Ray Vander Laan has a new series about Discipleship

I have good news for folks who enjoy learning about Jesus’ Jewish context and want to become better disciples.

My friend Ray Vander Laan, the creator of the acclaimed Faith Lessons videos has a new series available, called RVL Discipleship: The Study. Many viewers have loved his Faith Lessons videos, which are based on the study trips that he led in Israel, Egypt, Greece and Turkey. This new series is based on Ray’s Senior Capstone Discipleship class at Holland Christian High School that he has taught for many years.

RVL Discipleship: The Study is available from Focus on the Family.

The series has actually been out for several months, and Season 4 was released just recently. Each season has 10 episodes that are about 13 minutes long. Scenes from Ray’s high school classroom are accompanied by his personal reflections and beautiful media imagery. Study guides (in digital form) are available too.

Many churches are using it for Bible study groups. Focus is also working on a curriculum version for Christian schools and homeschool students that will be available soon.

Here’s a clip from the new series to give you a taste. In it, Ray talks about the importance of community and haverim, study companions, ideas I’ve written about in Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus and elsewhere.

I should mention that I live in the same town that Ray does — Holland, Michigan. Back in 1996, I was teaching as a biology professor at Hope College here in town and I attended a series he did at my church. That was where I first became aware of contextual study of the Bible. Ray shared his scholarly sources with me and I got really fascinated, and then I started to study and write.

Here’s a picture from when I first went to Israel with him about 25 years ago. We’re standing next to the Jordan River. I had just “re-dedicated” (baptized?) myself and was praying about much I felt led to write about the Bible in context. What a fateful day!

Ray (aka RVL, as he is known by everyone) is a passionate, gifted communicator. “A lightning bolt with skin on,” one pastor commented to me. Many of my readers are already RVL fans, but amazingly, some of you haven’t heard of him.

Here’s another way for you to get to know Ray if the name is new to you. Check out his website, ThatTheWorldMayKnow. There are many sample videos from his Faith Lessons series there. Make sure not to miss the “Learn” page, where there are hundreds of articles and audio recordings of talks that he’s given, so that you can see what he is about.