It’s been several months so I guess it’s time to post another Adam Hamilton series. Back in 2020, our class was interested in the background of other Christian denominations. Hamilton’s Christianity’s Family Tree was just the ticket!
There is an accompanying DVD for this series, and I’m sure it’s great. However, this time around, we chose to just stick with the book. If you get your hands on the DVD, I have no doubt it would enhance the experience. We just decided to spend our class periods entirely on discussion. There is also a Leader’s Guide, which I did consult. You’ll find links to both the DVD and the Leader’s Guide in the lesson plans.
The book is broken into eight chapters, presenting the major branches of Christian faith in roughly chronological order:
- Orthodoxy
- Catholicism
- Lutheranism
- Presbyterianism
- Anglicanism
- Baptists
- Pentecostalism
- Methodism
As a Methodist pastor, it’s no surprise that Hamilton chooses to end the book with Methodism as well as reflections on comparing it to the other branches.
This is a great eight-week study to get exposed to the way the branches started, their basic tenets of faith, and how they compare to each other. The lesson plans follow the book order, providing quick historical highlights followed by the standard set of discussion questions.
If your group is interested in comparative religions in general, I’d also suggest you checking out my post for Barbara Brown Taylor’s Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others.
Tell me how this series works for you and your group. If you like this or any of my lesson plans, share them to your social media accounts using the links on the right.
Thanks!