southern baptist & Lifeway Literature

I don't go to SBC church now but when I did we used it. I found many of the writers were very good and a few were very bad(not based on Bible and more tradition)

 

We use it in our Sunday School, but not all of the classes use the "Sunday School Material." There are many resources that are quite good there.

As for VBS and Sunday night children's programs, we use other things.

 

I have taught Adult classes at my church for several years. I did not use the Lifeway material, because I felt it too elementary for my class and because it frequently took positions contrary to the principles usually held by Southern Baptists. As an example, probably one of the worst I can remember, one writer equated the depth of Christian conviction with the degree a person supported the environmentalist view. Not an environmentalist (Greenpeace type) was the same as saying not a Christian.

 

I am gradually beginning to stray from the Youth SS literature. They say things in there that, sometimes, border on heresy. They also pick on "named sins" like crazy. I remember one time the lesson was on living a holy life and all the lesson did was say that drinking alcohol was a sin and the verses they used to back this said nothing of the sort.

I agree with SeekingTruth. Most of the literature doesn't have any meat to it whatsoever. The MasterWork books are really good, though. Then again, they (usually) actually use authors in those who are versed in the Scriptures and who are striving to give people something to challenge their thinking.

 

We don't buy anything from Lifeway because they are too expensive. About 2 years ago we went through Experiencing God, and the workbooks were almost $4 per book higher than a local Christian book store.

 

Our life group just studied Colossians using Lifeway. It was just ok. A lot of repetition and difficult questions with bad scripture references.

 

guitarpreacher,

I agree with you. Their prices are high. I usually just go there to look around and read a few things. The other day I ended up buying a book by Bruce Ware for 10 dollars and online it was 8. Many times I will not buy books from them just because I know I can go on ebay or visit half priced books and get the book I want much cheaper.

 

One Sunday, in the Lifeway Quarterly the following scripture was studied:

Proverbs 31:6-7 6 Give strong drink to him who is perishing, And wine to him whose life is bitter. 7 Let him drink and forget his poverty And remember his trouble no more.

The commentary in LIFEWAY stated that the writer was probably being sarcastic when he wrote this.

My confidence in their materials and commentary were permanently damaged that day, as to me if you use that argument for a passage, then you could use it for any passage you didn't agree with.

 

I attend an American Baptist Church but recently used material from the Texas Baptist Convention for a study on the Ministry of Christ. It was excellent.

Previously, I've primarily used materials from the teaching and preaching of the late Rev. Ray Stedman of the Penninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto, CA. I was familiar with him because I attended his church while I was in graduate school at Stanford. His material is outstanding and free! It can be found at:

http://www.pbc.org/dp/stedman/

He is one of those who provide biblical commentary at what I think is the best bible web site, www.blueletterbible.org.

 

Thats funny, we are starting experiencing God in sept and the books were expensive. None of the bookstores around here had them because they said lifeway will not let them sell them.
Its a good thing my old church let us borrow the videos which were like $125. </font>[/QUOTE]Here they are at Amazon Experiencing God

And here at Blackaby's site Experiencing God

 

Our church and Sunday school class has always used Lifeway. I wasnt impressed with VBS this year, but I have never been to any other VBS's, so I have nothing to compare it to.

As far as Sunday School literature goes, I dont care for it. I really do think it lacks meat and scripture. (thankfully, our SS teacher goes though Scripture only and bases his lessons off of that).

We are making a change in our SS class and trying something different. I cant wait to see what it is.

 

We did a backyard Bible club instead of VBS and used "bug Safari" from Group Publishing. It was good stuff and the kids really loved it. Price was around half of the Lifeway VBS stuff

 

I usually used the Lifeway suggested scripture passage, studied their literature, and then developed my own lesson using the Bible as my primary resource, and various commentaries (Gill; Matthew Henry; Jamieson, Faucett and Brown; Wesley; and several of the excellent Christian web sites that I have found. Granted, it took a lot of work (average 20 - 30 hours per week) but I found it worthwhile, and believe my class did as well.