Our church in Chicago has wonderful young adults who serve as youth leaders, and in many cases become friends of us in the parent generation. One came to mind last night, with whom we have a running joke. As she heads off with her friends, or our teens, we often joke that we are heading home to drink Ovaltine and watch the History Channel, neither of which we do, but you get the image. Last night we sat down to watch a DVD and the machine jammed. “Do you have a DVD that you know works? We’ll see if it’s the machine or the DVD,” asked my problem solving husband. I pulled out one that Joe Small of our Office of Theology & Worship has recently given me and the first few minutes of which I had watched: John Calvin: His Life and Legacy*. It did indeed work and there we sat for the next hour fascinated by this beautifully produced documentary, listening to a dozen or so pastors and scholars, several of whom are friends or familiar faces, talking about Calvin’s life and words and work. Visually interesting, many of the parts were filmed in Geneva, Switzerland. What a remarkable and wonderful tradition Calvin set for us, and as this story reminds us, how meaningful it is for us today. I commend it to you, for private viewing, or church school study. Sit with the drink of your choice and enjoy it! I plan to watch it again, as I'm sure I'll notice things I missed on my first time through.
*John Calvin: His Life and Legacy comes with a study guide and Power Point supplement, the case says.
