We had a great discussion of The Believer last night at our Film & Spirituality gathering (thanks to Daniel for the name idea). As we’ve reflected on the usefulness of this event to our church planting mission, I’ve come to realize that it is geared more toward connecting rather than converting.
Not all of the churches who do film events have the same goals with them. One of our guests last night said that I’ve talked a lot about Mars Hill Church, and that’s true. They watched Terminator 3 last night for their Film & Theology. Our movie had fewer explosions and no governors, but probably more in the way of discussion material. My understanding of MHC’s approach to discussion is to toss out doctrinal items and see how the film reflects them. I’m not sure what their goals are for the event, but they seem to emphasize predestination and fate a lot (with movies like T3 and Minority Report).
I don’t think film events could be called evangelistic in the Luis Palau/Billy Graham sense. There is no gospel presentation (we don’t seem to mind leaving that part out), no invitation, no feeble attempt to link everything in the movie to Jesus if the connection isn’t there. So I guess the purpose of this event is really to build relationships and get talking with people about God and spirituality and worldviews and theology. A worthy end.
It seems extremely rare for someone to actually be converted to Christianity, without having it somewhere in their background (as Jesse pointed out to me this morning, that may be because most people in America do have it in their background somewhere). Leighton posted recently on his coming to God in his post on his postmodernity (don’t go postal after all those “posts”).
I suppose one reason it’s so rare to see a total convert is that following Christ has certain ways of thinking and acting and seeing the world that go along with it. In other words, a lot has to change for an average non-Christian person to become a Christian. I’m not saying that there’s a single Christian Worldview that all converts need to accept, but the process of Christ-shaped worldview development cannot be simple.
Justin:
I’m not sure you caught the heart of what I was getting at when I wrote about catering to a “pick and choose” culture. I’m all for re-contextualization. If I wasn’t I’d probably be Orthodox. I see a difference between recontextualizing a universal truth, and defining one’s own reality.
I think there are general things that a church needs to accomplish. Making disciples, community, worship, and pursuing justice are pretty core. Each church should be free to figure out the best way to do those things.
I like the idea of a decentralized structure, but I’m afraid structures can get too loose resulting is in lack of challenge and direction. If people determine all of what their church is going to be how can people be challenged? How can people work together?
Ideally, I suppose, people would choose things that are challenging for them and that help them work together. I don’t think you’ll see this in events for non-Christians, but we know to challenge ourselves and each other.
The less-structured, less-like-church church thing is a bit scary, I admit.
Justin,
I work as a missionary among communities of the rural poor in another country. Conversions are quite common there, though there is always resistance and there are always those who don’t respond.
But one of my theories is that a person who is living on the edge of life, who is one crop failure away from being wiped out, or one epidemic away from losing his family, who labors with his hands and sweat and is prone to hopelessness because his situation never improves — such a person seems much more receptive to the Gospel of Hope than the typical US non-Christian.
The typical US non-Christian has good health and a choice of doctors, insurance, a high-paying job, a warm home, and every comfort and convenience to make life a dream. Wealth and material goods dull our sense of need. What can Christ give us that we don’t already have?
We’re fat, dumb and happy. Who needs Jesus?