• Tweet
• Sumo

• Tweet

In the programmers world, there’s such thing called application stack. It’s a list of favorite tools that a programmer use to write programs. A programmer’s application stack usually differs from another programmers’s because there are so many tools available out there, and programmers have different personal taste.

So as with one’s Sabbath School (SS) stack, I believe different people have different favorite Sabbath school lesson studies and preparation books that they read. Although if I’m not wrong, this only applies to less than 10% of church members who regularly read lesson studies to prepare for the Sabbath school discussion. (Don’t you think so?)

Anyway, I’m not writing this post to judge anyone, but I just want to share my Sabbath school stack, a list of my favorite tools that I use to prepare myself for Sabbath school discussion every Sabbath. The list is sorted in order of importance.

1. e-Sword
2. Adult Sabbath School Easy Reading Lesson Studies
3. Sabbath School U Video Cast
4. Adult Sabbath School Lesson Study Outlines by Bruce N. Cameron, J.D.
5. Sacramento Church Sabbath School Discussion Video Cast

I will discuss briefly about each of the tools above.

1. e-Sword

e-Sword is actually a Bible study software created by Rick Meyers. For those of you who have not tried this software, I strongly recommend you to try it. In default it only has the KJV version Bible plus Strong Bible Commentary. However, you can check the website for other Bible translations plugins, be them English or other language as well. There are commercial plugins and free plugins available in the website, and they are not limited to Bible translation only as you can find Bible commentaries, Illustrations, and Devotional plugins there.

The Bible Version plugins that is currently installed in my e-Sword are:
– Indonesian Terjemahan Baru (ITB)
– Indonesian Bahasa Indonesia Sehari-hari (IBIS)
– Good News Bible (GNB)
– Bible in Basic English (BBE)

I love comparing Bible verses in different Bible translation because doing such give me a better understanding and insights of what actually the verses could mean seen from different perspectives.

2. Adult Sabbath School Easy Reading Lesson Studies

This is my most favorite Sabbath School lesson study version, as compared with the regular Adult Sabbath School lesson study and CQ (Collegiate Quarterly) lesson study. Why? Because it’s short, easy to read… but yet it contains the same exact lessons from the other two lesson studies. It’s actually like a juice extract of Adult Sabbath School lesson study.

I totally recommend this lesson study for Sabbath School discussion leader. If you are a Sabbath school discussion leader, try to use it and you will understand why I said so.

3. Sabbath School U Video Cast

This is my another favorite Sabbath School “lesson study”. Sabbath School U is a 28 minutes video cast freely available to download. It shows a group of college and university students discussing Sabbath School lesson and lead by a youth pastor.

Why I love it? You certainly can find different insights from the young people as they tell their stories and how they see the practical use of the Sabbath School lesson. I also recommend this to Sabbath School discussion leader and those who fail to study Sabbath School for the whole week but don’t wanna look blank during Sabbath school discussion.

4. Adult Sabbath School Lesson Study Outlines by Bruce N. Cameron, J.D.

This is actually also one of my older brother Sabbath School stack. It’s a Sabbath School lesson outlines seen completely from different perspective as the author promise not to use any Ellen G. White book in it and only use Bible verses to explain the lessons.

It is actually targetted to other non-SDA Christians and thus may have different approach to the Sabbath School lesson as compared with the regular Sabbath School Lesson Study.

I “do not” recommend this to Sabbath School discussion leader. What I mean with “do not” here is this lesson study outlines may confuse the Sabbath School members who only study the lesson guide. Although this outlines talk about the same thing, it approach the lesson differently and so may be more that 50% different from the regular lesson guide.

For personal study, however, I recommend this study outlines because it uses Bible verses extensively and contain fresh insights delivered in interesting way.

5. Sacramento Church Sabbath School Discussion Video Cast

It is a 60 minutes video freely available to download from Amazing Facts website. The video start with a beautiful song services and continued with “traditional” Sabbath School discussion where the whole congregation discussion is lead by a Pastor, so there is less participation from the congregation beside the Bible verse reading help.

Summary

So those are Djitz Sabbath School stack, my Sabbath School tools of trade. Just like an application stack to a programmer, that enables the programmer to create a good software, Sabbath School stack is a box of necessary tools for everyone who wants to have a great Sabbath School discussion.

I invite you to list your own Sabbath School here at the comment section. It may inspire other people who are not interested to study their lesson studies to study the lessons regularly.