I recently saw the newest installment of the Superman
franchise, “The Man of Steel.” It was a powerful, entertaining, and thinly
veiled allegory for anyone paying attention.
A recent CNN article[1]
has described how the producers of the film invited pastors and other church
leaders to view advanced screenings and to use studio-supplied notes from which
to develop Father’s Day sermons and other church communications. This is not
the first time such a marketing strategy has been employed; just a few years
ago similar campaigns were launched in conjunction with the releases of “The
Blind Side” and “Fireproof.”[2]
The idea is clear: there are sufficient meaty themes and
images in “The Man of Steel” to provide preachers and teachers with ample
connections and illustrations in their ministries. By “marketing” the film to
church leaders the studio might get a bump in viewers. By being “marketed” to,
church leaders get a bump in cool points, relevance, and perhaps the
ever-shortening attention spans of congregants.
After seeing the film and viewing the notes that have been
distributed to many churches by Warner Brothers I’m convinced that we pastors
must become better women and men in terms of artistic, literary, and cultural
insight. We must become better readers, viewers, and thinkers when it comes to
the arts.
Baptists have long been accused of a strong
anti-intellectual bend that has become something of a calling card among my
tribe.[3]
There were days not too long ago when the pastor of a local church was the only
educated citizen of the community and the one relied upon for insight and
understanding in matters ecclesial and secular. In recent years, though, it
seems that Baptists have become something of a “know nothing” party that takes
harsh political and social stands on things that ultimately matter little.
Here are some illustrations: I was lucky (unlucky?) enough
to live through the boycott of Disney in ’97, the boycott of Waldenbooks and
K-Mart in ’95, and the current “great matter” over the Boy Scouts of America.
Further, I was a member of a thriving youth ministry in the late 90s through
which I went to summer camps where Harry Potter was proclaimed to be the worst
sort of witchcraft and personally saw a Pokémon character destroyed because it
represented an idol of some sort. Lastly, I recall a sermon preached against
the movie “When Harry Met Sally,” which the preacher had never seen.
Ok, so that’s a long list of things that many of you
probably remember and cringe over. The point of that list is to demonstrate
just how Baptists have engaged with culture in my own generation. I am not
trying to categorize these responses as necessarily “good” or “bad,” nor am I
conjuring the spirit of Niebuhr and his categories of Christ and Culture.
Rather, I’d like to suggest that my Baptist peers and I reclaim something of
the cultural literacy that we once had by being smarter, more well-read, and
conversant with media than we have been in generations past.
What I think happened is that we took the “tee-totaling”
attitude a bit too far. If drunkenness is bad, then we’ll just abstain from
alcohol completely. If smoking or chewing tobacco could send the wrong message,
then we’ll shun all tobacco. If the relatively recent establishment of a rating
system of works of art and artistic expression says something is taboo, then by
George we’ll somehow make it a double taboo.
The consequence of such a stance is that we have lost all of
our ability to read. We have lost the
ability to experience art in all its forms and to interpret those experiences
in light of Jesus Christ. We have become so afraid of the media that we assume
all media is out to get us. We have become so petrified in our stances against
certain moral issues that we have thrown out literature[4]
and boycotted movies. There is a broad, bold line between thoughtfully and
prayerfully rejecting sin and evil and being some sort of ostrich when it comes
to literature, movies, and television. Baptist pastors, at least, should
demonstrate the spiritual maturity to know the difference.
I find it sad that Warner Brothers’ sermon notes were
necessary. I’d like to think that any Baptist pastor would be able to view the
film and weave powerful references to Godliness, to Christ’s sacrifice on our
behalf, or to the essential nature of God’s fatherhood into a sermon series
while the film is in theaters. Unfortunately many will reject the film outright
because it comes from Hollywood or will slavishly follow the prescribed sermon
outline without viewing the film or prayerfully developing a timely, unique
word for their congregations.
It’s not just “The Man of Steel,” however. I recall one
pastor preaching from a prepared sermon manuscript by Rick Warren in 2003
during a “40 Days of Purpose” campaign. Other such instances of parroting
certainly accompanied church-wide emphases on “Fireproof.”
The pastor must be
more than a pulpiteer, more than a counselor; the Baptist pastor must be an
individual who can read. We must be
the tribe that keeps the classics in print and the newest hardcovers on our
iPads. We must be readers of poetry and prose, of fiction and non-fiction. We
must speak the languages of journalism and jurisprudence. We must be readers.
Someone will object to this on the grounds that it is wasted
energy and time since the vast majority of our congregants do not read
voraciously nor do they read deeply.[5] In
fact, one may object that since we cannot possibly know the education or
literacy level of our congregants we do harm to immerse ourselves in the
language of poetry or history for fear of alienating those who cannot or will
not follow along. This is certainly a valid point. I am not advocating a return
to Victorian-Era preaching with complex and esoteric language. I further am not
advocating for the inclusion of poems, literary references, or historic
citations in the homiletic exercise. Instead I simply call for pastors to be
better people themselves by reading more broadly and more deeply – such
education and insight will allow us to find the right phrase or word rather
than something that merely suffices. It will allow our verbs to be more vivid
and sharp, our sentences to dance more lightly upon the ears of those who need
to hear.
I commend my friend and colleague Griff Martin of University
Baptist Church in Baton Rouge for his desire to see just such a baptism of
language in his own congregation. Through book studies that prepare hearers for
the sermon each week Griff and his Co-Pastor are keeping their own minds sharp
and their congregation’s vocabulary ever rich. Pete Wilson of Crosspoint Church
in Nashville uses a similar strategy.
Being able to read has more impact on a pastor than in terms
of books, though. My lament over the necessity of the “Ministry Aids” produced
by Warner Bros. is more for the state of pastors than any imagined separation
of Church and Hollywood. I pray that as pastors we would be able to engage the
culture in which our congregants live and speak prophetic words about the
things that interest, scare, and inspire them most.
We have no need for preachers who will lead boycotts; we
need pulpiteers who speak prophetic words about God’s Kingdom in relation to
the themes, stories, and images that our people see and experience. We need
pastors who can see “Man of Steel” and not
need help from Warner Bros. to see Christian themes throughout. We need men and
women who have been so steeped in the Spirit that they can read the things
their people see and hear with the eyes of Christ. We need pastors who can read and who do so with the shepherd’s
compassion for the sheep – for their good, for their nourishment, for their growth.
[1] http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/14/superman-coming-to-a-church-near-you/
[2]
There will be a follow-up article on just how awful “Fireproof,” “Flywheel,”
and other “Christian” movies are.
[3]https://thefellowship.info/cbf/media/cbf_store_downloads/03_BptMyth_AntiIntellectual.pdf
[4] http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/censorship/bannedbooksthatshapedamerica
[5]
Here’s the real issue in taking such a position: remember the mess “The Da
Vinci Code” caused? That was in large part because 1) pastors didn’t read it
and 2) our people weren’t prepared in such a way to withstand such a fad or
“new wind of philosophy.” It was our fault.
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