Bluegrassrivals

I've spent 30 years as a minister thinking there's probably something seriously wrong with me, Christian-wise.

I consider myself a Pentecostal and an evangelical. Still, a good deal of the time I feel as if my fellow born-again travelers on the road toward New Jerusalem are speaking a different language than I speak.

And I'm not referring to the gift of tongues.

I wonder, "Am I the one who doesn't get it, or is it everyone else?"

For instance, this past Sunday morning before our church service began, I mentioned to my sister-in-law Genean that on Saturday night my wife and I had watched the best film about born-again Christians I've seen in 15 years, since Robert Duvall's classic, The Apostle.

(My third favorite also features Robert Duvall, 1983's Tender Mercies.)

We'd rented Higher Ground on DVD. Released in theaters last year, it was directed by and stars Vera Farmiga (George Clooney's co-star in Up in the Air). By the time the final credits rolled, Liz and I were bawling.

"This film is the voice of God," I gushed to Genean that next morning. "It's nothing like those awful Christian propaganda films that make you want to puke. Like — what was it called? — Fireproof. Ugh!"

"I loved Fireproof," Genean said.

I didn't know where to go from there. End of conversation.

Genean loved Fireproof. And I love Genean. She's one of my very favorite people in the world, a good-hearted, gentle soul, a dedicated Christian, a great mother and wife, a gospel singer who has served our congregation faithfully. I'd throw myself in front of a train for her.

But when I heard she liked Fireproof, I nearly lost my breakfast.

I shouldn't have been surprised. Hordes of Christians liked that movie. Fireproof, made for an estimated $500,000, was released in 2008 as one of a series of movies by Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga. It went on to gross $33.4 million.

I'm sure nearly all its box-office take came from evangelicals' wallets. Whole congregations went to see it together.

It was designed to win souls to the Lord and inspire the faithful. It's about a small-town firefighter (Kirk Cameron) who gets saved and restores his troubled marriage.

It's one of those "God is good all the time" kinds of stories that relentlessly preach to the choir. It's squeaky clean and redemptive, and I never doubted from the opening scenes how it would end. Cameron's character would find faith, learn new platitudes and discover that Jesus had set everything right, all within 90 minutes or so.

That's fine, I suppose — it's just a movie — but it bears little resemblance to Christianity or the world as I've experienced either of them. It's purely Christian escapism.

Actually, a plot summary of Higher Ground wouldn't sound so different. It's about the spiritual highs and the soul-struggles of an evangelical woman.

Its glory lies in how well, and honestly, her story is told.

As a teenager, Corinne gets pregnant by her high school sweetheart, an aspiring rock musician. They marry. They later become Christians after God apparently protects their toddler during a bus accident.

The script follows them through the ensuing years. Jesus, their church and the Bible form the core of their marriage and daily lives.

But over time, their relationship stagnates.

Corinne's best friend, Annika (Dagmara Dominczyk), also a Christian, is stricken with a brain tumor and left severely disabled. Instead of healing her, God goes silent.

Corinne begins to question everything.

It's difficult to explain exactly why this movie touched me so.

For one thing the writing and acting — the religious jargon, the incessant moralizing, the terrific congregational singing, the episodes of sheer delight in the spirit, the prayers answered and unanswered, the husband's rage and bewilderment as Corinne gradually distances herself from him and God — are dead-on perfect.

Corinne's Christianity is glorious and depressing and smothering and hypocritical and holy and comforting, all at the same time. She and her fellow churchgoers are three-dimensionally human; they worship and lust and cuss and pray and backbite and separate and then get back together or don't.

When the movie ends, God hasn't magically reappeared to heal Annika, bless Corinne's marriage, answer everyone's theological questions or be good all the time.

You almost might say that Corinne's doubt has become a central piece of her faith. She's trying to believe. She sees the value of believing.

Yet she's honest enough to say, in effect, "This isn't how it was supposed to be. I don't know for sure what's true and what isn't. I'm holding on as best I can."

This is Christianity as it's been lived in the trenches for 2,000 years.

Higher Ground, which opened in limited release nationally in August but never came to Central Kentucky theaters, grossed slightly more than $800,000, about 2.4 percent as much as Fireproof's $33.4 million.

We born-again types often grouse that Hollywood never portrays our faith accurately.

I'd argue that we don't want our faith presented accurately.

What most of us apparently prefer is Christian fantasy, Christian escapism, Christianity Lite. We want all our problems wrapped up neatly in the third act, in five easy steps, in a few snappy catchphrases we can print later on bumper stickers.

Unfortunately, real Christianity, like real life of all kinds, is a great deal messier and more frustrating. It's also more genuine and more rewarding.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/01/28/20465...rylink=cpy

^What a Debbie Downer! lol.

Christians cling to movies like Fireproof, Facing the Giants, Courageous, What If, and others because they are an escape from reality.

Christians realize and understand that it is a tough world, but movies like that show that God can work in people's lives. For every person that does not find healing in their body (in this world) or healing in their marriage, there is a person that DOES.

Nobody wants to watch a movie about a good Christian man that gets it wrong and it doesn't go right. We have this world and the devil to discourage us enough, we don't need movies, our escape from reality, to tell us that also.

I have never been a fan of reality TV or reality video games because I want my entertainment to have some mystery or fantasy or "Old-Yeller-Don't-Die" elements. Sure, many Christian movies have the ability to make you laugh, then cry, and then laugh, but I am willing to cry then.

As a Pastor, it is SOOOO easy to get bogged down with the concerns, hurts, pains and brokenness of your congregation (or in my case congregations). And we take those on ourselves and lay them at the foot of the cross. Don't get me wrong. I want my parishioners to be able to tell me anything and pour out their hearts, but sometimes it does get overwhelming. I wont tell the people, but in one week my two little churches had 4 deaths & 4 families hurting over that, 3 couples that either the husband or the wife packed up and left, 2 people that lost full-time jobs, numerous people get sick, I was studying for finals, my wife was studying and taking finals, her dad was in the middle of a deep depression, and more.
Friends that week I probably cried like a baby for days. The stress was unbelievable. Remember, I am 24 years old. I have only been a Senior Pastor for a year and a half. A clergy-friend that I rely on for advice and help told me that he is at a congregation of almost 300 members and never had a week like that.

When times like that hit, I do not want to go watch some R-rated movie with nudity and people cussing like the opening scene of Goodfellas. I also don't want to watch a "This is the REAL Christian life" movie. I know as well as the next person that living your life for the Lord will come with heart-ache, stress and sleepless nights. Read some of Acts and some of the early church fathers and see what kind of life the disciples had. Most of them ended up with imprisonment, torture and painful deaths. I hear of missionaries it seems every year that lose their lives for their faith. I know that we live in a world that is trying to take Christian freedoms away.

When all of this is upon me it is nice to watch a movie where the husband and wife come back together, where the underdog team turns their lives over to God and they win the game, where the husbands decide that it is time to become dad's and not just baby-makers, where the man called to preach stops running away and does what he was called to do.

Does that always happen? NO! Can it happen because of God's grace, mercy, love and strength that he allows us to feel and even possess sometimes, YES!

Basically, Christians understand that those movies are not always true but the person writing above is the Christian equivalent of a man telling his young child that Santa Claus isn't real. What does he gain from it? Nothing. What does the child lose in hearing it? Hope itself. Is it a good trade-off. NO!

I encourage my church-members (parishioners) every time one of those movies comes out on DVD or in theaters to go see them. As a matter of fact, on February 12th, we are showing Courageous at one of the churches and having a meal.


Dusty, please do not think I am bashing on you, I'm not. Just bashing on the author of the article.

I have seen Fireproof and Facing the Giants.

While i agree with the message of the movies, setting threw two hours of that was awful.

I cant blame them for trying to do a good thing since most of the movies we have today are full of nothing but awful, but i came away thinking about those two movies as i do with other movies i hated.

Doesnt mean im the antichrist or anything or trying to start a riot by not liking them, but they were just poorly made movies. I can see how it would be hard to make a good christian movie that people want to watch though...

^ Narnia although not a Christian movie has a storyline similar to Christian beliefs and it drew a very large crowd. Also, Passion of the Christ was a huge money maker at the box office so people will see a movie related to Christianity.

^
True.
Ive never seen either of those movies.

Narnia was not really pushed as a Christian movie and the movie never makes Jesus, God, Christianity references.

If you watch them knowing about it, you will easily find them though.

Passion was marketed really well. Non-Christians even came to watch because they wanted to see what it was AND because of the graphic detail they told it would have.

For all the wrong Mel Gibson has done, that was a good thing for the Christian community.

My problem with the Christian movies is fairly simple; I loathe that every church in America that has a youth group has made its "drama team" or whatever they are called now its number one focal point, and constantly raising money, by fundraising or being at every intersection every weekend day when its sunny to go on trips or to fund their plays, while completely shelving community service for good, or doing anything for the elders in the communities. Nothing. When an elder gets sick, nobody in the church calls or comes to see them. Why? Because they cant contribute to whats most important and the church has no need for them anymore. When was the last time you seen church members shovel snow out of the driveways for people not able to do it themselves? Or go to the store for them when they arent able? When was the last time you seen them visit sick members in hospitals? I quit going to church a few years ago because every single church I went to was nothing more than a corporation, filled with hipocrites, gossip, and exactly what I mentioned above. I tried three churches, and in the end, they were all the same. Every year I buy Christmas presents for three or four underpriviledged kids, buy Thanksgiving dinners for families fallen on hard times and elders not able to buy them. I have several friends that do that with me. I am finally forming the care package drive for our soldiers that Ive fought to get our city park, so it can be huge. When I brought all of these up to the churches? No, No, and No. "Didnt have the time to invest, but if any of the members wanted to get with me, then they were more than welcome to do so"...guess how many members joined me? Not a single one. My mamaw was a member at the church she went to for 55 years, from the day it opened its doors (my papaw helped build it), and when she had her stroke and was unable to go again, how many visits did she get from all of the members combined the last 9 months of her life? One. Thanks pastor. So now every church wants to make movies and plays. And in doing so, well, youve read my post. Now, Im not going to say that ALL churches are like this, but most of them are.

LWC Wrote:Narnia was not really pushed as a Christian movie and the movie never makes Jesus, God, Christianity references.

If you watch them knowing about it, you will easily find them though.

Passion was marketed really well. Non-Christians even came to watch because they wanted to see what it was AND because of the graphic detail they told it would have.

For all the wrong Mel Gibson has done, that was a good thing for the Christian community.

The minister at the church I use to attend would not watch the Passion of the Christ. He felt that parts of it did not accurately portray what really happened. Whether that was the case or not, I do not know. I think that maybe he felt the movie was too over the top and didn't want to discourage people. He also was against the Left Behind books.

IMO, people sugar coat aspects of Christianity in fears that it will drive people away and I think that is why some was not in support of this movie. However, if you are going to stand for something, you need to know the good and bad.

TidesHoss32 Wrote:My problem with the Christian movies is fairly simple; I loathe that every church in America that has a youth group has made its "drama team" or whatever they are called now its number one focal point, and constantly raising money, by fundraising or being at every intersection every weekend day when its sunny to go on trips or to fund their plays, while completely shelving community service for good, or doing anything for the elders in the communities. Nothing. When an elder gets sick, nobody in the church calls or comes to see them. Why? Because they cant contribute to whats most important and the church has no need for them anymore. When was the last time you seen church members shovel snow out of the driveways for people not able to do it themselves? Or go to the store for them when they arent able? When was the last time you seen them visit sick members in hospitals? I quit going to church a few years ago because every single church I went to was nothing more than a corporation, filled with hipocrites, gossip, and exactly what I mentioned above. I tried three churches, and in the end, they were all the same. Every year I buy Christmas presents for three or four underpriviledged kids, buy Thanksgiving dinners for families fallen on hard times and elders not able to buy them. I have several friends that do that with me. I am finally forming the care package drive for our soldiers that Ive fought to get our city park, so it can be huge. When I brought all of these up to the churches? No, No, and No. "Didnt have the time to invest, but if any of the members wanted to get with me, then they were more than welcome to do so"...guess how many members joined me? Not a single one. My mamaw was a member at the church she went to for 55 years, from the day it opened its doors (my papaw helped build it), and when she had her stroke and was unable to go again, how many visits did she get from all of the members combined the last 9 months of her life? One. Thanks pastor. So now every church wants to make movies and plays. And in doing so, well, youve read my post. Now, Im not going to say that ALL churches are like this, but most of them are.

I do not go to church anymore and I do agree with aspects of your post. I will say though, the church my wife and daughter go to are the only one in my town that does anything for the community. They have a very good outreach program which stretches to the nursing homes, and indigent members that cannot make it to services. My feeling is that churches become content with just holding services.