Welcome to The O.T. – Old Testament – where the lives of a frequently disobedient people, the Israelites, are forever altered by their Creator, YHWH. Throughout their journey human frailties and blunders abound, yet the God of unfailing love uses this specific people to extend grace to all people everywhere. The O.T. tells the story of Adam’s, Noah’s, and Abraham’s descendants and Jesus Christ, the prophesied Messiah, who forever changes the lives of all humankind.
God’s Anatomy is a dramatic story about a group of new MDiv students fighting it out and figuring it out in one of the country’s most competitive Graduate Theological Programs. The cohort of five all battle classes, spiritual warfare and temptation on a daily basis. Despite the rigorous atmosphere and relentless stress the five manage to form friendships and grow in the Lord together. They are all young, sexually repressed and spiritually motivated…leading to a deep passionate story.
Despite their common desire to spread the gospel, all five students have unique vocational callings. Mary, a quietly ambitious musician is the daughter of the famous professor emeritus of Worship and the Arts. She hides the fact that her mother is struggling with atheism and it eats her up. Jezebel is the definition of ‘idolatrous’ and ‘manipulative’, constantly vying for the top spot in preaching and homiletics. Esther is a self-conscious immigrant, grew up poor, and is paying for her schooling by collecting recycling. Her ‘good steward’ theology extends to all creation and becomes a source of contention with her less ecologically sensitive classmates. Peter is the goofy evangelical next door who desperately wants to find a Godly wife to share his life and ministry with, but is always putting his foot in his mouth around the opposite sex. Judas, although handsome, is as arrogant and ‘two-faced’ as they come. He doesn’t believe women should be ordained pastors and is constantly sabotaging his female classmates’ work.
The professors who mentor this group are just as diverse as their students. Dr. John Paul is the university’s new super-star professor of Christian Ministries. He finds out on the first day of class that one of his eharmony matches, Mary, is one of his new students. Despite the university’s policy he decides to continue his relationship with Mary. Paul’s academic success threatens Dr. Moses Isaiah, who views the hotshot professor as an obstacle in his climb to the Dean seat. Isaiah is an amazing professor of Christian Scriptures that seems to thrive on contradiction. He’s ruthless with his students but in the end wants them to develop informed, Christ-centered theologies. The students get a good dose of tough love from their third year tutor, Solomon Kings, AKA “King Saul”. He has a love for riddles and for making rational, wise judgements regarding conflicts between his 1st year mentees. All report to the Dean, Dr. Jovey Jirah, who has cautioned the students that some may not make it to graduation. At times, it is difficult for her to treat Mary as ‘another student’ considering she knew her as her mother’s daughter, the world renowned professor of Worship and the Arts.
Church Feud is a Christian game show featuring two teams composed of five members from the same church, who compete against each other to match answers to the results of a survey of one hundred Christians.
A player from each church faces off and the first to answer a question correctly earns the choice to either play or pass. If the controlling church fails to get all the answers with less than three wrong guesses, they could have their points stolen by the opposing church, if the other church gets one more correct response. Points are awarded on the basis of the survey results and the church that scores three hundred points first wins the game and plays ‘Speedy Offering’.
In the ‘Speedy Offering’ bonus round two members of the winning church are chosen. Each contestant plays separately to guess the most frequent survey response to five questions about Christianity. The first player is given 15 seconds and the second player 20 seconds. One point is awarded for each person in the survey who gave that answer, and if the team reaches two hundred points their church is given a $10,000, tax deductible, offering.
American Worshiper is an American television series in which a vocal performance contest takes place to determine the best “undiscovered” young worshiper in the country. Scouts hold auditions in church sanctuaries throughout the states and eventually 20 lucky worshipers are brought to Nashville, TN, to compete for the coveted title of American Worshiper.
Each week the contestants perform a rehearsed worship ditty and viewers vote to decide which contestants will continue the competition and which contestants are clearly not called of God in this industry. Well known Christian Celebrity Judges Carmen, Twila Paris, and Toby Mac give their assessment of each worship performance in the following categories – tone quality, genuine worshipfulness, and rhythm accuracy. Christian comedian, Mark Lowry, hosts the show and keeps each week’s outcome suspenseful with his zany antics.
The winning American Worshiper receives a recording contract with Dove Records, a publicized tour and the affirmation that they are truly called to worship God with their voice.
Have you ever wondered whether the communion wine is better on the other side of the altar? Two pastors discover that it often isn’t when they hand over the keys to their churches and literally switch families and congregations for two weeks on the new reality show Pastor Swap.
Pastor Swap is not a competition or a contest. It is a reality show unlike any other, where the battlegrounds are the church offices and sanctuaries, where worship style is a subject of intense and heated debate, and the outcome isn’t a cash prize, but an opportunity for pastors to re-discover their call to service in the church and their role as father and husband in their families.
In the first week of the swap, the pastors move in with their new family and adopt their very different life and worship style. They agree to follow a manual written by the departing pastor that sets out the rules of their new family and congregation – how they parent, preach, manage their budgets and their social life. But then, in the second week everything changes. The new pastors take charge. They introduce their own set of rules and get to run their new church and family their way. It’s a radical shock to both families and their congregations. The results are explosive, enlightening and often quite funny. This is a show about the things that really matter to churches across America.
At the end of the show, the two pastors meet for the first time. In a highly-charged exchange of views, both pastors make frank assessment of each other and talk about what they’ve learned from the experience.
Pastor Swap currently airs on the Trinity Broadcasting Network.
