Tag: puppets
“Puppets give key Bible lessons” – A Review
Here’s a great review from Marketta Gregory at the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. Thanks, Marketta, for capturing the heart of What’s in the Bible? so well!
PUPPETS GIVE KEY BIBLE LESSONS
I’ve heard many feisty sermons — the kind that step on toes and challenge even good, moral people to improve. Those are the sermons you remember years later.
Sometimes those sermons are delivered by clergy. Sometimes by a frail grandmother who refuses to complain. Or, in my case, by a kids’ show.
The guy who created VeggieTales, Phil Vischer, just came out with a new DVD series this month called What’s in the Bible (Tyndale, $14.99). Even though everyone loves his singing vegetables with their great lessons, Vischer wanted to provide more context — more of the big picture — for kids and the adults they hang out with.
“Through Sunday School and kids’ videos like VeggieTales, kids get snapshots from the Bible. Moses. Noah. Jesus. They’re like pictures in a photo album,” Vischer told me. “What we’re missing is the ‘connective tissue.’ What does Jesus have to do with Moses? What does any of this have to do with Adam and Eve? How do all these stories fit together to tell one story, and how does that one story explain our world today?”
I kept that in mind as I watched the first video. I thought my 11-year-old was going to roll off the couch laughing at some of the clever jokes and silly songs. But I was busy thinking of something else: the realization that I have never read the Bible cover to cover.
I’ve tried to read it straight through several times, and I know I’m not alone — even local places like Browncroft Community Church in Penfield have huge initiatives to get people reading more. But this is one time I don’t feel comfort in numbers.
I’ve done lots of devotionals and Bible studies that are based on one book or one theme. I’ve jotted notes as ministers read from the pulpit. I’ve even considered myself pretty knowledgeable about the Bible, when in reality, I’ve only read the CliffsNotes. And I haven’t even read those in order.
I’d never open up another bestseller and start reading in the middle and then jump back to the second chapter. That would make it almost impossible to follow the plot. Yet I do that all the time to a book that’s central to my faith. And it took some puppets to teach me that.
Thank God for challenging sermons, no matter how they are delivered.
I’m a little bit hoarse …
… because I spent four hours in a room with an 80 year-old Sunday School teacher. Well, okay, she’s a puppet. Named Sunday School Lady. I’m filming scenes for the third “What’s in the Bible?” DVD, and I had to cover about 20 pages of script with Sunday School Lady yesterday, which left me a little hoarse. (It’d be more fun if it left me with a little horse, but it never works out that way.)
The third DVD was a real challenge to write, because it covers Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Whee! What fun! No wonder we tend to skip those books when we write Sunday School lessons. (“Let’s see… we’re done with the exodus – what’s next? Jesus!”) But we managed to write through them, and it’s interesting stuff! Three different animators are hard at work on the animated portions, and I’m locked away in the studio with the puppets. The original songs are produced and done, just waiting for the puppets to lip-sync their way through them like Milli Vanilli (who were also puppets, weren’t they?).
When you start out by saying, “We’re going to walk your kids ALL the way through the Bible!” it doesn’t really dawn on you at the time that you’ve just committed to walking kids ALL the way through the Bible. Even the hard parts. Even Leviticus, for heaven sake! But so we are, and so we shall! And we’ll all learn a thing or two in the process! (Yes, even me. I confess I hadn’t spent a ton of time in the book of Leviticus – until now. Leviticus and I have become very well acquainted. First name basis.)
This third DVD will be in stores this summer, with the fourth coming in the Fall. We’re flying!
Well, I need to drink some tea and get back in the studio… it’s “Clive and Ian” day. (Ian is convinced the “Levites” are the folks who make his blue jeans. Clive has to set him straight on that one.)
Only 3 weeks until launch time! Stay tuned for more news…
