Customer Reviews

Old Testament Challenge: Creating a New Community (v. 1)

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I used this to lead a small group study of the Old Testament (still on-going but we finished Volume 1). There are many pluses to using this material.
- The lectures are prepared and polished so that part of the weekly preparation is not a huge burden.
- John Ortberg is a very engaging teacher.
- The three books, taken together, provide a wide range of discussion materials ranging from "truth" to "life" so as to allow the leader to select where on this spectrum discussion needs to go. (Three books are the Reading Guide, Teaching guide, and Discussion Guide.)
- Although this is a whirlwind tour of the Old Testament, the lectures make a point of emphasizing the important issues. Many of the lectures focus on the aspects of daily life today (e.g., raising children, telling the truth to people around us, the events of Sept 11, 2001) that the Old Testament speaks directly to.

There are only a few minor annoyances:
- The Complete Track reading guide is not synchronized with the weekly lectures, so it really almost forces the reader to use the fast track reading guide.
- The lectures include occasional references to things projected at the time the lectures were given, but whatever was projected is not available on the included CD, leaving the listener wondering what was so funny.

All things considered, I highly recommend this as a small group study.

I have used other products by John Ortberg in the past and have been very impressed with the delivery and the level of teaching. The DVD for this series disappointed me. It does not contain any footage by John Ortberg. In addition to that, it seems to have a difficult time defining its audience. It goes from a video montage that seems like something I would receive as a chain email to a lecture type tensional and finally a segment that would hold the attention of Middle Schoolers. I did not feel that the video added the content I felt was needed to enhance the book study.