FAQ's
Where did this crazy idea come from?
It started years ago when I came across an obscure cassette tape titled “10 Classics in 10 Minutes” by John "Mighty Mouth" Moschitta which presented ten literary classics, including Moby Dick, Alice in Wonderland and Robin Hood, in only one minute. This became one of my favorite tapes to listen to through the years.
Fast forward a few years and I started to teach the youth Bible study at my church. I was never comfortable teaching out of “pre-fab” lesson plans so I would make my own. One time I decided it would be a good idea to start at the very beginning so I started preparing a series of lessons from the Book of Genesis. This proved to be a very eye opening experience for me (probably even more than for the youth) because suddenly all (or a least many) of the Bible stories that I had grown up on, and even taught, fell in to place. It was like all of the Bible stories I knew and loved were Christmas ornaments that were very pretty on their own, but they were just a random collection stored in a box. Once I understood Genesis in its entirety, everything fit into place for me. It was like adding the Christmas tree and providing a lovely framework on which to display all of these ornaments in their proper places. Since then, I made it a point, every couple of years, to teach the entire Book of Genesis in one class session to help them understand The Bible as I had. Once when I was wrapping up quickly at the end, one of the kids said “You should do Genesis in one minute”, and the rest, as they say, is history… sort of.
I wrote and recorded Genesis just for them, and then made a video to go with it. I posted the video on YouTube and thought that was it, but not so fast. Over the course of the next year or so I found myself being forced to answer the question “What about the rest of The Bible?” To which I responded “You know there are 65 more, right?” or “Yeah, somebody should do that”. I knew there were many people wondering “What does The Bible really teach?” I felt like God kept letting me know that this one was mine, after all, He didn’t make me this weird for nothing. The next thing I knew, I was finished with Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers and thinking I had done a pretty good job but still thinking I must be NUTS to tackle a project like this, but I decided that as long as God kept giving me the words, I would keep writing them down and taking the next step, and He didn’t let me down once.
How did you do Psalms?
While I was working on this project several people asked me “How are you going to do Psalms?” (a question I had been asking myself as well). Since all of the books up until Psalms are stories, I had a tried and true system for creating those, but Psalms was different AND important; if I didn’t get Psalms right I was in trouble. I had already decided to deal with the concepts of the book, rather than trying to work up some sort of narrative. I talked to several people to get their thoughts and impressions about Psalms. While talking to my brother, he wanted me to be sure that I pointed out that the Book of Psalms, among other things, demonstrates that we can go to God for anything, good, bad, big or small and that became my framework for Psalms… thanks Dean.
How did you do Revelation?
Once I finished with Psalms, the most common question was “How are you going to do Revelation?” which was another book that I had to get right. Thankfully Revelation in one minute didn’t really scare me. Since I didn’t have time to deal with any of the issues that tend to bog people down or create tension due to differences of interpretation. I felt it was my job to present the outline and frame work of the book, so I didn’t have to deal with issues like “pre-trib, mid-trib or post-trib” or what each symbol represents or even “When do you think these things will happen?”… All I had to do was say what the book says, and that is actually fairly straight forward.
Why is there an introduction before each book? Isn’t that cheating?
I know there are those of you out there who are saying “It’s not really only one minute because you have an introduction to each book”. I understand that position, and you are free to think that, but I disagree for two reasons. First of all, most of the time, I tried to use the introduction to present background and context that was important to understanding The Bible, but not necessarily a part of the book. For example the introduction to The Book of Exodus provides a recap of what happened at the end of Genesis and leading into Exodus. My second reason for disagreement is that even if you take out the introduction, the content is still summarized within the one minute time frame.
Can I get a copy of the scripts?
Just go to Contact Us and let me know which books you would like scripts for.