GOD’S STORY your story: A New Church-Wide Experience from Max Lucado
Had an opportunity this weekend to take a look at GOD’S STORY your story, a new DVD-driven church-wide experience from Max Lucado. Published by Zondervan, the study is anchored by Lucado’s recent book by the same name.
The 6 session DVD features Max Lucado, the best-selling author and pastor. With the style so familiar to millions of readers, Lucado uses the sessions to unveil a compelling glimpse into how our story fits in God’s story. The DVD segments are just the right length (averaging 10 to 12 minutes) and feature Lucado in his most familiar role…as a story-teller. Each of his stories use an every day object lesson (a pilot forced to fly his plane blind or the bright orange vest that drunk drivers in Tennessee are required to wear) to illustrate a timeless biblical truth and set up the particular part of God’s story he is telling.
Along with a note-taking outline of the DVD segment, each of the study guide sessions feature a set of well-written discussion questions. Although there is no leader’s guide, the degree of difficulty is manageable for newer group leaders and with just a little preparation an in-house guide could be prepared to enhance the experience. In addition to a Recommended Reading chapter assignment from GOD’S STORY your story, there is also a simple Between Sessions assignment that provides some very meaningful application.
The DVD-ROM includes some basic church-wide campaign helps. The Getting Started Guide along with a promotional poster, bulletin insert, powerpoint slides, postcard template, and sermon outlines provide the essential ingredients that will make it easy to launch.
The subject matter coupled with Lucado’s name recognition as a New York Times best-selling author should make GOD’S STORY your story an appealing choice as a church-wide experience. The notion that God’s story and mine might somehow be intertwined along with some very universal themes (forgiveness, guidance, and value) should fit well on the Easy/Hard Continuum and make for an easy invite. This is a study that’s going to make a lot of sense for many churches.
