Animate:Faith (Small Group Curriculum)

What Is Animate:Faith?

Animate: Faith is an adult education small group curriculum that is oriented for those in the progressive evangelical and moderate Christian theological camps that seeks to stir questions and conversations that will help us rethink, reform, and renew our Christian Faith. The official description is:

Animate is the new seven-session adult course from Sparkhouse.We brought together seven leading Christian voices to create an accessible, captivating exploration of big questions of the Christian faith – designed to spark conversation in faith communities like yours. From what we hear, it’s working.

Who Are The 7 Presenters:

Lillian Daniel                         Bruce Reyes-Chow      Nadia Bolz-Weber                 Lauren Winner

Shane Hipps                         Mark Scandrette          Brian McLaren

My Thoughts About Animate:Faith:

I am stoked for the work that Sparkhouse is doing in the area of small group curriculum. Finally, there is a well done, creative, down to earth, and theologically rich resource for churches who seek to facilitate discussion, not indoctrination, dialogue instead of debate. This series, done by some of the greatest voices in moderate evangelicalism/progressive Christianity, causes all who interact with it to think outside of their boxes and encourages discussion, dialogue, and dare I say a deeper relationship with God and the Christian faith.

The videos themselves are well done- about ten mins in length each and chock full of unique stories, questions, and theological ideas that refresh the listener. The illustrations and animations used throughout help to capture the attention of the audience, though I will admit that sometimes they are a little much (you feel like your watching Vegi Tales- just a really theologically rich version!). In the Animate:Faith series, we are led to talk about topics such as the basic belief in God, the Bible, Religion, Jesus, Salvation, the Cross, and Church in ways that are faithful to orthodox (and evangelical) Christianity and yet that breathe a new fresh life and perspective into them some of these tired old topics.The teachers are from a variety of theological and denominational backgrounds which brings fresh perspective to many of the topics for almost anyone who would sit down to watch this.

This resource could be used from High School aged kids up to your oldest adult class- I really do think everyone would find this very challenging and beneficial- not to mention fun. I am so excited to see what other curriculums Sparkhouse will put out, but Animate:Faith is truly a great start, pioneering the way in the reformation of the church today. I highly recommend this resource to all churches of all denominations.

For more information, visit the Animate website or check out the promo video below: