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Print There is a certain mentality among some people in the Church today that distresses me. Lately, I talked with someone whom I respect and explained that I felt that the Church, by holding to its traditional stance that television and movies are inherently wrong, has neglected these viable and legitimate media as a tool to influence our society for Christ. Of course, I was immediately reprimanded, and any dream I had of serving Christ or advancing Christian ideals through this new media was disparaged. “It just seems like such a waste of time. Wouldn’t you rather spend your time preaching the gospel?” I wanted to say, “I’m sorry! You’re absolutely right! What have I been thinking?! I am only expected to preach the Gospel, I shouldn’t try to show Christ and Christian living in other areas of my life. I wouldn’t want to leave the sanctuary long enough to reach somebody who is bitter toward what he thinks Christianity and church is all about. I wouldn’t want to be exposed to the world by stepping out from behind my pulpit. They might get me!” I am fed up with this notion that media is going to topple the Church. What do we actually think the Church is? The body of Christ is not merely an institution, but it is an organism, the definition of which is “a body made up of organs, or other parts that work together to carry on the various processes of life.” These different “processes of life” should mean that preaching, at least in terms of the traditional definition of the word, is not the only thing that the body of Christ puts into practice. We see nowhere in the Bible a reference to the Church merely as an institution, but we see many references to it being a body or a family or a tree, all of which have life and various aspects of it. The Church is an assemblage of people sharing a mutual experience. The Church is organic. I do not believe that the stance the Apostolic Church has taken for so long—that stance that completely removes us from all involvement with media—is the stance that we should have. We have preached too often from our own pulpits that TV and movies are shaping the way our children think and act, and yet we refuse to believe that such a powerful medium could be useful in God’s kingdom to shape the way the world looks at Christ. Too many times we have expressed our collective belief that, Hollywood determines what we should wear, how we should spend our money, and how we should think about social issues. Our very words condemn us because we preach these things only as a foundation for our platform, which is “Stay away from Hollywood.” And all the while we preach abstinence, Hollywood marches on, unchecked and under the influence of homosexuality, atheism, and nihilism. While I agree that Christians do need to stand against perversion and sin, I do not believe that we will defeat these enemies by closing ourselves in. Instead I believe the Church of Jesus Christ must stand up and take responsibility for our mission. We must remember who we are, and, empowered by this knowledge, take control of the media. It is time that Christians everywhere realize that the notion of being overcome by Hollywood is ludicrous. Yes, it is possible for an individual to be toppled if he does not look after his spiritual condition, but the Church, that organism that is the body of Christ, can withstand anything. Remember that this is the same Church that weathered the storm of persecution when its constituents were fed to the lions in Roman arenas, the same Church that endured the enslavement of the civilized world by Catholicism and then broke out of the Dark Ages with the Reformation of Christian thinking, the same Church that boldly stands today in the face of communist persecution and Islamic jihad. It is the same Gospel that people have manipulated (at least in the eyes of the world) to satisfy their own greed, it is the same Gospel that people have called offensive and hateful, it is the same Gospel that the philosopher Voltaire said would not last 100 years after his own life (he died in 1778), it is this same Gospel that will outlive Hollywood! We should not be afraid of the world. Christ, who lives in our hearts, has already overcome the world. Let me be clear on this, I do not intend to convince you to buy into everything Hollywood has or stands for, but I think that we should learn to get out of our enclosures and meet the world and its ideologies on the battlefield! Paul’s words to the Thessalonians excite me, “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your own hands…so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody” (I Thessalonians 4:11-12, NIV, emphasis mine). I will make it my ambition to work with my hands to win the respect of the world, and so that I do not become dependent on the world. In fact, I will make it my ambition to create with these hands of mine things that make the world depend on me. I believe that ideas have consequences; therefore I take very seriously the notion of putting my ideas, based on the Bible and my Christian heritage, into the mainstream. It seems that we forget about the example of Joseph in the Old Testament. In his time, he was arguably the most important man in Egypt. Think of it—the Egyptian economic and agricultural systems depended on him for their survival. Imagine a follower of Jehovah not only being a part of a heathen and idolatrous society, but even doing his best to make that society prosper! In my reading of the end of Genesis, I have yet to find it said of Joseph that he lost his faith, deserted God, or even watered down his theology. Instead, I have read that God prospered Joseph—and Egypt, too! And I have read that people knew of Joseph’s God and feared Him. So, it seems to me that if we are in covenant with Jehovah as Joseph was, then we will have blessings in all our endeavors and find favor in the eyes of God and men. I am not calling for an acceptable alternative to mainstream entertainment; I am calling for a takeover of it! We Christians must wake up from our golden slumber and realize that we have a responsibility to reach the entire world for Christ. Jesus said, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). I am struck by the intensity of the individual words that Christ used—“Go.” In Greek this literally means “to traverse.” “Traverse” is an interesting word. The definition of this word is: 1) to travel or pass across, over, or through; 2)to move to and fro over; cross and recross; 3)to extend across; cross, i.e. a bridge that traverses a river; 4)to go counter to; thwart. So, Jesus is telling His disciples to cross over into the world and to counter it. Create a bridge to connect the Church with the reality of the world and counter (or thwart) its advances! This concept of reaching our world does not simply entail leading somebody to an altar and praying them through in the Spirit. It starts with influencing their thought process, affecting their worldview. I do not propose that a movie or TV show alone can lead someone to salvation, but I know that these media can and will influence the way one thinks and may even be effective in a complete turnabout in one’s beliefs on life, God, and church. We, the body of Christ, engage in these “various processes of life” and so, providing we do all for the glory of Christ, the preacher is not irrelevant, the author is not irrelevant, and the television producer is not irrelevant. Each plays his own part in the struggle for the hearts and souls of the lost. We know that some plant and some water. Some battle for the minds of people and some battle for the heart, but the end goal is still salvation of souls. I know that some of you are having a hard time accepting what you are reading. In fact, you think you are one step ahead of me. In regard to Mark 16:15, what about this word “preach?” Another interesting word. In Greek the word is kerusso, which means to herald (as a public crier) -- preach, proclaim, publish. What better way is there to herald or cry out to our society than to broadcast it to millions sitting in their own living rooms, or even paying between $7 and $10 per person to see it at the mall? At no other time in the history of this world have there been more effective ways to penetrate a person’s private thoughts and time than by television and movies. I am not advocating a sell-out to the world. I do not mean to say that we should water down our doctrine, compromise our holiness, or arrange a Faustian “deal with the devil.” I am saying that we must be wise in our stance on media, whether TV, movies, books, magazines, or the Internet. We must be thoughtful and prayerful about how we reach the lost around us. There is a battle for the soul of every person alive today. There is a battle for the mind as well. And sometimes before the soul is exposed, the mind and heart must be seized.
ninetyandnine.com © 2005, Nathan D. Nicholls ---------- Nathan D. Nicholls is fed up with mediocrity in his Christian walk and searching for answers on his quest for excellence and relevance. He has recently been accepted to Webster University in St. Louis, MO, and is considering applying to their Film Production program. Nate has yet to find a cup of coffee that he won’t drink. (Go, Starbucks!) |
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