsible for publishing Rick Warren’s bestseller, The Purpose Driven Life, as well as publishing the New International Version of the Bible as well as Today’s New International Version of the Bible. They distribute the Youth Specialties curriculums, as well as many of the Willow Creek resources. Doug Fields and Eddie James are the co-authors of the lessons. Doug Field is the youth pastor at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA and has written numerous curriculums and resources for youth ministry, as well as leading and speaking at youth ministry conferences such as Youth Specialties. Eddie James currently travels all over the U.S. with his skit group called, The Skit Guys, communicating biblical messages to youth through drama. He is a former youth pastor. Blockbuster Movie Illustrations is published by Group Publishing. Group Publishing is also a non-denominational evangelical publishing company. Group is well known for its vacation bible school curriculum. Brian Belknap is the author of the lessons. He is the creator of www.ministryandmedia.com and has also authored, Ultimate Skits also published by Group. Goal/Aim/Purpose of the resource: Both resources claim that movies are visual parables that use storytelling to launch meaningful discussions. Both resources aim to use movie clips to jumpstart a lesson that will lead students to talking about themselves and about God. This resource does provide clips to start with and questions and scripture to follow, that could get students talking, but the format of the curriculum is pretty much the same lesson to lesson – clip, and then follow up questions. Sometimes the questions don’t even tie in the movie clip but just jump straight to scripture. Intended audience for the resource: These resources are aimed at adolescent youth and are intended for youth leaders, or lay teachers in the church to use. This curriculum isn’t geared for adults, because the follow up questions focus on youth oriented issues.
What you get in this resource: This resource primarily gives you a quick clip with background information on the scene and then five to six follow up questions that engage scripture based on the theme chosen for the particular clip. The movie clip is always to be shown first, followed by the discussion questions. Both resources provide thematic lessons that can either be looked up based on the title of the movie, or by the theme itself. The Videos that Teach curriculum only offer one theme per movie clip, but the Blockbuster Illustrations curriculum will provide alternate takes that could be used with the same clip and provides a different scripture to explore.
How the resource handles/treats film and theology: These resources are selecting particular clips of films that seem to fit a particular theme or themes and then proof-texting scriptures to support them. It’s not that the film clip is a bad choice for a particular theme, it’s that the questions do not focus on that particular theme it’s trying to convey. Sometimes the questions are good (remember this is for jr. and sr. high students) but the scriptural support is terrible. Often there will be just one verse of scripture pulled out of one book, taken completely out of context. A lesson may focus on kindness and show a clip that illustrates kindness well, but the scripture is in a whole different context and the word kindness is just happens to be present. These resources are diluting theology to make it fit a movie, rather than letting the movie speak for itself and then allowing for a conversation to take place. Even the titles in the resource say: “Where to take it”. Kinds of conversation between theology and film it supports: The primary conversation these resources use is with biblical texts. However, sometimes the biblical texts chosen are just listed but never come into the conversation with the questions. They also use conversations with ethical issues, and relationship in community. These are the three primary conversations that these resources focus on. Overall recommendations, comments, advice about this resource: The reality is that most youth directors and lay leaders use these resources quite frequently, because everyone is looking for a quick and easy lesson that is engaging. However, these resources are somewhat dangerous – not that students will be taught terrible heresy and renounce God, but that the curriculum has been thrown together to compile a sizable book of video clips and themes to jump start a discussion. All the video clips are used as illustrations to introduce the theme, and then scriptures have been searched for that particular theme or word and then thrown into the lessons. The questions sometimes do not focus on the theme at hand and rabbit trail in a different direction.
The best use of this resource is to use it as a library of movie clips. It can help expose you to clips of movies you are not familiar with so that you can watch the movie and then redesign a lesson plan that incorporates the movie into a real conversation that doesn’t lead to a specific point, but that allows for theological conversation to take place. On occasion (sometimes rare) there are questions that do justice to the clips, but the scriptures are still not adequate. So if you use this resource be sure to check the scriptural selections beforehand and see if they are appropriate or need to be adapted to make the lesson more complete.
