Filmstrips More Effective Than Videos
From SPARK
Brief Summary
Using filmstrips in Africa has proven successful.
A media mix of filmstrips, audio cassettes, and picture books proved more effective than videos in helping African people groups learn about Jesus and His plan for salvation. The medium was economically priced, easily portable, and it generated interest in the gospel and a desire for more Scriptures.
Introduction
A couple working in Africa has experimented with different media: videotapes, TV broadcasts, and print. They finally arrived at a mixed media approach using filmstrips, audio cassettes, and picture books. These were packaged as evangelistic and teaching kits for use by local pastors and evangelists.
What was done
This media mix is designed for evangelism or discipleship. The filmstrip topics help expand their understanding of salvation.
Accompanying materials include:
- Audio cassette tapes in English or a local language. Other languages can be dubbed over the music background.
- Books that are black and white reprints of each filmstrip. These can be used as flipcharts.
- Group Leader's Discussion Guide. This assists the discussion before and after each filmstrip.
Reasons Why Filmstrips Were So Effective in the African Setting
Filmstrips show a part of African culture that is important: African communication is group-discussion oriented; any medium that ignores the group is inadequate. Any message that uses it, is more effective.
Some people groups can't follow the detailed images used in Western video productions. The medium of video may interfere with the message. Filmstrips let viewers comment and discuss what they see in each picture.
Filmstrips are affordable and economical. They can be produced with limited time and funds. The equipment needed to show filmstrips is portable, more economical, and simpler than what is needed to show videos.
The couple wanted to produce material that was affordable to the local evangelists, easily translatable, and culturally appropriate. They started with Old Testament stories. This helped viewers to identify with people from a different religious background. Filmstrips were produced using African faces, African scenery, African music, and African languages. This also made them of interest to secular audiences.
Filmstrips translated into several African languages are useful to small language groups who don’t have a full printed Bible in their own language. These filmstrips also provide Scripture on accompanying audio cassettes.
Results
The couple reported: Several thousand people made first-time commitments to Christ after seeing the filmstrips. They have seen them in the bar-and-bordello district of one town. Others have seen them in a village of animists on the peak of one of the remotest mountains. The local evangelist who climbed to the top of this mountain said twenty people in the village made a profession of faith in Christ after viewing the filmstrips. The nearest church is a two-hour hike. The evangelist encouraged them to visit the church. The next Sunday about fifteen of the new converts attended the church. Converts from the bar district who saw the filmstrips attended follow-up teaching events.
Having very portable equipment is important. A medical team was showing the filmstrips to a group of people that they had been treating who were from a different religious background. When they reached the Gospel presentation, the crowd turned from grateful to angry. When the last slide was shown, our projectionist grabbed the projector and battery, jumped in the Land Rover, and drove off in a hail of stones. This would have been impossible if the team had to flee with a generator and 35mm projector.
These filmstrips have generated interest in Bible translation among local Christians. “The United Bible Society” held a seminar that twelve translation teams from small language groups attended. There was not one expatriate among them. These groups have only the New Testament in their languages but want the Old Testament.
Through these filmstrips and supplementary products, people in Africa are learning that Christ is relevant. One local pastor says,
“We hear our own music and our own languages, and we see the faces of our people. We hear and see our own people, and we know that Christ is for black Africans. Non-believers learn that Jesus knows our traditions, and then they can believe more easily.”
- By Steven A. Jameson
