DVD Review by Andre van Wyk, youth pastor (and team)
YOUTH BYTES: South Africa – TRY HARD – A RUGBY STORY
Genre: Visual Bible Study
Youth Bytes is a series of 20 DVDs (40 episodes) designed to give anyone working with young people a powerful tool to engage their faith through topics that are relevant to youth, biblical and presented in a lively way.
I was asked to review the rugby episode, which is on Disc 18 in the series and which focuses on the theme of teamwork. I decided to use the youngsters as a control group. All of the youngsters (aged 15 to 17) thought that the content was very good and challenged them. They especially enjoyed how an everyday event like rugby was used to express a spiritual concept or principle. One even called it a ”parable”.
The lessons on the approximately 20 minute DVD were taught very creatively and all agreed that it was a fantastic tool for introduce a teaching or discussion subject at a meeting.
The DVD is marketed as being suitable for teens. The young people in my control group feel that the correct target group for this particular episode is ages nine to thirteen. Also, while the subject matter is rugby in South Africa, the presenter and feeling of the production is distinctly American.
All and all definitely worth a look!
This DVD and others in the series can be obtained from Brettian Productions.