Michael Seaton
Zondervan, 2012, DVD and Participant Guide, $10.99
Becoming a Good Samaritan is a powerful resource that opens eyes to the needs around us. The small-group DVD not only informs, but also connects teens to advocates who actively are serving to meet those needs. This would be an excellent choice to use with the companion workbook to give teens a glimpse of how they can be God’s hands and feet to bring hope and healing right where they are.
—Andrew Hedges is an author (Creative Bible Lessons in Nehemiah, Creative Bible Lessons in Essential Theology, Creative Bible Lessons on the Trinity), family pastor and youth worker who shares his life and experiences at FaithAwakening.com. He serves God and others with his wife and three daughters in Dayton, Ohio. Friend him on Facebook. Follow him on Twitter.
We are concentrating on local missions this year in our student ministry. I was looking for material to help our students (6th-12th) understand the call of Christ to go into the world and serve others as Christ showed us. I stumbled upon Start> Becoming a Good Samaritan and stopped looking. This is exactly what I was looking for: engaging material that will stretch our students to step outside of their comfort zones. In a culture that is obsessed with self, this study by Jarrett and Jeanne Stevens is a breath of fresh (biblical) air. All of our students will be going through this—more than once.
—Shawn Harrison is the Student and Family Pastor at Wayne Street UMC in Saint Marys, Ohio. He is also the author of the forthcoming book Ministering to Gay Teenagers published by Simply Youth Ministry.
The Parable of the Good Samaritan is timeless. It matters when times are good or bad, when we are the ones down as much as the times we are up and doing well. I think Jesus meant it to be this way. Unlike Christmas and Easter, which focus on what we believe doctrinally about God, The Good Samaritan is our daily chance to behave as Jesus would. How do we get our kids to commit to a Samaritan lifestyle? Enter Becoming a Good Samaritan by Michael R. Seaton with Jared Yaple. This six-session DVD and workbook is packed with great teaching and even better interactions. Each DVD session begins with some statements from teenagers (always a good sign) and then some remarks from our hosts Jarrett and Jeanne Stevens. Following the intro, there’s a great mix of testimonies from pastors such as Miles McPherson and world leaders such as Desmond Tutu. The sessions are divided well, and there is bonus material and activities at the end of each session, including movie recommendations and websites. The only pause you will have is about where you will use it. Each session lasts about an hour. Each DVD session lasts about 20 minutes. It would make a good six-week small group session or midweek meeting. You would be hard pressed to fit all of one session into a Sunday School hour, but each lesson could cover two weeks. These lessons are so good, the stories so fresh, and have such a timeless sense to them, you could use this material yearly to grow a bunch of Samaritans to serve your city.
—Paul Turner
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