Christianity Cults & Religions

  I was recently asked to review a curriculum on cults and other religions produced by Rose Publishing, so I accepted the opportunity to see what was out there. 

  Let me start by saying that this is not a YOUTH curriculum but I thought is prudent to share here so that my youth pastor friends can see the wealth of stuff that is out there.

  This curriculum has some good stuff and some bad stuff.  Let me start with the good. 

  The handout that comes with the DVD curriculum is well thought out, well organized and helpful for anyone who desires to understand the side-by-side comparison of other religions to Christianity.  It is super useful for teens who want to know how other religions compare to Christianity and desire to know why what they believe is the right thing to believe in.  It breaks down a side-by-side comparison on: The founders of each religion, the writings of each religion, who God is in each religion, Who Jesus is, Who the Holy Spirit is, what salvation means to each religion, what death signifies and the other misc. beliefs each religion may have.
 
  I highly recommend this handy hand-out because it is thorough and very interesting to see all of these religions side-by-side.  The content is rich and very well presented.

  This however, is where I leave the realm of what I saw as "good" because once we leave the pamphlet, we venture into the DVD.  I thought the DVD was abysmal.  The content was good, but the production and teaching was poor. 

  Each session opens up with a tall white guy with a huge beard standing in and obviously green-screened studio with a extremely fake background presented behind him.  Right away, I am turned off to anything he is going to say because of this poor display of technology usage.  He then is standing behind a glass, clear podium with his notes on it.  He paces a bit and reads his note a lot and teaches with a very boring voice.  His content is good, but you have to wade through all the negative audio and visuals to find that the content is any good.  Next, there are pans to an audience who is all white and their glasses reflect the green screen studio, which makes the poor usage of technology again horribly apparent.

  This continues throughout the entire clip of teaching for each session.  Needless to say, I was disappointed with the presentation of the DVD and would've just taken the hand-out.

  I think it is important to get the message across to teens and adults a like as to what other people believe and why so we have a better grasp on how to minister to them but the information has to be engaging as well as well done.  I would again repeat that the hand-out is worth the purchase...just leave the DVD.

  Hope this helps you as you too try to find ways to educate the teens God has entrusted to you with the Truth of the Gospel!