See also past Partners Video Reviews    

Simply Christian — N. T. Wright DVD Color, (approx three hrs.), bonus DVD (75 min.); Wesley Ministry Network.

The Course Kit ($150) includes three DVDs; full-color Leader’s Guide; Participant’s Guide and Workbook; publicity material, and a copy of Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense.

Order using the Cokesbury link on the Wesley Ministry Network Web site: www.wesleyministry network, 4500 Massachusetts Ave. N.W., Washington D.C. 20015 (202) 885-8507.

In this ten-session video-based course, noted author, scholar, minister, and Anglican bishop Dr. N. T. Wright discusses and explains the basic tenets and features of the Christian faith with an eye to keeping it simple. This makes Simply Christian an excellent resource and learning tool for those new to the faith or those approaching Christianity for the first time. But it might find its real audience among Christians who want to revisit and re-engage the basics of their faith.

Drawing on C. S. Lewis’s approach in Mere Christianity, Wright keeps participants engaged and focused on core Christian beliefs as revealed in Scripture, sacrament, and the traditions of the faith. Contemporary context is provided, but never at the expense of clarity and focus.

Wright provides easy-to-understand background, explanation, and application for a variety of specific topics including Scripture, God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and Justice and Spirituality. These presentations are enlivened by Wright’s gift for apt metaphors and illustrations that clarify and illuminate the subject but are often memorable and amusing as well.

The topic segments are brief and to the point so that leaders and participants have ample opportunity to discuss and process what they have just heard. The written materials are clear and easy to use.

The bonus DVD with Simply Christian is exactly what a bonus should be — a pleasant surprise and very good. A series of nine conversations between Wright and Richard B. Hayes — organized around topics such as Evil, Resurrection, and Heaven and Earth — provide a tremendous resource for answering questions, not only during the Simply Christian course but in other congregational teaching venues as well.

Simply Christian is an informative, motivating, and often inspirational guide to the heart of the Christian faith. As such it has wide application in a variety of settings.

Isaiah: Visions of Promise DVD, Color; not rated (100+ minutes). Five Studies containing nineteen discussion and study segments. Lutheran Bible Ministries 2006, $39.95. Lutheran Bible Ministries, 1594 Hwy. 9, #15, Toms River, NJ 08755; www.bibleministries.org.

Often called the Gospel of the Old Testament, the book of Isaiah is understandably popular. So good study materials for Isaiah are especially welcome.

Isaiah: Visions of Promise from Lutheran Bible Ministries deserves a warm welcome indeed. It is a scripturally solid study that seamlessly moves the participant from engagement with the words of the prophet to a connection and application of those words in the participant’s daily life.

The titles of the five study sessions powerfully communicate this approach: Messages of Hope; Portaits of Peace; Bringing Good News; On Wings of Eagles; Voice for Justice.

But the study doesn’t stop with deepening the individual’s understanding. Participants are encouraged to carry that understanding into the world by developing discipleship skills and actions for use in their families, congregations, and communities.

The DVD is visually stunning, using masterpieces of painting, sculpture, and music to great effect. The settings for the presenters add context and meaning to their words. Isaiah: Visions of Promise is an excellent value and a great way to bring Isaiah to life in congregations large and small.

Ready to Forgive: An African Story of Grace
Mosaic Summer 2007 edition ELCA Communication Services www.elca.org/mosaic (800) 638-3522 ext. 6009 DVD, color, Adults, 36 minutes (bonus material includes a User’s Guide and a second feature, The Story of Lutheran Revival), $19.95.

Ready to Forgive has the feel of a news story, something you might see on Dateline or 20/20. But in reality, the plight of the Acholi people of Northern Uganda never makes the papers or the TV news in the West.

Yet, as this video demonstrates, these people, who have been driven from their homes while enduring rape, torture, and child abduction on a massive scale, are holding to the power of forgiveness as their hope for the future. It may not be news, but it certainly is Good News in a most unlikely situation.

One reason this story doesn’t play in Western media is that, to us, the radical forgiveness of the Acholi is disturbing — disturbing in the sense that this is forgiveness as the Gospels proclaim it and as Jesus lived it. The Acholi’s story confronts us with how far we fall short in our biblical understanding and practice of forgiveness.

Sometimes the dialogue is hard to hear or understand. But where words fail, faces tell the story: the faces of abandoned children who endured unimaginable horror, yet radiate joy singing about Jesus. The young Ugandan Christians risk their lives ministering to these displaced, abused, and abandoned people.

As the Acholi struggle to live, worship, and survive in the midst of chaos, they repeatedly speak of forgiveness as the only viable path to reconciliation and peace.

This DVD is indeed a story of grace and forgiveness. As such, it would make an excellent foundation for an adult forum on forgiveness or grace. It would also be of special interest in congregations that have special ties to eastern Africa such as missionary sponsorship, companion synod, or congregation arrangements.

But be prepared to be challenged when you see and hear forgiveness in such an unlikely place.

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