A Withrop, Minn. pastor is teaching the book of Acts to his church in a unique way, by basing his sermon series off the NBC television show “A.D.”
“We can show something that engages people in a way that reading the text doesn’t,” said Kachelmeier. “Some people are very visual, it helps them to see that these are real people, dealing with real situations in a real culture.”
Pastor Kyle Kachelmeier, of Winthrop Evangelical Covenant Church says he found the show, which airs on NBC on Sunday nights, to be a helpful tool on Sunday mornings. Although Kachelmeier says he believes no matter how hard producers of the show try to maintain the biblical integrity of the book of Acts, he knows they have to fill in the gaps.
“I have been very forthright with people in saying any kind of media-produced creation isn’t using the Bible as their script. They are creating story lines in order to draw people in,” said Kachelmeier. “In order to connect one episode to the next, dialogue and cultural background have been added to the scripts.”
Kachelmeier says he believes some of the plots, like with the zealots, had more added to them than he would have foreseen.
“The bible is not written as a series of cohesive scenes like Harry Potter, but I hope the “A.D.” series can be helpful in pointing people to the text to read scripture for themselves,” he says. “It may surprise people that some of these scenes are actually in the text.”
Withrop Evangelical Covenant Church is also advertising the sermon series to the public. They purchased a publicity kit of door-hangers, cards and posters to hang in their community.
“We hope this effort is at least getting our church’s name out there so the community might remember our church is engaged and active,” said Kachelmeier.
The “A.D.” storyline begins at the resurrection of Jesus and follows the journey of the first followers of Christ, including the Pentecost, and Saul’s transformation on the road to Damascus. Pastor Kachelmeier launched his sermon series at the end of May and will continue preaching on the episodes of the show until August.
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