double features

Two passions kinda animate me. One is biblical exposition with texts like gospel and epistle and prophecy. The other is cultural exposition with texts like advertisement and lyric and movie.

Take movies for example...
If I was a (youth) pastor I'd organise a retreat for the leadership team in which we watch a double feature of High School Musical and Invisible Children (available as a DVD from Manurewa Baptist Church for $2 - +6492674411) ... I watched it last night and it provoked this posting). We'd ask how the characters in the two movies answer the two big questions of life: Identity (who am I?) and Destiny (why am I here?) ... before finishing with some biblical exposition on how God answers those questions - and then make our response as a team.

If I was a pastor I'd organise a retreat for the leadership team in which we watch a double feature of Chocolat and As It Is In Heaven. They have similar settings, similar plotlines, and similar characters. We'd let the movies speak both literally and figuratively to us. Then we'd ask how the characters (and the director, for that matter) in the movies open up issues like community and leadership and sin - thereby opening the way for us to respond with thoughts about mission and salvation ... before finishing with some biblical exposition on what it means to be church - and then make our response as a team.

Maybe you can beat me to it (as I am not a pastor!) and tell me how you get on...

nice chatting

Paul