When I was in Detroit I got a chance to go to the Institute of Art. It was a very impressive art museum, and I really had a great time. While I am far from being a professional art critic, I love looking at art, learning about art history, and seeing the movements that have happened in art. I love seeing how people use art to express themselves, their emotions and joys and fears and hopes, and how art is used to express and impress those things upon others. Art is powerful, and an amazing gift that God has given us as humans – the ability to create and express in this way. That is something to thank God for. We also need to value our artists in the church, and interact with art in our world.
This Sunday, we are going to dive into a new series called “God at the Movies” – this is a way for us to interact with the stories of our culture. It is not complicated – most people enjoy movies. But we are going to be looking at the themes of the movies, and thinking about them, and thinking about how the Bible’s teaching intersects and interacts with those themes. This is going beyond counting how many bad words are in a movie, and getting into the point the movie is trying to communicate – and interacting with that point. This requires a more nuanced understanding of art, and how it works, and how it influences us. Of course, we will be having a lot of fun, too. The movies we are watching are all “popcorn flicks” – Man of Steel, the Lone Ranger, and Pacific Rim – but these give us a chance to start thinking about stories and art with our faith involved.
This is also a great chance to invite others to go to the movies with you, talk about the themes, and invite them to church. Pray about going to the movies for Jesus this month! And I will be leading groups to the movies, too, on July 14 and 21. As always, I am praying that this teaching time will challenge and grow us, and that we will have fun, too. And as always, please keep us in prayer as we start these new ventures and new ways of reaching people for Christ. God bless you!!
