CHICAGO (ELCA) — “The Life of Apostle Peter” with host Rick Steves is the Dec. 1, 2007, issue of Mosaic Television, the video magazine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). It is also the final episode of the video series, which began in 1988.
Mosaic Television was the quarterly video program produced by ELCA Communication Services. It was intended for educational use in a variety of congregational settings, and each issue included a user’s guide with a synopsis of each segment and discussion questions. Several local and network television outlets broadcast Mosaic Television, too.
Steves is host of the popular public television series “Rick Steves’ Europe” and has written more than 30 books on European travel. He and his family are members of Trinity Lutheran Church, Lynnwood, Wash.
“Peter was originally named Simon. Jesus gave him the nickname Peter because it means the ‘rock.’ Playing on this Jesus said, ‘You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church,’” Steves said in the program. “It was Peter who rallied the followers of Jesus in the first few days of the Church. Peter helped to open the doors of Christianity to non-Jews,” he said.
Dr. N. Clayton Croy, associate professor of New Testament, the Rev. Joy A. Schroeder, associate professor of church history, and the Rev. Walter F. Taylor Jr., professor of New Testament and director of graduate studies, all of Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, Ohio, are featured in the video. Trinity is one of eight ELCA seminaries.
“We will be restructuring the way we deliver video materials for the future, and this will be the last episode of Mosaic as we know it,” said Ava Odom Martin, director for public media, ELCA Communication Services. “This program has been a vibrant resource from the churchwide office for many synods, congregations, adult education classes and broadcast television outlets,” she said.
“In 1987 it was necessary for the infant ELCA to produce and distribute video resources that helped tell the story of the whole church, because the cost of video production and distribution put this medium out of reach for most local settings,” said said Tim Frakes, writer and producer, who began working with Mosaic in 1993 and resigned from the ELCA in March 2007 to form Tim Frakes Productions, Lombard, Ill.
“The Rev. Larry Foreman kicked off the series early in the life of the ELCA as a way to help members better understand the big picture,” Frakes said. “Today, with Internet video resources like YouTube and digital video cameras, the job of storytelling is shifting from the churchwide office to the synods, congregations and the individual baptized members,” he said.
Jim Parks, a freelance digital non-linear video editor, edited Mosaic Television since 1996 and composed much of its original music.
“I have worked with the ELCA and on Mosaic — 48 programs in all — longer than with any of my other editing clients. I consider myself blessed to have been a significant part of a project that can positively affect the faith lives of many people,” Parks said. “I hope to continue editing programs for the ELCA that call Lutherans to be the best Christians that they can be,” he said.
The Mission Investment Fund of the ELCA is funding duplication of “The Life of Apostle Peter” and its distribution to the ELCA’s 10,470 congregations.
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Information about Tim Frakes Productions is at http://www.frakesproductions.com/ and about the Mission Investment Fund is at http://www.missioninvestmentfund.org/ on the Web.
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