As a refresher, the last blog was about how we as Christians are losing the battle–but not the war–for who is telling the stories to our culture. Pop culture is king right now and to win the battle we have to engage the culture not isolate ourselves from it.

The challenge from the last blog was to pay attention to the pop culture references around you. What did you hear in conversations? What did you see on TV or in the movies? What was the story that was being told to you?

I believe that Christians are losing the battle right now, but I see signs of hope that the tide is turning!! I believe that Christians are beginning to enter the marketplace of pop culture and are having success in telling our stories. We have the benefit of having the greatest story ever told–the story of our faith! We are telling the story in a positive light, not in a condemning way. We aren’t going to win the battle of stories by telling the world that they are going to hell. We are presenting the world with the stories of hope through the fall, the redemption, and the restoration of man. We are presenting the Gospel in stories that are not overtly Christian, but are steeped in the tenants of the faith–which resonates with the audience in my opinion because the stories that they are telling are in the souls of all men and women.

I am not just talking about the movies like “Fireproof” and “Courageous”. I really enjoyed both of those movies because they challenged me to be a man of God and showed me what that looks like in our culture. But, of the $35 million “Courageous” made, the vast majority of it came from Christians who went to see it because it was marketed as a Christian film. We do need those movies to motivate us to action. But, we also need movies that will bring in larger audiences.

This is happening!! There are movies that are helping us win the battle of stories. In the last few years we have seen the “Lord of the Rings” movies and now “The Hobbitt” which are based on the novels written by a Christian J.R.R. Tolkien. We are have C.S. Lewis’ “Chronicles of Narnia” that has also been made into successful films that drew wide audiences. Those two series of films alone brought in 4.42 billion dollars! That is billion with a “b”!

The most recent pop culture phenom movie with a Christian message was “Les Mis”. What a powerful story of redemption and grace. The redemption of one man–Valjean–then leads to the redemption of Cosette and Marius. If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend it–and I will say that I have been in tears at the end both times I have seen it. (I know, pretty manly!) This movie took in $437 million and had universal appeal…and many, many people saw the Gospel story for the first time! It isn’t a “Christian” movie, but you can’t watch it and not wonder about what grace is.

What am I missing? What movies or TV shows are out there with messages that are working to get the Christian message out to the world? How have the arts and media shaped your lives? For example, Laura and I (and probably many others) watch “It’s A Wonderful Life” every Christmas Eve. Why is that? What is it about movies that help shape our lives? What movies have been inspirational in your life? Let’s face it, we are moved by great stories and are drawn to great storytellers. This has been put inside us for a reason.

More to come…
Jeremy