Things Have Changed (part 3)

Things Have Changed (part 3 of 3)…click HERE to read part 1 or HERE to read part 2.

When I want to talk to Amber about something, I have to pay attention to her first. In other words, it is difficult to demand attention if we don’t pay attention. You can talk without listening, but then whatever you say is seen as very one sided.

Part of our job as the church is to answer people’s questions. But if we don’t listen to people first, we’ll just be answering questions no one is asking!

Every year we do a series called God on Film in the summer that explores spiritual themes in the summer’s blockbuster hits. Now why in the world would we do that? Simple: the sixty percent of Americans who don’t attend church get their theology from movies and music. For better or for worse, 60% of Americans look to musicians and movie makers for their theology.

Our culture is shaped in a BIG WAY by the movies we watch and the music we listen to. That leaves the church with a choice. We can ignore the movies and music, we can point our finger and say “bad bad bad!” Or we can talk about them. God on Film is our annual time to dialogue about the movies that are literally shaping the culture of nearly 200 million un-churched Americans.

Some would say that God on Film is just a watered-down way to get people to church, but the truth is that it’s actually one of our hardest hitting sermon series because Hollywood is brutally honest about the human condition. And, it gives us more cultural capital than any other series we do.

I hope you got something from this three part series on our culture and how it has changed. It is time for the church to be serious about staying in touch with culture and finding those spiritual touch points. It is time to redeem the cultural metaphors that are out there so that we can communicate the Gospel. After all, that’s exactly what Jesus did in His parables. He shared God’s truth in ways that his culture could grasp.

We can choose to ignore the culture around us, but all that does is bury the church alive. It’s tough to reach people when you are under seven feet of dirt!