Please don't use the 
icon in this post as those who haven't seen movies since Dances With Wolves won't get the Braveheart symbolism 
(j/k)
That being said, having that icon here is a testament to how powerfully our culture is impacted by movies.
I used to be a pop-culture addict. Every sermon had an illustration from a TV show or movie, and I thought I was helping people by applying the gospel directly to their culture.
We threw our TV away a year ago ... and guess what, I'm no more irrelevant than before.
Talking to my sister-in-law about the "great" Survivor episode I had missed. I asked, "Did they vote off the gay guy or the old lady?" She said, "Oh no, they both stayed on. Wait! I thought you hadn't seen the show?"
We both laughed as I mentioned that they all have a gay guy and old lady, all are more or less the same ... you get the point.
On movies ... we still watch DVD's on the trusty laptop, but much less than we used to and (because of a 3 year old girl) more selective.
Now, to talk out of the other side of my mouth, there is something powerful in movies (sometimes). Look at the impact Braveheart has on people, or the Patriot, or Legends of the Fall. I just read Wild at Heart by Steven Eldbridge (sp?) and he references many of these movies in a healthy way.
I remember one sermon when I actually used a clip from the movie Titanic. We edited one of the closing scenes where the lifeboats are empty, the people in the water were freezing, and the one lady yells something like "Are we just going to watch them die?"
As that 45 seconds of the movie played, you could have heard a pindrop. Afterwards, we had a wonderful talk on the importance of the great commission and for the church to be a lifeboat.
Now, I've heard of churches that do this sort of thing every week, and that gets old, overdone, trite and often is emotional manipulation.
But sometimes the movies can be redeemed. (sorry for the long post, hope it made sense)
icon in this post as those who haven't seen movies since Dances With Wolves won't get the Braveheart symbolism (j/k)That being said, having that icon here is a testament to how powerfully our culture is impacted by movies.
I used to be a pop-culture addict. Every sermon had an illustration from a TV show or movie, and I thought I was helping people by applying the gospel directly to their culture.
We threw our TV away a year ago ... and guess what, I'm no more irrelevant than before.
Talking to my sister-in-law about the "great" Survivor episode I had missed. I asked, "Did they vote off the gay guy or the old lady?" She said, "Oh no, they both stayed on. Wait! I thought you hadn't seen the show?"
We both laughed as I mentioned that they all have a gay guy and old lady, all are more or less the same ... you get the point.
On movies ... we still watch DVD's on the trusty laptop, but much less than we used to and (because of a 3 year old girl) more selective.
Now, to talk out of the other side of my mouth, there is something powerful in movies (sometimes). Look at the impact Braveheart has on people, or the Patriot, or Legends of the Fall. I just read Wild at Heart by Steven Eldbridge (sp?) and he references many of these movies in a healthy way.
I remember one sermon when I actually used a clip from the movie Titanic. We edited one of the closing scenes where the lifeboats are empty, the people in the water were freezing, and the one lady yells something like "Are we just going to watch them die?"
As that 45 seconds of the movie played, you could have heard a pindrop. Afterwards, we had a wonderful talk on the importance of the great commission and for the church to be a lifeboat.
Now, I've heard of churches that do this sort of thing every week, and that gets old, overdone, trite and often is emotional manipulation.
But sometimes the movies can be redeemed. (sorry for the long post, hope it made sense)
