That was the question that Esteban Shedd asked nearly 10 years ago as he was leading a small group of high school guys. He noticed that the guys became frustrated when it came time to read and talk through a given passage of Scripture. “Come to find out that majority of them could not read. So one night at my home studio I recorded next week’s passage of Scripture and placed a hip hop instrumental under the recording as an experiment to try and bridge the illiteracy gap,” Shedd says. “The result was night and day! Not only did they enjoy listening to the Scriptures in a medium that is familiar to them, they were able to understand and comprehend the Scriptures just as much as they would reading it.”
Out of this stroke of creativity was birthed the Streetlights Multimedia Bible. Esteban is the Project Director of Streetlights and has seen this project grow from an audio Bible to now having video and curriculum tools that enable people to teach God’s Word. Streetlights exists to come alongside those who struggle with literacy so that they can interact with and absorb the Word of God. Yet, even for the literate, Streetlights is a powerful tool that anyone can and should utilize. “At the end of the day,” says Shedd, “our whole Streetlights team wants everyone to be able to interact with Scripture, know the Gospel and grow in His transforming Word.”
To date, there have been two volumes of Streetlights that have been released. The first volume – titled Divine DNA – contains Genesis 1 through 6 as well as the Gospel of John, expounding the biblical themes of creation, the fall and redemption in Christ. Volume 2 is entitled The Blueprint and it expresses the themes of law and grace that are clearly communicated in Exodus 1-20 and Romans. It is no accident that each volume contains both Old and New Testament passages. In fact, that set up is by design. Esteban says, “One reason we hold to this formula is that this also helps combat Biblical Illiteracy. Often times many skip the Old Testament thinking that it’s not relevant or applicable to us today but miss the vital background to Jesus’ Gospel in the New Testament. We hope that interacting with both the Old and New Testaments in one sitting can help reveal the full width of scripture that God has given us.”
The beauty of Streetlights is that anyone can interact with God’s Word regardless of educational background or literacy ability. Any where you go, on any media platform God’s Word is available at the push of a button. In an age of Biblical illiteracy, Streetlights enables anyone to grab hold of Scripture and digest it in large chunks as chapter by chapter God’s Word is shared clearly with no filler. We can all get behind making God’s Word accessible to everyone. Beyond the packaging, the album cover and the CD, Streetlights is all about God’s Word. This is sola scriptura, just set to a beat.