“When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them…” (Matthew 5:1-2).

Have you ever thought of the many ways that Jesus taught and the many places from which he taught? A quick reading will yield several observations about how Jesus taught that could inform the way we teach in our congregations:

• Jesus used examples from daily life to capture the attention of those he was teaching.
  
• Jesus used stories that helped his listeners better understand the concepts he was teaching.
  
• Jesus wasn’t bound by one way or one place for teaching. He taught in the synagogues, in homes, sitting outside, as he was walking.

The use of movies has linked into our daily lives

Now you may be asking, “How does this apply to using movies in Sunday school?” Let me offer the church where I attend as a small case study to answer this question. 

For the past several years, our small church has made use of movies with adults and with intergenerational groups of children, youth, and adults. As a small church we have struggled with what kinds of Sunday school experiences to provide when we have had few children or youth. We first began using video with curriculum around such television programs as the Mayberry Bible Study. These were great for awhile. They allowed us to laugh together, to share some generational insights, and to get beyond the pitfalls related to differing abilities of reading and writing. However, we soon exhausted this source. 

That’s when we turned to movies. We started first using film clips. However, we often found ourselves caught up in the story and frustrated when we had to stop the clip. That’s when we moved to viewing entire videos. 

In the past couple of years we’ve studied some very deep subjects like, “Theologians Under Hitler” and we’ve used some very light-hearted movies like Saved to discover themes of faith and examples of faithful living. The use of movies has linked into our daily lives, helped us get at wisdom through story, and opened us up to different ways of learning.

From that experience, here are some guidelines when considering using movies in Sunday school:

• Make sure your church has a license for showing an entire video outside the home. For information on obtaining a license go to http://www.cvli.org/
  
• Select movies that relate to agreed-upon topics or themes. We try to select movies that will expand our learning around Jesus’ life and the seasons of the church year. Thus, we used The Nativity during Advent and Jesus Christ Superstar during Lent.
  
• Plan carefully how much can be covered week by week. Allow time for updating those who missed the previous week, for reflection after seeing a particular clip, and for prayer.
  
• Pay attention to exactly where you stop on the DVD each week, and write it down. We’ve wasted time some weeks trying to remember exactly where we need to start for that day’s lesson.
  
• Watch the ratings of the movies if you include children and younger youth in your class.

Ask class members for suggestions of movies they feel would work well as a study. Some that have worked well for us in addition to those named above include: Bring It On, Cheaters, Coach Carter, Godspell, and Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.   

Go to www.cokesbury.com and search "movies" for a list of resources on using movies in educational or devotional settings.