NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Andy Griffith and Barney Fife are showing up in churches across the country, providing a healthy dose of Mayberry morals during Sunday school or Bible fellowship hour. More than 6,000 copies of The Andy Griffith Show video-and-study-guide series have been purchased since its debut in May 2000, according to Thomas Nelson publishers.
The eight-week course centers around half-hour episodes of the family classic. An instructional booklet guides class leaders in how to apply scripture to the Mayberry situations. The Bible-study series, developed in 1996 by an Andy Griffith Show fan, has become popular in churches trying to reach a TV generation, the Rev. Rex Brown told the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Brown has been using the series a couple years at the Cincinnati-area Eastside Christian Church, and watched attendance double to 500 within the first eight months. While Brown doesn't credit all the growth to one Bible study, it does help, he said.
"We live in such a high-tech society," he said. "Everything is multimedia and Hollywood. That's where America lives, where people are today."
