Want to draw a crowd at your church? Announce that you're going to dig into a meaty N.T. Wright book—then welcome people from all points of view to tackle "Tom" Wright's analysis of our faith and contemporary life.
    On Monday, we compared him to C.S. Lewis with that wise-uncle-from-England aura and his let-me-tell-you-a-story way of addressing life's biggest questions.
    We also shared the news that Wright has not 1—but 3 new publications you can enjoy: A study guidebook and a DVD set for his previous book, "Surprised by Hope"—plus a major new book on Christian character called, "After You Believe." We even published a very brief sample of the new book on Monday.

    TODAY, we're giving you a chance to see and hear Tom for yourself, thanks to the folks at Zondervan who sent a video crew to England to produce 12 short films in which he talks about themes in "Surprised by Hope." Small groups often enjoy a video clip to get the discussion rolling. On Monday, we gave you links to the 2 books.
    Now, you also can Click Here to jump to Zondervan's Web site and order a copy of the DVD set to be shown along with the six-week guidebook on "Surprised by Hope."
    This DVD actually contains more than 2 hours of video, if you watch it start-to-finish. Each week, there's a clip of roughly 15 minutes (sometimes a little longer) in which Tom talks to your group. There are six sessions, thus six of these "teaching" clips. Then, six more shorter videos are called "bonus clips" that you can watch toward the end of class. Many church-based small groups already are familiar with this bookend video format for classes.

    To give you a feel for this DVD material, Zondervan provides 2 clips via YouTube to show off Tom's style of teaching.
    FIRST, there's a 2-minute "Preview" of the new group-study materials for "Surprised by Hope."
    SECOND, there's a 3-minute "Sneak Peek" from one section in the DVD set.
    YOU SHOULD SEE 2 video screens on this page, below. If you don't see the screens, you may be reading this article via Email or some other remote feed. In that case, click on the headline of today's article, which will send you to our ReadTheSpirit Web site—and the video screens should appear, below.
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HERE'S A TIP TO HELP YOU AT CHURCH: If you want to attract interest in a Wright small group in your congregation, send some friends to ReadTheSpirit for our 3-part series this week. They'll not only get excited about Tom's work in general—they'll also learn enough in our series this week to tell you whether they'd like to take on "Surprised by Hope" or jump directly to the brand-new "After You Believe."
    PLEASE, come back tomorrow for our in-depth interview with N.T. Wright about his newest book, "After You Believe." He talks a lot about his provocative decision to write a book about "character"—not always a popular theme in some of the evangelical circles where Wright is most popular in the U.S.
    HERE ARE convenient links for ordering the new book and the study guide to "Surprised by Hope":
    CLICK HERE to order "After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters" from Amazon now.
    OR, for the study guide: CLICK
HERE to order the new "Surprised by Hope Participant's Guide:
Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church" for
a 6-week small-group series.

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    (Originally published at http://www.ReadTheSpirit.com/)