More movie news
In the extras on the newly-reissued DVD of The Passion of the Christ, Jim Caviezel notes that he had to do “a lot of lunges and squats” to “build up my quads.”
I never thought about Jesus having good quads before.
Fun in the Son
On Tuesday the movie Jesus Camp was released on DVD. Although I missed it in the theaters (do theaters even show documentaries anymore?) I made sure to swing by Blockbuster Tuesday night to pick up a copy.
The film is about a children’s minister named Becky Fischer and the “Kids on Fire” camp she leads each summer in North Dakota. Fischer unapologetically claims to be building and training an army of young soldiers for God, a new generation to take back and reform America’s corrupt government and to win others to Christ.
I knew the movie would be critical of the camp, and that plus my 30 years in Christian circles meant some things felt familiar: The rampant “Christianese” talk. (“I just want to be hungry after Jesus.”) Blaming all social ills on the removal of prayer from schools. The assertion that America is God’s chosen nation. Puppet shows. The inevitable comment that “We’ve read the back of the book and we win!” Rants against Harry Potter. (Gotta love this from Fischer: “Warlocks are the enemies of God—in the Old Testament Harry Potter would have been put to death!”)
But other things were different: The camp’s combination of revival-style, confrontational preaching and music drove children as young as six into emotional frenzies. These young kids repented for the sins of their nation, “pleading Jesus’ blood” on themselves and on the country. They fell on the floor, raised their arms in surrender, and sobbed. It was disturbing to see young children in such emotionally-charged poses.
And the puppet shows were about the antichrist taking over a person’s body in the end times.
At other points in the week of camp, these same children were encouraged to smash porcelain mugs—which represented the power of the devil in our government—with hammers while rebuking the evil spirits influencing our nation. This, also, was often accompanied by weeping.
The kids also talked to and prayed for a life-size cardboard cutout of President Bush, who was positioned in front of an American flag while the children chanted “One nation under God!” (Which left some doubt as to who they were chanting to.)
Like Fischer, I believe today’s kids can have a huge impact on our world, and it’s important to reach as many as possible with the love of Jesus. (As the movie states, 43% of evangelicals are “born again” before age 13.) Each week I teach a Sunday school class of preschoolers and each Wednesday evening I tutor five impossible fourth graders. I get it.
However, the key word there is love. When Jesus welcomed the little children to come to him, it wasn’t to stick red tape across their mouths and force them to demonstrate against abortion (another fun part of the movie). As I watched this film, I just wanted to hug these sobbing, guilt-driven young kids and remind them of Jesus’ great delight in their little lives.
Near the end, Fischer says, “The extreme liberals are watching stuff like this and quaking in their boots and saying, ‘Oh my goodness—what are these kids going to be like when they grow up?!’” I’m not an “extreme liberal,” but I wonder the same thing.
One of the things I will miss most about living in southern California is the absolute panic that (arguably) otherwise sane people go into when the weather is going to be anything but 72 and sunny. It’s especially fun when 1/8″ of rain is predicted; local meteorologist Dallas Raines (seriously, that’s his name) pulls out the “Doppler 7000″ and spends half the 11:00 news reassuring Los Angelenos that life will continue—but they may want to stay inside, just to be safe.
I know cold temperatures are difficult for the homeless and the farmers here, so I don’t mean to be insensitive. But I attended college near Pittsburgh, which averages 275 cloudy days a year and where 50 degrees is considered shorts weather. So my perspective is somewhat different from my Orange County neighbors, and I was amused by last night’s lead news story on the state’s current “Arctic Blast.”
It got down in the 30s yesterday. Come on, people, as I type ice is covering eastern Oklahoma. Let’s man up.
More input needed
Yesterday I was asked to coordinate/produce four services for a new leadership training event at The Local Megachurch (as my friend and fellow blogger Jan calls it). “The LAB” includes three days of special speakers (including Boundaries author Henry Cloud) and over 40 workshops on everything from small groups to social justice. It should be a good time.
However, my focus will be on the four services that bring the whole group of (hopefully) 800-1,000 people together in worship and learning. These times need to include Moments (you know what I mean), funny and/or meaningful videos, unusual and creative plays on the “lab” theme (perhaps a local chemistry teacher blowing things up on the side?), interactive and fun things to get people talking to each other around round tables, and some common elements to run through the entire experience.
The gig is just a few weeks away, and I need your help. You know where the best videos-for-purchase are, right? You probably just thought of 10 cool takeoffs on the lab theme, and at least once this year you did something out of the usual routine that really connected with people.
I need to know what those are! Will you drop me a line and let me know? If it helps, the themes for the four services are leadership (duh), integrity, leadership in crisis (with a pastor from New Orleans) and blessing/commissioning.
Your opinion wanted
Next week I get to attend the annual gathering of the Christian Standard contributing editors. It’s one of my favorite meetings of the year, and not just because “favorite meeting” is an oxymoron and most meetings are about as fun as a layover in the Ft. Wayne airport.
No, even among the few fun meetings on my schedule, this is one of the best because of the caliber of people I’m privileged to serve with. Most of us have served on the team for several years, and I look forward to seeing them each January.
In addition to catching up with each other and eating (the two “musts” of every Christian gathering), we devote a lot of time to discussing CS, the website and blogs, and current issues—of the magazine and in our culture.
The team really cares about the independent Christian churches, and about creating a journal to serve them. We want the magazine to be readable, relevant, and helpful to you. We’d love for it to be “can’t miss” reading.
But as committed as our team may be, we don’t have all the answers. So tell us what you like—and what you think could be improved. How could the Standard jump to the top of your reading list? What’s helpful, and what’s missing? What one thing could we do differently in the next year to contribute in a big way to your ministry?
Let me know—post a note here, or drop me a line at buzz@standardpub.com. We’ll all benefit from your feedback.
Okay, raise your hand if you read from Genesis 1 and/or Matthew 1 today. Yeah, me too. Now raise your hand if you vowed that this year, finally, you will actually stay more or less on schedule with your daily readings and finish the whole Bible in one year. Again, me too.
I’m not big on resolutions, in January or any other time, but something about the expanse of clean white pages on the calendar beckons to me each year and makes me think, “Yes! THIS is the year I will meditate reflectively on Leviticus, write my own personally meaningful paraphrases of the Psalms, and research key words from the original Greek.”
Instead, I stay more or less on track through Israel’s slog to the promised land (which seems to make never-ending winter seem even longer) and the adventures of David only to lose steam in the summer and end the year hopelessly behind. (I’m still on August 25 for my 2006 schedule.)
I know that the point is not to check off daily readings but to actually spend time with God, and since that happened more often than not in 2006 I don’t feel particularly guilty about not finishing the whole thing. I do wish I could find a yearly reading plan that begins in Revelation and Malachi, though. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten to those.
Jennifer Taylor
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