The Script seeks to be “a new kind of devotional,” and it succeeds. It presents passages of John using contemporary hip-hop language. The devotional is accompanied by a CD in which Lynch also speaks in this style.
Devotional activities following the reading do everything they should do. The Script asks students to be real, vulnerable and transparent with God. While the devotional activities will pull kids in, the Scripture paraphrase may make them a little suspicious of the source. Students may find it strange to read and hear the Word of God in the language many of them speak every day. My students believed the language to be too “informal.” It wasn’t “holy or righteous enough.” This lent itself to a great conversation as to why we expect God to speak so much differently than we do—which would make a great introductory conversation.
Institute of Black Family Development, and Moody Publishers, 2008, 353 pp., $16.99
