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See also
past Partners
Video Reviews
See also
past Partners
Video Reviews
 Beyond Tsunami: Lutherans Respond
Mosaic Television, Summer 2005 ELCA Dept. for Communications,
www.elca.org/mosaic or
800-638-3522 ext. 6009,
DVD: color, Adults, 24 minutes (incl.
bonus material),
$19.95
This DVD is a powerful witness to how the ELCA Disaster Response used the gifts of
Lutherans to effectively help victims of last year’s tsunami. It is an
impressive story of faith in action making a difference in the lives of people
on the Tamil Nadu coastal region of India.
In the process, viewers begin to see how ELCA Disaster Response strategies, such
as partnering with the local United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India (UELCI),
maximize the effectiveness of gifts and donations raised by ELCA congregations
for disaster response.
This video is an excellent up-close-and-personal look at the human impact of
this terrible event. Video shot during and after the tsunami by a local
videographer provides a riveting “you are there” perspective.
In the same vein, The “Mamma P” bonus video tells the touching story of a
teacher who, with ELCA support delivered through the UELCI, was trained to
provide much-needed counseling and care to victims, including many of her young
students. When we see Mamma P helping children who lost loved ones or who
themselves were nearly killed in the tsunami, we see ELCA Disaster Response in
action.
If a congregation wants to see its disaster relief gifts at work, this video is
a must. Here is Christ’s love at work in the world. Here is disaster relief
making a difference.
 Connecting Sunday to Monday
Luther Productions, 2004 Produced for Centered Life: An Initiative of Luther
Seminary 2481 Como Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108,
www.centeredlife.org,
651-641-3429,
DVD: color, study guide,
75 minutes, $45.00
Connecting Sunday to Monday consists of three separate videos that share a
common theme and objective: revitalizing the sense of call among congregations
and individuals to actively live their Sunday faith as part of the priesthood of
all believers throughout the rest of the week.
The first video, “Reclaiming Congregational Vitality,” provides a clear
presentation of how “Sunday” has become disconnected from “Monday” for many
members and introduces the concept of equipping and sending members into their
workplaces and personal spaces. Here they begin to become aware of the ways God
works through them every day of the week.
The second video, “Congregation,” shows typical congregation members beginning
to explore how God calls people like them in their daily lives, both as
individuals and members of a congregation.
The third video, “A Look Inside a Centered Life® Retreat,” provides a
participant’s perspective on how the Centered Life model helps persons explore
their unique gifts and challenges in living a centered life. A closing video
segment, nine months later, shows the retreat participants talking about the
difference the Centered Life process has made in their ability to connect Sunday
to Monday and live their faith in the whole of their lives.
This DVD provides an excellent overview of what the Centered Life initiative is
all about and the impact it can make on congregations of all sizes and
demographic makeups. In the course of the DVD we get to know the individual
congregation members and can see the impact connecting Sunday to Monday is
making in them and their congregation.
 Prayer
Mosaic Television, Fall 2005,
ELCA Dept. for Communications, www.elca.org/mosaic,
800-638-3522 ext. 6009 DVD: color, 24 minutes, User’s Guide (incl. bonus
material: Bosnia: Children of War, Children of Peace, Bread for the
World), $19.95
This DVD is notable for showing us prayer in action. In a variety of geographic
and socioeconomic settings we see the varied ways in which the faithful carry
their prayers into the world for the praise of God and the care of the neighbor.
Whether it is online, networked intercessory prayer in the Upper Peninsula of
Michigan, or prayer walkers on the streets of inner-city New Orleans, this is
visual evidence that, as Bishop Tom Skrenes of the ELCA Northern Great Lake
Synod says, “nothing really important will ever happen without prayer.”
The video begins with a discussion of the scriptural foundations of prayer in
the Old and New Testaments. A brief look at “Luther on Prayer” follows.
But the heart of this disc is its focus on three innovative prayer ministries
that actively touch lives.
- An Internet prayer ministry coordinated through the Northern Great Lakes Synod
office that connects prayer needs and prayer partners within the synod and with
other synods throughout the country.
- A prayer scrapbooking ministry that teaches and encourages the use of
scrapbooks and photos and personal mementos as aids to intercessory and other
kinds of prayer.
- Prayer walkers — small groups of congregation
members who walk the streets of their neighborhood with “eyes wide open,”
looking for anything and anyone in need of prayer, and who provide those
prayers right there, on the sidewalks and streets. Their prayers and their
public witness are visible signs of God’s love at work in the world.
This DVD would make an excellent adult forum resource for introducing the basics
of prayer while providing concrete examples that can spark imaginative new
prayer ministries within any congregation.
Geoffrey L. Scott, Lutheran Partners’
video review editor, is pastor of Christ Lutheran Church, Menomonie, Wisconsin.
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