Using BibleProject Videos in Your SRE Classroom

BibleProject is a Portland-based nonprofit that creates animated videos explaining the Bible's literary structure, key themes, and narrative unity. Every video is free — BibleProject's stated mission is to make biblical education available to anyone in the world at no cost, funded entirely by donors.

The quality is exceptional: the animations are beautiful, the theology is careful, and the explanations are genuinely illuminating without being dumbed down. For an SRE teacher, using a BibleProject video at the start of a lesson unit does in 7 minutes what might take you 20 minutes of introduction to explain yourself — and it does it with visuals that make abstract concepts stick.

BibleProject has produced overview videos for every book of the Bible: 41 Old Testament overviews and 32 New Testament overviews. Each runs 5–10 minutes and covers the literary structure, main themes, and key theological contribution of the book.

In SRE, these work best as unit launchers: show the overview video in the first lesson of a new Bible book unit, then spend subsequent lessons on individual stories or passages within that book. Students who understand the shape of a book engage with individual passages very differently from students who have no context. The video creates a map; the lessons fill it in.

Especially recommended for SRE use: Ruth (5 min, themes of loyalty and redemption), Jonah (5 min, themes of mercy and mission), Luke (6 min, themes of the reversal of the world), and Romans (6 min, the logic of the gospel).

BibleProject's Biblical Themes series covers 31 major concepts including the image of God, sacrifice, covenant, temple, the kingdom of God, and holiness. These are exactly the concepts that underpin good SRE teaching — and they're often the ones that are hardest to explain without visual tools.

For example: the Image of God video (5 min) explains what it means that humans are made in God's image, why this matters for human dignity, and how it connects to Jesus — all in beautifully illustrated animated form. This is excellent background viewing for teachers before teaching Genesis 1, and can be shown to Year 5–6 students as a discussion starter.

The Sacrifice and Atonement video explains the logic of sacrifice in the Old Testament and how it connects to the cross — directly useful for Easter SRE lessons. The Kingdom of God video explains what Jesus means by the kingdom — critical background for teaching the parables.

The How to Read the Bible series (19 videos) teaches readers how to engage with different genres: narrative, poetry, law, prophecy, wisdom literature, apocalyptic writing, and New Testament letters. For SRE volunteers who weren't raised in the church or who feel uncertain about their own Bible literacy, watching this series before beginning their first term is transformative. It answers the question: 'How am I supposed to read this?' — which is often the unspoken anxiety behind lesson preparation uncertainty.

A few considerations for schools: most NSW primary schools have data projectors or interactive whiteboards in classrooms. Check with the classroom teacher before your lesson whether the projector is available and whether the school's network allows YouTube. If YouTube is blocked, download the video in advance using a tool like 4K Video Downloader and save it locally. BibleProject grants free use of their videos in educational and church settings — there are no copyright concerns for classroom use.

Keep videos to one per lesson and no longer than 8 minutes. Longer than that and primary students begin to disengage. A 5-minute video followed by a 10-minute discussion is more effective than a 10-minute video followed by a 5-minute discussion.