How Do You Know He’s Real?
by Amy Hammond
Hagberg
Destiny Image, 2006,
332 pp., $14.99,
destinyimage.com
Group’s Blockbuster Movie Illustrations: The Return
by Bryan Belknap
Group, 2006, 158 pp.,
$17.99, group.com
Celebrity is a powerful force in our world. These two books seek to tap the power of show biz for godly purposes, but they raise troubling questions in the process.
Hagberg was concerned about friends and family members who had not accepted Christ. She asked herself: What would convince people like them that Jesus is worth a try? Her answer was to get people like Billy Ray Cyrus and “General Hospital” actress Jacklyn Zeman talking about Jesus in How Do You Know He’s Real?
Some of your kids may find testimonies from sports and entertainment figures inspiring. For example, the piece on blues guitarist Jonny Lang was intriguing. But others do little to take us more than skin deep.
Group’s Blockbuster Movie Illustrations: The Return, like a lot of other products on the market, enables on-the-spot youth workers to come up with instant and entertaining lessons. There’s no harm in that.
And while some of the lessons work well (the segment from the movie Drumline does, indeed, illustrate the need for teamwork), others use movies to illustrate points the movies never really made and then plaster the whole thing over with a Bible verse that doesn’t really fit, either.
The discerning youth worker will find many valuable discussion starters here, but those who rely on these simplistic lessons to teach the Bible are fooling themselves.
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Review by: Pat Angelo, freelance writer, Denver, Colorado.
