See also current and past Partners Video Reviews    

Experiencing God: Six Sessions in Faith Basics for the Contemporary Church
VHS or DVD, six 25-min. sessions, Color, Adults, 2003
Leader’s guide and participant’s guide available in CD-ROM or print form
Sale: $199.95, free shipping for online orders Luther Productions
(651) 646-5526, Web: www.lutherproductions.com

Experiencing God is a successful production that leads the audience in a thoughtful consideration of our basic understandings of the nature and character of God as Creator, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit and the ways in which God works through the lives of individuals and in the world. Ten articulate and engaging faculty members from Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota are featured in a Luther Productions resource using the ever-growing technical abilities of Seraphim Communications for this production.

This program can be used in six 25-minute sessions with discussion at the end of each 25-minute video segment, or by using the option of the “kick start,” eighteen 5-minute segments that allow for discussion at the end of each part. In either case, there is plenty of material provided in the comprehensive leader’s and participant’s guides to result in lively and reflective conversations.

Each session consists of three subsections where featured scholars respond to a question about God as Creator, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit. Although the participants are not physically present with one another, viewers — through the skilled editing of the series — are drawn into a conversation with these teachers as if the viewers are in their midst and the teachers are dialoguing with one another. Sometimes, a speaker will complement what the other is saying; at other times, speakers present different perspectives among themselves.

For the experienced adult-education leader or pastor, this series will reinforce ways in which the basics of Christianity are lived out within the Lutheran tradition. For the novice leader, Experiencing God will provide a firm understanding of the basics of our faith, as well as a complete leader’s guide for each session. The participant’s guide includes material and questions for study and preparation prior to group discussion.

I highly recommend this resource for congregations, large and small. As we seek to be faithful and invitational as a church, this resource can help us examine fundamental questions of faith and establish mission priorities infused with fresh language.

Experiencing God features Fred Gaiser, Sarah Henrich, Mary Hess, Diane Jacobson, David Lose, Lois Malcom, Alan Padgett, Steven Paulson, Matthew Skinner, and Richard Wallace.

Sessions include:
One: Who is God?
Two: What Kind of God?
Three: Jesus: God’s Surprise
Four: Jesus: God With us
Five: Who is the Holy Spirit?
Six: The Spirit is Life

Is This the Time? Interpreting the Mystery of Revelation
VHS or DVD, seven sessions, each approx. 13 min., CD-ROM Guide
Color, Adults, High School, 2003
Sale: $149, free shipping for online orders
Luther Productions
(651) 646-5526, Web: www.lutherproductions.com

The book of Revelation is either the most under-read or misunderstood book of the Bible for most of us. Dr. Craig Koester, professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota, however, serves as a welcoming tour guide in Is This The Time? Interpreting the Mystery of Revelation. He leads us through a fascinating study of a book that has served as a source of comfort and hope to early Christians and today provides the basis for much of our Christian hymnody and liturgy.

Dr. Koester begins this video with a helpful examination of popular literature such as The Late Great Planet Earth of the 1970s and the current Left Behind series. In Part One of the series, he carefully outlines the theological system on which these books are based and why they are problematic to our understanding of Scripture. This approach he says, “is like a box of jigsaw puzzle pieces,” connecting verses from here and there in the Bible. “But what happens if some of the puzzle pieces are in the wrong order? The whole system changes.”

Koester gives us another way to look at Revelation: one that presents a spiral, not linear, view of the events; that treats Revelation with its own integrity; and that sees the ways in which the book communicates on its own and fits into Scripture as a whole. Instead of trying to link contemporary events with images in Revelation that add up to the end of time, Koester stresses the importance of trying to understand how the various word pictures spoke to Christians in the seven cities that are addressed in John’s letter and how the disturbing and encouraging visions alike move the reader back to God and the Lamb over and over again. Then, as he wraps up the session, he asks ,“How are these issues real for us today?” “What would faithful witness look like in your congregation, and your context, today?”

Using hymns, art, and computer-generated graphics to illustrate his teaching points, Koester unravels the mystery of Revelation and makes a needed response to popular literature that is focused on the end of time instead of on a God who gives us hope and on Christ who holds our future.

Interpreting the Mystery of Revelation is challenging, unsettling, and hopeful. Whether this series is used for individual or group study, it will become an important part of every congregation’s library. The Leader’s Guide includes a review of material covered in each segment, references to hymns, and discussion questions.

Martin Luther
VHS and DVD, 110 minutes
Color, Adults, Youth, 2002
110 minutes
Sale: $19.99/VHS; $24.99/DVD
Lion Television Production and PBS
Creative Communications
(800) 325-9414; for online orders:
www.creativecommunications.com

Created for television audiences, this presentation of the life, times, and teachings of Martin Luther does a fine job of combining the drama of Luther’s life with scholarly commentaries, art, and excerpts from Luther’s writing. The result is a video resource that is an excellent acquisition for church libraries and will serve as a good teaching tool in adult classes.

Liam Neeson serves as narrator, providing background on Luther’s life, the Catholic Church, and the Holy Roman Empire. Timothy West acts in the role of the elderly Luther, who, on a journey through the German countryside near the end of his life, reflects on his life and his struggles with God, and with politics in and outside of the church that led him and the medieval world to new understandings of the relationship between God and humans, of personal and individual freedom, and of the church.

Providing commentary in this program are Euan Cameron, Union Theological Seminary; Mark Edwards, president emeritus, Saint Olaf College; Susan Karant-Nunn, University of Arizona; Alister McGrath, Oxford University, United Kingdom; Michael Mullett, University of Lancaster, United Kingdom; and Miri Rubin, Queen Mary College, University of London, United Kingdom.

Smart Discipline
VHS, Color, Adults, 87 min.
Sale: $24; Facilitator’s Guide available on
request
Produced by Smart Discipline, LLC
Web site: www.Smartdiscipline.com (877) 407-7627

Smart Discipline is a system of parenting education that is being offered in many school districts and congregations throughout the nation with the goal of helping families minimize fighting and bickering, develop self-motivating techniques to follow the rules in the home, and instill self-esteem in their children. “If you do not have a system of discipline in your home, your children will drive you crazy!” stresses Larry Koenig, Ph.D., developer of this family education system.

A good system of discipline does not happen overnight, Dr. Koenig teaches, but can be accomplished in a step-by-step manner where the children eventually take charge of following the rules on their own. He treats misbehavior as a normal part of life that is manageable through clear expectations and written rules. Adults operate within a pattern of written rules; children and adolescents need written rules, too, or chaos results. Many of our rules are unwritten, and we take them for granted. However, mass media often shows just the opposite from what we want and expect. It is essential for parents to decide on three to five things that they expect in the home, write them down clearly, and stick to them. To this end, he shows the importance of creating a chart for recording both compliance and violations and gives suggestions for ways of dealing with violations with short-term and effective consequences.

This program is especially created for parents of children from four to sixteen years old and is divided into two parts. The second half of the tape deals with ways that parents can help children grow up with positive and healthy beliefs about themselves and break the cycle of negative criticism. Following the pattern of Smart Discipline, Koenig again gives parents a step-by-step process by which they can instill self-confidence in their children. This resource is both entertaining and helpful. Parent workbooks at $16 each and other resources can be ordered online or by telephone.

Anne Lee, an associate in ministry and video review editor for Lutheran Partners magazine, is serving in the area of Christian education at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, St. Charles, Illinois.