YouthWorker Journal - March/April 2009 - (Page 53) students toward more Christ-like character with take-home challenges. The leader’s guide is user friendly, requires little prep and offers many teaching tips and optional activities. —Jeff Tillson Scary, Gross, and Weird Stories from the Bible Joy-Elizabeth Lawrence, Jim Miller, Siv Ricketts, Summer Salomonsen, and Christian Schofield Group, 2008, 132 pp., $19.99, www.group.com Discipline, burn-out, building relationships, Scripture memory and Bible teaching are all addressed, as well as some basic information about sharing the Gospel and Awana ministries. The accompanying CD and DVD hold a lot of promise, but the content and quality are less exciting than many other resources on the market. They provide helpful materials, such as interviews, a training guide, a PowerPoint presentation and worksheets, but the real value of the resource is found in the small hardback book itself. —Karen E. Jones Fish Eyes on Stage Ted & Lee (Ted Swartz and Lee Eshleman) Saint Mary’s Press, 2009, DVD, $24.95, www.smp.org If you are looking for a hands-on guide for youth to understand the weirdest stories in the Bible, this is the one. Crafted specifically for middle-school students in large and small group gatherings, this resource will help you prepare every aspect of teaching these stories including accompanying games, film clips, songs, questions, applications and hands-on-activities. Creative lessons are laid out for leaders to comprehend and pass on to their students. Teaching middle-school students must be interactive and multi-sensory, and these writers certainly get it. Watch these stories of Balaam’s Donkey, plagues in Egypt and descriptions of end times come alive for your students. After all, we don’t just want to read Scripture; we want to feel these stories as the ancients did. —Alan Briggs SCRIPTURE REIMAGINED Creation Chronicles on Stage Ted & Lee (Ted Swartz and Lee Eshleman) Saint Mary’s Press, 2009, DVD, $24.95, www.smp.org Ted and Lee artistically have interpreted the Old Testament narrative and the Gospel in these two DVDs in a quirky yet, thoughtful way. With strong performances, their journey through the Old Testament in Creation Chronicles is a brilliant trip through the highlights, retelling the stories of creation, the flood, Jonah and more. Fish Eyes, on the other hand, takes the viewer through the Gospel in hilarious and thought-provoking ways. While I love both, of the two, I enjoyed Fish Eyes more; but both are worth the cover price. They’re each divided conveniently into 14 chapters that can be used as standalone video clips, or they can be watched in one sitting. While each DVD comes with a study guide, it’s not much more than a breakdown of the scriptures referenced in each video chapter and one or two discussion questions. While I would have liked to have seen a stronger guide, I’ll definitely be using these videos in the years to come. —Matthew McNutt Who, Me?: A Normal Person’s Guide to Developing a Healthy Youth Ministry Awana, 24-7 Ministries Awana, 2008, 190 pp., DVD, CD, $26.95, www.24-7ministries.net Link your Scripture together like you link your tricks together The Thompson Student Bible is just the tool to help you do that. Yes, you will want to use this resource if you are in youth ministry or responsible for training youth ministers. Why? The packaging and the book are well-designed; it is easy to understand and use; and it’s comprehensive in its approach to youth ministry leadership training. There are sections on the foundational principles of youth ministry, as well as the leadership realities of serving as shepherd, preacher, cultural expert, CEO and leader. This new Thompson is great for youth pastors wanting a tool that can link topics together, engaging students to discover the scriptures for themselves and learn what they mean and how they relate to them. A New Thompson with Unique features Call for further information 1-800-428-4385 www.kirkbride.com Kirkbride YouthWorkerJournal.com | March/April 2009 53 http://www.smp.org http://www.group.com http://www.smp.org http://www.24-7ministries.net http://www.kirkbride.com http://www.kirkbride.com http://www.YouthWorkerJournal.com
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