Tag: media

Media Recommendation: “The Chosen”

evangelism, history, Jesus, movies, technology

Several years ago, when Shelly and I were working and teaching at Casady School in Oklahoma City, Father Tim Sean Youmans shared the television series “The Chosen” with our community multiple times via short video clips in his chapel talks. Since then, Shelly and I have watched all the episodes of “The Chosen,” which includes five seasons and will eventually total seven. I’ve used many clips from it in adult Sunday School classes I’ve taught as well as men’s Bible study lessons, and we’ve re-watched multiple episodes together at home. We LOVE “The Chosen” and highly recommend it.

This evening, I re-watched episode seven of season 2, titled, “Reckoning.” This is a short clip (1.5 minutes) on YouTube, showing part of a dramatic scene when Roman centurions arrest Jesus to bring him in for questioning in Capernaum with the Roman Praetor, Quintus.

As I related in my video update last night for “Heal Our Culture” and my related media literacy post about fact-checking Iranian war memes, “We are living in surreal times, and our news feeds can be both perilous and important to watch.” It’s very important we work to “reclaim our news feeds” from mainstream media sources (like TV channels) as well as “BigTech social media algorithms.”

In this fraught environment, I LOVE the opportunity to spend some time in the evening watching “The Chosen.” I’m not burying my head in the sand, I”m staying aware news and current events, but I’m also NOT going to watch news channels constantly when I’m not working or teaching. I watched my dear Grammy, my mom’s mom, fill her mind all day long with news from CNN, and most evenings with UFO conspiracy theories on the radio from “Art Bell Coast to Coast.” Repeated exposure to media has a powerful effect on our minds, and it’s vital that we’re proactive and intentional with the media we choose to consume.

With Grammy and Trudy (CC BY 4.0) by Wesley Fryer

If you love Jesus or are just interested in Jesus and would like to learn more about his life and ministry on our planet, I encourage you to watch “The Chosen.” It’s free to watch, you can download the app for AppleTV, Roku, FireTV, Android, etc. Or just watch it online in your web browser.

It’s a decision I’m confident you’ll be happy you made.

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Examples of Christian Digital Storytelling

digitalstorytelling, evangelism, technology

If you happen to be a long-time (or even “one time”) member of First Presbyterian Church of Edmond, Oklahoma, then the videos I’m going to link here may bring you particular JOY! Even if you’re not, they are pretty awesome and special. (More so if you know our kids, Sarah and Rachel, and/or other kids who grew up in the early 2010s at FPCE!)

This afternoon I collected and shared examples of “Christian Digital Storytelling” on a new page on the Storychasers website, which is now a personal passion project of mine as a media literacy educator and follower of Jesus.

The page now includes 16 embedded videos created and/or recorded at FPC Edmond through the years. Here are several of them!

Our Light Has Come (A [Sunday morning] performance from the musical “One Incredible Moment” at First Presbyterian Church of Edmond Oklahoma on December 7, 2014.)

Miracle in the Manager (Children’s choir at First Presbyterian Church in Edmond, Oklahoma on December 24, 2012.)

Jesus Joy Of The Highest Heaven (A song by the youth choir at First Presbyterian Church in Edmond, Oklahoma, on December 24, 2012.) [featuring soloist Sarah Fryer)

Happy Birthday Jesus (This was the rehearsal for “Happy Birthday Jesus,” sung by Rachel Fryer on December 24, 2011, at First Presbyterian Church in Edmond, Oklahoma. Rachel shared this at the 5 pm family Christmas Eve service.)

PreSchool Christmas Program 2007 (This Christmas program stars preschoolers at First Presbyterian Church in Edmond, Oklahoma. This video was filmed and created in December 2007.)

Rolling Green Outreach Ministry (A short video describing the Rolling Green outreach ministry of First Presbyterian Church in Edmond, Oklahoma. Special thanks to Shelly Fryer, Rachel, and Sam Carothers for sharing their perspectives on this opportunity to fellowship, love and serve others in our community.)

I added this examples page from the Storychasers website to my “Christian Website Projects” page of my Christian blog.

“Merry Christmas 2011 from the Fryers” (CC BY 2.0) by Wesley Fryer
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Podcast12: Unleash Your Digital Creativity for Jesus (May 2018)

evangelism, Jesus, podcasts, sketchnotes, technology

This is an audio recording of Wesley Fryer’s workshop at the May 5, 2018, MoRanch Men’s Conference near Hunt, Texas. The title of the session was, “Pocket Share Jesus: Be a Digital Witness for Christ.”

[powerpress]

The session description was:

This workshop will empower you as a Christian to share the transforming reality and love of God with others around the world through multimedia and social media. By creating and sharing Bible verse “infopics,” creating sketchnotes and narrated sketchnotes and recording “quick edit” video interviews on mission trips, we can digitally amplify and share God’s Word and work with others.

Slides for this session, which include live hyperlinks, are embedded below and also available on wfryer.me/mo2018. This presentation is also linked on the main project site for “Pocket Share: Be a Digital Witness for Jesus Christ” www.dw4jc.com. Videos shared and referenced in this presentation are also embedded below. Refer to the podcast shownotes for links to many referenced resources from this session.

Show Notes:

  1. Presentation Slides on Google Slides
  2. MoRanch Men’s Conference
  3. Contact Wes Fryer
  4. Wes Fryer’s Christian Twitter channel: @pocketshare
  5. Wes Fryer’s professional Twitter channel: @wfryer
  6. Wes’ Bible Verse InfoPics on iCloud: wfryer.me/bible
  7. Photos on Instagram tagged #dw4jc
  8. Wes’ Flickr album of Bible Verse InfoPics
  9. YouVersion Bible App
  10. InfoPics Chapter of Pocket Share Jesus
  11. Recommended website source for royalty free/remixable photos: unsplash.com
  12. Adobe Spark Post (online version)
  13. Adobe Spark Post: Poster Maker for iOS
  14. 7 minute [VIDEO] tutorial – App Smash: Bible Verse Infopics
  15. Sketchnotes Chapter of Pocket Share Jesus
  16. Flick album of Sketchnotes by Wes Fryer (includes sermon sketchnotes)
  17. 63 second [VIDEO] tutorial: Tips for Sketchnoting
  18. The Noun Project (great source for icons)
  19. Best TEDx Talk Ever: “Drawing in Class” by Rachel Smith (@ninmah)
  20. John 15: Bearing Fruit for Jesus (Narrated sermon sketch note)
  21. Narrated Sketchnotes Chapter of Pocket Share Jesus

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App Smash: Creating Bible Info Pics

evangelism, focus, Jesus, technology

Today I’m sharing a chapel talk at school for upper division, middle division, and lower division students. The talk is repeated, so I’ll simplify it in several ways for the younger elementary students. The title of the talk is, “Pocket Share Jesus with Bible Verse InfoPics.” These are my slides, which include a sped-up video (4X) showing the steps for using these apps. iPhone apps demonstrated include the YouVersion Bible, Safari with the website PhotosForClass.com, Adobe Spark Post, Instagram and EchoFon.

I created a 7 minute narrated screencast demonstrating these steps as well, which I published to YouTube.

These resources are now included on the InfoPics page of the “Digital Witness for Jesus Christ” website, as well as the “Pocket Share Jesus” page where I’m sharing presentation slides on the topics of this project.

This is a work in progress! Please send feedback / suggestions to @wfryer on Twitter or via webform.

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