See also past Partners Video Reviews    

Countering Pharaoh's Production-Consumption Society Today
Includes a color DVD of five lecture sessions featuring Walter Brueggemann. A companion CD-ROM provides printable written materials including facilitator guides, participant guides (with a large-print version), and access to web-based small group studies. $150. Living the Questions; 5501 N. 7th Ave. PMB 733; Phoenix, AZ 85013-1755. Copyright Living the Questions 2006. Web Site: http://www.livingthequestions.com.

Although this study describes itself as "a new study for progressive Christians," its appeal is broader than advertised. This is a provocative, yet ultimately energizing and encouraging, study for any congregation.

Walter Brueggemann offers a challenging interpretation of Exodus 1-15, placing it directly in the context of current cultural and political realities. No matter what your social, political, or economic point of view, Countering Pharaoh's Production-Consumption Society Today is worth your study and prayer.

In fact, Brueggemann repeatedly states that this study is aimed at helping conservatives and liberals alike engage "in non-polemical ways" the issues raised by the journey of God's people from captivity in Egypt to radical gift of the Decalogue on Sinai, from slavery to covenant.

Yet Pharaoh continually offers new faces and temptations that lure us away from God's covenant and back into bondage.

So how do people of faith resist Pharaoh's power? How do we counter the subtle but also blatant ways that encourage us to break covenant and return to slavery? The titles of the five Countering Pharaoh's study sessions give a helpful indication of how Scripture offers a strategy not only for resistance but for constructive engagement based on faithful reading of the Bible.

The sessions are titled: The Way Out; The Decalogue; Countering Caesar; An Act of Imagination; and On Not Doing God Any Favors.

While there is much in which to attract participants, there is also plenty to raise hackles and cause unease or even anger.

But the same Scripture that critiques and convicts us also reveals the power of covenant (old and new) to create new relationships of faith toward God and of community with the neighbor.

The product blurb recommends Countering Pharaoh's Production-Consumption Society Today for Advent or Lenten study. But I can't think of a season of the year when it would not make an excellent resource.

The Nativity Story
The Nativity Story: Resources. DVD. Color; rated PG (101 minutes); New Line Home Entertainment, $28.98. The Nativity Story Resources website: www.nativityresources.com.

Last year's release of The Nativity Story for local theaters was in time for the Advent and Christmas season, but the March 2007 DVD release meant congregations had no opportunity for using the marvelously acted and faithfully filmed (on location) retelling of the story of Christ's birth.

With the availability of the DVD for this Christmas season, this film is likely to become an integral part of preaching, teaching, and other activities. In conjunction with the release of the movie in theaters and on DVD, a free feature-packed Leaders' Resource DVD, has also been made available.

Similar to the resource DVD for The Polar Express, The Nativity Story Leaders' Resource DVD offers film clips, trailers, teasers, interviews with the cast and director, and other helps for use in the congregation.

Unfortunately, as of May 2007 the Leaders' Resource DVD is no longer available. The www.nativityresource.com website, however, does offer free downloads of the leader's guides and printed sermons for teaching and discussing the film. It might also be worthwhile to recheck this website in case the Leaders' Resource DVD becomes available again closer to Christmas.

The Holy Spirit
Mosaic Spring 2007 edition. ELCA Communication Services, 8765 West Higgins Road, Chicago, IL 60631. www.elca.org/mosaic. 800-638-3522 (ext. 6009). DVD: color, All ages, 29 minutes (Bonus material includes "Seasons of Renewal" and "Her Words Took Wing") $19.95

This DVD offers a useful overview of the biblical sources for the person of the Holy Spirit, its gifts, and its witness to Christ and to the gospel's message of hope.

As an overview, it would be useful in a number of settings such as introducing a confirmation class or adult small group study to the Third Article of the Creed. It would also make an excellent teaching and motivating tool for a congregation's mission and evangelism ministries.

In that regard, the second segment of the DVD focuses on "Martin Luther and the Holy Spirit." Host Carl Schalk discusses the Spirit as found in the Small and Large Catechisms and the "suspiciousness" of Lutherans when it comes to Pentecostal manifestations of the Holy Spirit.

Two segments on the Holy Spirit and Revival — one in east Africa, the other in Seattle — are perhaps the most intriguing and encouraging. The story of the Shepherd's Movement in Madagascar provides a marvelous snapshot of a contemporary awakening of the Spirit through the Lutheran church that is triggering remarkable growth and evangelical fervor.

All of the stories on this DVD bear witness to a growing openness to the leading of the Holy Spirit in Lutheran congregations around the world.

Geoffrey L. Scott, Lutheran Partners' video review editor, is pastor of Christ Lutheran Church, Menomonie, Wisconsin.