Start Becoming a Good Samaritan Participant's Guide: Six Sessions

Something I have explored more and more over the past couple of years is the social-justice component of the Gospel. Thanks to many prophetic voices in the Christian world, the proclamation that all Christians should intentionally care for the "least of these brothers and sisters" has been ringing loudly among many groups of Christians, particularly my own generation, the Millennials. As a crown to this budding movement of social-justice in Christian circles, renowned publisher Zondervan has teamed up with World Vision--one of the largest Christian humanitarian organizations in the world--to produce a small-group study curriculum called "start>Becoming a Good Samaritan". <br /> <br />The program, led by Michael Seaton, is designed to help "churches, small groups, and outreach organizations to inform, train, and inspire individuals to start putting their faith into action." To bring about this transformation, the process uses six dynamic one-hour sessions, each themed around a particular issue. Each session is aided by a Participant's Guide and is composed of an opening prayer, some personal introspection, the viewing of a forty-minute segment from the program DVD, and finally some discussion. <br /> <br />While the discussion and small-group participatory elements form the foundation for transformation to occur, the core component of the curriculum is the DVD. In what I consider to be a masterpiece, Zondervan and World Vision brought together a veritable "who's who" of justice-minded Evangelical Christians. <br /> <br />Some of the most well-known participants include Rob Bell (popular pastor and author), Shane Claiborne (ordinary radical and author), Eugene Peterson (author of "The Message" Bible paraphrase), Tony Campolo (Christian teacher, author, and sociology professor), Gary Haugen (President of International Justice Mission), Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Nobel Peace prize winner and major opponent of apartheid in South Africa), Chuck Colson (the founder of "Prison Fellowship"), Jim Wallis (founder and editor of "Sojourners Magazine"), Richard Stearns (President of World Vision), John Ortberg (popular pastor and author), Kay Warren (wife of pastor Rick Warren and social activist), Philip Yancey (popular spirituality author), and Ron Sider (author of the seminal justice book "Rich Christian In An Age of Hunger"). Overall there are more than 50 leading social justice voices taking part in the project; click here to read a short biography of each contributor. <br /> <br />These participants each share some words throughout the DVD segments of the curriculum. The DVD segments are formatted in a video-interview format with some of the participants being featured more prominently than others, but each of the participants has at least a couple of minutes of screen time. Also, the whole series is hosted by John Ortberg, who offers a provocative introduction to each session as well as some concluding remarks. <br /> <br />Understanding that the realm o