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The Coming Shopocalypse...

With Black Friday upon us...

If you're not already familiar with What Would Jesus Buy?, the new film by Morgan Spurlock (writer and director of Super Size Me), you might want to check out the film's official website.

What Would Jesus Buy? follows Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir as they go on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse: the end of mankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt! (source)

The film is a comedic-guerrilla-satire-umentary (I'm pretty sure I just made that up). Though a bit gimmicky and sure to be dismissed by many evangelicals for being sacrilegious, the film should spark humorous and healthy conversations about consumerism, credit, and the widespread superficiality of the retail Christmas. Perhaps worth considering before you brave the crowds on Friday, or purchase those new rims in the spirit of Christmas (watch the trailer and you'll get that joke)

Check out the trailer here

Additionally, I would commend several recent reviews:
-Brett McCracken, Christianity Today
-Darrel Manson, Hollywood Jesus
-Laura Kern, New York Times
-Walter Brueggemann, Sojourners

RELATED LINKS
-Media Omnibus
-Rev Billy @ YouTube
-Rev Billy dot com

Technorati Tags: consumerism

Vanhoozer on Reading Culture

Susan Wunderink interviews Kevin Vanhoozer about the recent book he edited, Everyday Theology: How to Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Trends (Cultural Exegesis).

Everyday Theology is a collection of essays that present a Christian way of analyzing culture. Ranging from "The Gospel According to Safeway" (see excerpt) to "Between City and Steeple: Looking at Megachurch Architecture," each chapter dissects an aspect of North American culture through a biblical lens.
Related articles and links

Kevin Vanhoozer, the chief editor of the book, has been teaching a class called Cultural Hermeneutics at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School since 2001. Everyday Theology emerged out of those classes.
Vanhoozer spoke with CT about the book and his exegetical approach to culture.

Entitled Reading the World, the interview poses the following questions to Vanhoozer:

1. Can you explain what this collection of essays is about?
2. How would you define cultural exegesis?
3. So why do you think people need this book, Everyday Theology?
4. You mention theology often when you write about cultural exegesis. Do you understand theology to be broader than understanding God?
5. Would understanding culture shed light on the nature of God?
6. In the introduction, you asked, "How does one evangelize cultures that have already received the gospel only to revise or reject it?" I suppose you're talking about Western cultures?
7. What resources do people need to analyze their culture?

Everyday Theology: How to Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Trends (Cultural Exegesis)

A Church for the City

I have heard a great deal about the work God is doing in City Church San Francisco-- both through my interest in city-center church planting as well as friends of mine from Atlanta who are connected with Christ Church of Berkeley.

Therefore, I was intensely interested in this video in which City Church narrates their theology of urban church planting and describes the ministries they are involved with throughout their city.

Beyond being a great encouragement and testimony to God's faithfulness, it encapsulates my heart for a like-minded community in the heart of Kansas City.

__________
UPDATE
I removed this video because it was causing strange problems for my rss feed. You can still view the video by following the above link
__________

For more information about City Church, check out City Church online.

For more information about our efforts to plant a new city-center church in Kansas City, visit Reach Kansas City.

Ed Stetzer on Contextual Preaching

Ed Stetzer writes an excellent piece on preaching so your audience can hear. He summarizes his thoughts on contextual preaching in this way:

Too often we say, “I want to make the Bible relevant.”  No need.  It already is.  Our job is to present it in ways that help the hearer see that it is relevant—in this and in every culture.  We do so by starting at their understanding and taking them to Scripture for the whole answer.

(read the article here)

Evangelicals and the Arts

Forbes.com // Religion Today (Eric Gorski)

There are no crosses in Makoto Fujimura's paintings. No images of Jesus gazing into the distance, or serene scenes of churches in a snow-cloaked wood.

Fujimura's abstract works speak to his evangelical Christian faith. But to find it takes some digging.

After the 2001 terrorist strikes on the World Trade Center, three blocks from Fujimura's home, his work explored the power of fire to both destroy and purify, themes drawn from the Christian Gospels and Dante's "The Divine Comedy."

"I am a Christian," says Fujimura, 46, who founded the nonprofit International Arts Movement to help bridge the gap between the religious and art communities. "I am also an artist and creative, and what I do is driven by my faith experience.

"But I am also a human being living in the 21st century, struggling with a lot of brokenness - my own, as well as the world's. I don't want to use the term 'Christian' to shield me away from the suffering or evil that I see, or to escape in some nice ghetto where everyone thinks the same."

By making a name for himself in the secular art world, Fujimura has become a role model for creatively wired evangelicals. They believe that their churches have forsaken the visual arts for too long - and that a renaissance has begun.

On the grass-roots and institutional level, evidence is mounting to support that view: Art galleries are opening in churches; prominent seminaries are investing in new centers exploring theology and the arts; and, graduates from evangelical film schools are making Hollywood movies.
(read more)

Tim Keller: Ministry in the New Global Culture of Major City-Centers

Resurgence posts Keller's notes from the four part series: Ministry in the New Global Culture of Major City-Centers:
part I
part II
part III
part IV

(originally published in The Movement's newsletter)

Technorati Tags: TimKeller

The Pursuit of Relevance

Pursuing Relevance, Jason Johnson

Relevance. It has become the ecclesiological buzz-word of the postmodern culture. The church spends large amounts of time, energy and money on this idea of relevance, and Christians themselves are doing everything they possibly can to feel like—in some part—this term is an identifying mark on who they are as followers of Christ. This idea of relevance is admirable and necessary. But as I look around and evaluate my own attitudes toward this culture and understandings of how the Church relates to it, I (first and foremost) might have it backwards.

[...]

The truth, however, is that when we engage ourselves in pursuing the Kingdom of God and setting our hearts on becoming a people through which His Kingdom is most effectively able to be ushered into this world, then our lives will supernaturally develop within them a brokenness for the broken, a longing for the lost, a hope for the hopeless and a love for those who do not know love.

(read more)

Wall of Separation

Brian Godawa's new documentary Wall of Separation is set to air on PBS during the month of June. Click here to read the PBS press release and check local listings. Here is a description from Godawa's website:

The “wall of separation” is a metaphor deeply embedded in the American consciousness, and an idea that continues to cause deep controversy within the country. In this historical documentary, Godawa takes a look at what the Founding Fathers intended when they framed the Constitution and wrote the First Amendment religion clauses. Were they trying to create a Christian nation, a secular paradise, or something in between?

An examination of the humble origins of the “wall of separation” in Thomas Jefferson’s 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists reveals a meaning quite different from the modern understanding, yet one that foreshadowed the ongoing debate of today.

The documentary takes a look at how our understanding of church and state relations has changed through history by means of Supreme Court decisions and cultural pressures. From Everson vs. Board of Education to the most recent decisions over Ten Commandments displays, such interpretations are explored in comparison with the Founder’s original intent. This raises questions: Should "original intent" guide modern interpretation? Should government be secular, or should religion have influence on the State? There are no easy answers to this ongoing debate that polarizes the nation. (see also PBS pressroom).

Click to watch a five minute segment of the film from Godawa's website

RELATED
Godawa at IMDB
Hollywood Worldviews: Watching Films With Wisdom & Discernment

(HT: JT)

Technorati Tags: documentary, Godawa, PBS, Church+State, America+Religion

Francis Schaeffer & Learning to Cry for the Culture

As an undergraduate student, I read several of Francis Schaeffer's books. I loved the questions he asked and he modeled for me a form of cultural engagement that I had never encountered. Last summer, I purchased The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview, and have read bits and pieces between projects and deadlines. I hope to read through them in a more systematic fashion when I finish this degree. Though the world Schaeffer engaged with is, in many ways, departed, I still find that he has a great deal to teach me.

Today, Justin Taylor pointed to John Fischer's article, Learning to Cry for the Culture (Christianity Today) and I was reminded again what it was about Schaeffer that I first found so compelling:

Francis Schaeffer was not afraid to ask why, and he did not rest until he had an answer. Why are our most brilliant thinkers in despair? Why is our art so dark? Why have abortion and euthanasia become so easy on the conscience of a generation? What process of thinking has led to this ultimate denial of the value of human life? Though some may disagree with his answers, no one can gainsay the passion with which he sought them.

The normal human reaction is to hate what we don't understand. This is the stuff of prejudice and the cause of hate crimes and escalating social evil. It is much more Christ-like to identify with those we don't understand—to discover why people do what they do, because we care about them, even if they are our ideological enemies.

Jesus asked us to love our enemies. Part of loving is learning to understand. Too few Christians today seek to understand why their enemies think in ways that we find abhorrent. Too many of us are too busy bashing feminists, secular humanists, gay activists, and political liberals to consider why they believe what they do. It's difficult to sympathize with people we see as threats to our children and our neighborhoods. It's hard to weep over those whom we have declared enemies.
Perhaps a good beginning would be to more fully grasp the depravity of our own souls and the depth to which God's grace had to go to reach us. I doubt we can cry over the world if we've never cried over ourselves.

Fischer concludes:

Schaeffer is not without his critics, even among Christians. But perhaps, in the end, his greatest influence on the church will not be his words as much as his tears. The same things that made Francis Schaeffer cry in his day should make us cry in ours.
(read more)

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Ed Stetzer on Mission & Contextualization (Baptist Identity Conference)

Ed Stetzer: Toward a Missional Convention (via Timmy Brister)

Missional is not a new word and is not my word. It was first found in Oxford Dictionary in 1907. The normative application of NT Christianity is missional. Part of the debate over “missional” is because it has been used in various contexts in many ways.

Being missional is not about terminology, but focus. We spend so much time objecting to terms that we never get around to changing our churches. We have embraced this idea on the foreign mission field, but this has not been implemented here in North America. A shift is absolutely essential in light of the declining and dying churches. Only 11% of churches are experiencing healthy evangelistic growth.

Missional thinking is not the same thing as missiological support. We have confused missiological support with being on mission where we have relegated the work of the Great Commission to someone else, somewhere else. (read more)

Technorati Tags: Ed+Stetzer