First telling in College Church

A story first told as a student’s sermon at Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church 14 years ago is now a new book for children.

The Perfect Lamb is a story centred on the crucifixion of Jesus drawn from the Bible’s stories of the event, with added insights from Seventh-day Adventist Church pioneer Ellen White’s The Desire of Ages and the creative retelling of alumnus Pr David Edgren, director of Adventist children’s ministries for the church in Victoria.

According to David, a theology graduate of 1998, the story received a mixed reaction when he first told it, with one churchgoer offering to buy him a Bible but another family telling him how it had moved them. “I saw the family again about six years later and the mother told me that every Easter Friday to open the Sabbath, they would listen to a recording made that day of this story.” The experience gave The Perfect Lamb “new life” as David began telling it again.

Now with four books published for young readers, David is excited to see this sermon-tested story in print. “It’s a powerful story,” he says. “And books reach way further than you can ever reach yourself.”

The Perfect Lamb includes discussion questions for use in classrooms, family worships and Sabbath schools. “We need to be telling stories to children—particularly the core Bible stories—and we need to tell them ourselves,” says David. “The stories only truly become alive and a part of a child’s life when they hear them from someone they love. We’re wired to be disciples—and stories our parents tell inform our lives in powerful ways.”—with Nathan Brown, book editor, Signs Publishing Company

The Perfect Lamb (Signs Publishing Company) is now available from Adventist Book Centres.

Kerry Arbuckle
Editorial assistant
Signs Publishing Company
Warburton, Victoria, Australia