By Brad Dupray
At last month’s North American Christian Convention, Standard Publishing introduced H2O, a series of videos designed for churches of all sizes to communicate through media to the modern generation. City on a Hill Productions created the DVDs for distribution through Standard. Shane Sooter, president and director of City on Hill, has a degree in theater arts and previously was on staff at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, directing major productions and themes for worship services.
The last I heard, H2O was water. What is it really?
H2O is basically an evangelistic tool for Christians and churches to be able to share their faith with greater confidence, and I hope, with greater effectiveness. This is how it works: you invite those people God placed in your life those with whom you can share the gospel to your house for H2O.
It sounds kind of like kind of a “small group for non Christians.”
That’s correct. It’s a 10 week series that begins each week with dinner followed by an H2O video, then a brief guided discussion time. The most important piece of H2O is the videos. The videos are a carefully crafted journey to take someone from a point of ignorance, or perhaps hostility, about Christianity to a clear understanding of the gospel over 10 episodes.
Addressing people who are ignorant of, or even hostile to, Christianity sounds like tricky business.
As we were crafting H2O, we immediately realized we weren’t going to be able to get anywhere on an evangelistic journey if we couldn’t get participants to let go of their negative preconceptions of Christians and the church. And the worst part is that a lot of those preconceptions are based on reality! Whether we want to admit it or not, a lot of folks have good reason to distrust the church.
That’s a very powerful statement. Can you give me an example of how you addressed this particular issue?
It became the subject of the whole second episode of H2O. Each of the episodes deals with a water theme, having to do with the theological journey. Episode two is called “Polluted.” We deal, in a very transparent way, with a lot of ways that Christians and the church have polluted the pure, living water of Christ. We wanted to deal with this subject, not by trying to defend ourselves, or the church, but basically by owning our garbage. Our hope was just to buy enough respect for people to set aside their preconceptions about Christians or the church and just consider Jesus.
Why DVDs?
The staples of contemporary church experience are preaching and music. We believe that, whether we like it or not, the language of our contemporary culture is media. Our thinking is that if we want to reach our contemporary culture we have to embrace the strategy of the missionary. If a missionary goes overseas, the first thing he must do is to learn the language of the culture. If we agree that media is the language of our contemporary culture, then churches are experiencing a growing need to communicate to people through that language if they want to be effective in reaching them for Christ.
Describe the style of the DVDs.
The episodes are a strange marriage between unconventional teaching and dramatic content. Kyle Idleman (the teacher on the videos) presents the material in a completely conversational, non preachy way, usually from a very unconventional setting. As he teaches we cut back and forth between him and what we hope to be compelling, dramatic content basically, minimovies that take the viewer on an emotional journey that deepens the impact of Kyle’s teaching.
Are these designed purely for small groups or could people use them one on one?
The way we designed them to be used was for churches to launch an evangelistic campaign through the members of their congregation. But an individual could just as easily buy H2O himself and use it independent of the church. And, as we have been previewing them, we have been surprised at the ways people have wanted to use these that are totally beyond our original objective.
How do you order H2O?
People can get them through Standard Publishing (order online at www.H2Ojourney.com ), through our Web site, www.CityonaHillProductions.com , or by calling (502) 245 2425.
Brad Dupray is director of public relations and advertising with Provision Ministry Group, Irvine, California.
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