Current Movie Series for Summer 2008

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Permalink Reply by Jake Bouma on June 26, 2008 at 11:07pm

It's too bad that you can't use Pan's Labyrinth... that movie has some serious spiritual undertones. But, it's rated R. I posted on my website after watching the movie for the first time, but it bears posting here as well:

"Take for example, the story of Princess Moanna told to Ofelia by the faun:

'A long time ago, in the underground realm, where there are no lies or pain, there lived a Princess who dreamed of the human world. She dreamed of blue skies, soft breeze, and sunshine. One day, eluding her keepers, the Princess escaped. Once outside, the brightness blinded her and erased every trace of the past from her memory. She forgot who she was and where she came from. Her body suffered cold, sickness, and pain. Eventually, she died. However, her father, the King, always knew that the Princess’ soul would return, perhaps in another body, in another place, at another time. And he would wait for her, until he drew his last breath, until the world stopped turning.'

If nothing else, that is a rather poetic telling of the Gospel."

Have you ever thought about using the Bourne movies to talk about the nature of identity? Who we are relationally, with other humans and with God, as opposed to who we are in societal institutions, etc.

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Permalink Reply by Greg Meyer on June 26, 2008 at 11:27pm

Thanks for the thoughts, Jake. I'll keep Pan's Labyrinth in mind for a separate creative element sometime. This series will only draw on movies that are actually in the theatres while we are preaching about them, however. We are after a target of pretty hardcore unchurched folks, and being that current in the movies says a lot to them and encourages them to invite their friends. We do draw on movies in general as illustrations from time to time as well though, so this could work for us.

We used the Bourne Ultimatum last year in our God on Film series because it was in the theatres during the summer when we did our series. The message on that movie was one of the most powerful ones we had. The baptism metaphors running through all 3 movies was incredible.

If you watch the trailer we created (link above) you'll see the movies we used last summer.

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Permalink Reply by Jake Bouma on June 27, 2008 at 12:20am

A couple more movie suggestions for this summer: Hancock and Boy A, although Boy A hasn't received much publicity. Watch the trailer though for sure (http://www.apple.com/trailers/weinstein/boya/). Lots of themes to work with here, especially redemption, forgiveness, healing, etc. The film's tagline is "Who decides who gets a second chance?"

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Permalink Reply by Greg Meyer on June 30, 2008 at 12:46pm

Jake,
I haven't checked out Hancock yet, but will. Boy A isn't released until September, so that is too late for us. Thanks for the help.

We will be making our final selection this week. I'll post the results, what we hope to accomplish with them, and why. Keep posted, and keep sending me your favorites!

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Permalink Reply by Greg Meyer on July 7, 2008 at 2:29pm

Okay, here is our list of movies. I'm just throwing the date/title/our subtitle out for them now (the name is a link to the trailer, if you're curious). I'll post more info about where we are headed with each later, but I want to get this to the Creative Worship Tour community NOW so we can get feedback and ideas from you.
We chose these to 1. Be in the theaters WHILE we are dealing with them. Wall-E is the only stretch on this (since it came out on June 27, but we figure it is so popular that it will stick around all summer). 2. Has to be G, PG or PG-13. 3. Balance genres of film and themes. 4. Appeal to different audiences (kids, adults, men, women). 5. Have at least some vague redeemable qualities to it. (Although we have found that there is a message in anything. And finding something in nothing can also be part of the message.)

Here they are:

August 3 - Wall-E : The big picture of a little life.

August 10 - Meet Dave : What's inside your head?

August 17 - We're doing an outdoor worship service at Minnehaha Falls park, so the God on Film series takes a break...

August 24 - The Dark Knight (Batman) : When good gets scary.
You may want to read this review to get the full picture of this film's power.

August 31 - The Perfect Game : Who's the real winner?

I know we're nuts. But hey, what are willing to do to give Jesus a hearing?

Anyone interested in doing the same series at your church, or with your youth group? We'll be happy to share all the supporting resources we develop...

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Permalink Reply by Greg Meyer on July 7, 2008 at 3:06pm

Forgot to mention; Matt Kudej is putting together a series video roll-in for us that should be done in time for our on-line newsletter next week (Thursday a.m.) or by next Sunday (7/20) at latest. We'll get it on YouTube as soon as we have it.

You can see last years linked on the original post of this Conversation.

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Permalink Reply by Linda Parriott on July 7, 2008 at 9:42pm

Are you familiar with www.movieministry.com? It's a website that offers resources for pastors, lay leaders, youth ministers, etc, who use movies to communicate the messages of the gospel. In addition to the paid-subscription products, there's free content on the site plus a couple of free e-mail newsletters. The website has a section for Movies in Theaters for the current month.

Right now, there's an article about Wall-E. Another current movie they're featuring is "Kung Fu Panda," which is more up my alley than "The Dark Knight." Too bad that one will probably be out of the 1st-run theatres by the time of your movie series. I'd never heard of "The Perfect Game" until I read your list. I recognize a few Disney Channel actors in the trailer. (OK, that's more information about me than you wanted to know.)

Having a movie series in the summer is a great way to keep the energy going. It must be challenging to try to get information about movies and make the connections before they're even released.

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Permalink Reply by Greg Meyer on July 7, 2008 at 10:04pm

Linda, thanks. I am familiar with movieministy.com, but hadn't checked it yet. I'll take a look. Have you also looked at wingclips.com. A lot of the same stuff. There is another resource-list site that a friend of mine in New Jersey has up that is full of places to go for creative resources. It's called www.mycreativeteam.org. Not bad stuff. We did consider Kung Fu Panda, but it is already leaving the theatres and August is a couple of three weeks away yet.

Preaching on movies when you've barely had a chance to see them is a challenge, but that's half the fun of it. And it is a message of 'relevance' that is important to the Jacob's Well crowd. We did it last year and it was very successful. Might be too risky for many churches however. At Jacob's Well the sense of adventure is high and people give us a long leash, in fact want us to try stuff like this. For instance, one of the films we chose last year was "I Now Pronounce You, Chuck and Larry." Some good themes... but the film was pretty raunchy. So we started with an apology and the recommendation to probably go see something different if they hadn't seen it yet. And don't take your kids... But from there we talked about what we could pull out of it. It turned out okay. People appreciated it.

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Permalink Reply by Greg Meyer on August 7, 2008 at 12:50pm

Our movie series started last Sunday (Aug 3) with Wall-E. Good stuff there. We made strong connections with the question of what makes us truly human. There was this little robot demonstrating more human characteristics through his search for connection and his acknowledgment of responsibility, than the humans in the movie who had spent 700 years moving away from connection and responsibility. It is interesting to watch a movie of humans and robots, and identify with the robots more than the humans. Clearly our desire isn't for our own kind (i.e. physical makeup) but for those who demonstrate the internal characteristics we long for (image of God?).

We made the worship entry space seem like you were coming into a theatre. People loved it and attendance was up. Who knows why, but an engaging series tends to do that.

We also had two child (as opposed to infant) baptisms. We used them to complete the message (sermon) as we tied into the metaphor of the pool in the movie. If you've seen it (if you haven't, do, it's worth it) you'll remember John and Mary. The only two humans in the movie with names. They are 'awakened' by WALL-E from their disconnected existences and discover that where they'd always gathered was around a pool. And they actually get in the pool and play! That was their turning point. The waters started them off on a life they had never known before. Baptism anyone?

This Sunday is Meet Dave. The movie that we wouldn't have chosen had we been able to see it before we had to choose... Oh well, God is in everything... somewhere. And it gives us a chance to remind people that we are a church that takes risks and isn't afraid to learn.

I just went to The Dark Knight last night with a group of Jacob's Well folks. Incredible movie. Managing the messages in that movie will be a challenge. Watch for a blogroll on that one.

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Permalink Reply by Greg Meyer on August 27, 2008 at 5:45pm

We are about to finish up our God on Film series. It went well, I believe. The Dark Knight (Batman) was really strong. A lot of input and involvement from folks on that movie. Here's what was interesting... our last movie, The Perfect Game, never got released! It was supposed to come out on Aug 8, but didn't and Lionsgate (the company behind the film) doesn't even mention it on their site. I figure they didn't want to compete with the Olympics and are holding it to release around World Series time. Not a bad idea.

Anyway, that left me with a quandary. Pick another movie? There wasn't a real obvious one, and this was last minute. Or... use the teachable moment. That's what we did. It isn't a movie this week, it is "What do you do when life throws you a curve ball?"

I have some engaging creative concepts to use and will share them hear a bit later.

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