Barney Fife and Andy Taylor may not be Peter and Paul, but Chattanooga churches have found TV's Mayberry disciples often touch on the same truisms as the New Testament leaders.
Local congregations increasingly are using television shows and the movie format to teach spiritual lessons.
"It's amazing the parallels you can find to New Testament scripture," said St. Timothy's Episcopal Church member Bill Steverson, who led the recent study "The Gospel According to Barney," based on the 1960s "Andy Griffith Show." "I wondered if the scriptures I found were the ones they were reading when they wrote the (television show) script."
He said the six-week study was a first for the church using the literature but one that drew "so much good feedback" it may be repeatedly intermittently in the fall.
Dr. Cathy Turner, director of education at Christ United Methodist Church, said her church has used the "Andy Griffith Show"-based literature on and off" for several years as well as the 2008 movie "Fireproof" and several "theater-quality short films" that are part of the Crown Financial Ministries series "God Provides."
She said the congregation used the 20-minute "God Provides" series for adult Sunday school classes, and the Rev. Mark Flynn took the parables on which the movies were based as the basis for his sermons during worship services.
The use of the films produced the highest Sunday school attendance in years, Dr. Turner said. The increase extended even to children's classes, where parents would bring their children while they viewed the films, she said.
"The (DVD-based study) worked so well," she said, "that several classes have continue to use that model."
The Rev. Doug Werth, minister at Unity of Chattanooga, said the church has offered Spiritual Cinema for several years.
The films used, he said, contain inspirational or teaching messages that focus on topics and expertise they might not get in any other way.
Alternatively, Mr. Werth said, what attendees might get in a movie of an hour and a half or so would take much longer to absorb from a book.
Since people have a variety of learning styles, he said, films offer something different from traditional lecture-type teaching.
"Some people really like to watch a professional presentation with music and that sort of thing," the Unity minister said. "Other people like a church service (or) classes."
Dr. Turner said movies are a learning tool but should be pared with biblical application or biblical principles.
"It's another medium to use to spread the gospel," she said. "It's a medium people are comfortable with. It's a jumping-off point ... not a substitute."
Mr. Steverson said he tried to select some of his favorite episodes of the "Andy Griffith Show" that matched his priest's lectionary lesson for the week to use at St. Timothy's.
"We looked at the moral and ethical story behind the story," he said. "We looked at the (related) Bible verses and opened it up to conversation."
The conversation, Mr. Steverson said, was nostalgic but unpredictable, yet relatable in many ways to those in the variety of ages in attendance because "even in a simple, little place like Mayberry there are a lot of complex, moral issues that go on."
"(The lessons contained) truisms," he said, "that we as Christians have to confront and have a knowledge of in our daily lives."