The set is really nice and includes a full-color study guide booklet and 3 discs. It's an amazing combination of Bible study devotion time and historical, archeological finds. The DVDs are geared toward Christian families who want to teach their kids about history from a Christian worldview. The DVD set is packed with 9 hours of video - 18 episodes that are 30-minutes each. There is also an accompanying study guide which is part of the set and presented as an absolutely gorgeous book.
The recommended age range is approximately 6th grade to adult, but it would be appropriate for younger children as well. The older children will simply be able to dig deeper spiritually and academically with the DVDs and study guide.
Part of how Acts to Revelation is presented is to explain who the author of each book was. For instance, who was Luke, the author of Acts, or Peter leading the rag-tag alliance? Who was Paul, one of the boldest evangelists in the history of the church? Who was John the Baptist, and what happened to people like Stephan? What was the beginning of the Christian church, and how did this new covenant change things?
The videos are presented in an intriguing manner, with state-of-the-art videography and Dave Stotts as the narrator presenting each segment in an interesting, engaging manner with the setting in the Mediterranean, the island of Patmos, and Asia Minor, including the water where Jesus and Peter walked on top.
The study guide adds to the experience. It is actually part of the DVD case insert as a beautiful, full-color booklet filled with questions and topics of discussion along with amazing photos. The answers to the discussion questions are at the back as well. Each section includes a brief summary of the DVD lesson, a set of questions, and then there are "side-road" tabs along the edge of the page that include interesting tidbits of information such as findings of archeologists and how they relate to the timeframe of the Bible account.
How Did We Use It?
Since this DVD study could be used as a weekly Bible study program, for family devotion time, as part of a history course, or all of the above, I was stoked! I am always excited when I get ahold of solid historic event teaching that approaches it from a biblical perspective, and when it is in DVD format, popcorn is usually part of the deal as it's movie-watching time for the family. So, that's always an added perk.
While we all appreciate and absolutely love Dave Stotts' style and quality of video presentation - even my two biggest movie critics loved this - one of my favorite things about this series was the scenes and coverage of the day of Pentecost. My oldest daughter and I have had many conversations recently surrounding speaking in tongues, so I was anxious to dig deeper on this topic and was not disappointed with how Dave Stotts covered it.
I also love, love, love, coverage on Revelation, which I obviously had to fast forward to a bit since it's the last part of the episodes. Revelation holds a lot of powerful life-changing content for me as when I was seeking who I was and what I believed in college, I sat down and read Revelation, highlighting all of the verses that described Jesus. What I discovered was amazing and was fully covered in this series as well as the study guide.
What Did We Think?
Dave Stotts is always engaging, informative, and an entertaining tour guide and as an added bonus, as I mentioned previously, DVDs usually come complete with popcorn at our house, so my kids are always willing to watch as a family event. These particular DVDs are so fun while they deliver biblical facts and spur discussions with the study guide. I also love how he goes into detail about the facts about the authors of each book, such as who Luke, Stephan, Paul, Timothy, and John the Baptist were. All three of my kids liked the narrator's enthusiastic style along with the on-location type of presenation. If youa re like us, you will probably find it hard to stop watching to limit it to one lesson at a time as each episode draws you in to want to see more. I think that this series is great to simply watch as a movie night kind of thing, broken up into segments as well as using them to dig deeper, watching one video at a time and digging deep into the discussion questions. These make a great video launching pad for deep spiritual as well as historical discussions, and we HIGHLY recommend them!
The Bible is the basis of our homeschool, but combining historical details with Scripture, even this Bible College going (for one semester) mama falls short, so I was happy to get a chance to review Drive Thru History® – “The Gospels” from Drive Thru History®, presented by Dave Stotts.
Get an idea of the quality and content of the DVDs in this trailer for The Gospels:
What is Drive Thru History The Gospels?
The DVDs include 18 episodes that are each 30 minutes or a total of 9 hours of viewing. There is also a study guide that comes in a full-color booklet format as part of the DVD case. The entire program is intended to be used with students who are at least 5th grade through adult level. The hope of the producers is to teach history from a biblical worldview and to get families excited to read the Bible once again.
Your tour guide for the series is Dave Stotts who takes you to the historic sites where these biblical accounts took place as recorded in the Gospels of Matthes, Mark, Luke, and John.
The information is based on the historical background of Scriptures found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. These four books are known as the Gospels (Good News).
I received a 3 DVD set inside a study guide full-color booklet case.
The case is a work of art including slots for the 3 DVDs with map images underneath and a beautiful full-color 18-part, 100+-page study discussion guide booklet in the center of the case. For each of the 18 episodes on the DVD, the study guide provides a famous quote, about 5 discussion questions, a summary of the episode, amazing photographs and full-color pictures, and "Side Road" notes along with scriptures to read that correspond with each of the 18 episodes on the DVD.
The 18 Episodes include:
The Historical Landscape
The Announcements
Jesus is Born
Jesus Grows Up
Jesus Starts His Ministry
Jesus Returns to Galilee
Jesus Begins His Miracles
Jesus Teaches with Authority
The Sermon on the Mount
Jesus Travels the Sea of Galilee
Jesus Travels NorthA Final Trip to Jerusalem
Jesus Arrives in Jerusalem
The Last Supper
The Trial of Jesus
The Crucifixion of Jesus
The Resurrection of Jesus
Who is Jesus?
Throughout the DVDs, you see Dave Stotts on location, which was very helpful in understanding the historical elements of the Gospels. We have never been to the Holy Land, so this is probably the closest we will ever get.
How Did We Use It?
I thought it would be fun to pop some popcorn and treat the videos as we would movie night. Of course, we were not going to watch 9 hours all in one sitting. But, no one ever complained about multiple movie moments when there is popcorn involved at our house. We began watching, and I let my older two high school students determine how many we watched in one setting. Turned out that we settled on watching, at the most, two in one timeframe since each 30-minute episode is power packed with information.
What Did We Think?
I love this presentation of the Gospels because it not only comes at it from a Christian, church or Bible College perspective but rather from a historical point of view with a definite biblical worldview throughout. I thought I understood most of what there was to know about the Gospels, but after even the first DVD, I realized how much history I just don't know. My kids felt the same way.
My son is very much into the quality of videos. He has a YouTube channel and makes it his interest to edit all of his uploaded videos to as much perfection as he can. So, he right away noticed that the quality of these DVDs was outstanding. Coming from him, that is a HUGE compliment. He tends to notice any minute sloppy detail of editing.
My teenage daughter commented on how she enjoyed the narrator, tour guide, Dave Stotts. She appreciated how he maintained the perfect level of enthusiasm and lack of corniness with any humor thrown in. She said, "He's not too overboard enthusiastic, but not bored either." Coming from her, this is a HUGE deal.
