Bible lessons return to Mayberry
The “Mayberry Bible Study” from The Entertainment Ministry uses the The Andy Griffith Show to teach biblical truths.
bq.. EUGENE Rachel Sykes watched The Andy Griffith Show as a child in the 1960s and watched it in reruns. Now she is watching it for a higher purpose.
Welcome to Bible study meets popular culture, where the lessons taught by Jesus Christ through parables in the Bible are told through the voices and actions of Andy, Goober and Barney Fife.
As part of its adult Bible study series, the Willamette Christian Center began offering the Mayberry Bible Study on Thursday nights.
The course has spread to churches across the country since its original version, Finding the Way Back to Mayberry, debuted in 1998 in Alabama.
When you think of The Andy Griffith Show, you think of it as a pure, moral, lifelike show, Sykes said after watching an episode with nine people Thursday.
The course comes from The Entertainment Ministry in Nashville, Tenn., which also produces the Bonanza Bible Study, The Gospel of Cosby, The Dick Van Dyke Bible Study and The Beverly Hillbillies Bible Study.
Sheriff Andy Taylor, played by Andy Griffith on the popular show, always has a lesson to teach in the small town of Mayberry, N.C., said Steve Savelich, senior pastor at the Willamette Christian Center.
Truth is truth is truth, wherever it comes from, said Savelich, who decided to include the Mayberry Bible Study with the churchs other winter classes after Cheryl Norman, a member of the church, sold him on the idea.
The Bible is applicable in everything around us, Norman said.
The Andy Griffith series has a lot of real strong biblical principles, said Norman, the class instructor. It seems to make the Bible more relevant to peoples lives when you can tie it to something they know.
The 12-week course is based on episodes dealing with the themes of service, peace, mercy, commitment, pride, accountability, trouble, teaching, courage, folly, gossip and discernment.
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p(small). Source: (c) 2004 Statesman Journal, Salem, Oregon
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