Hollywood and Evangelicals

This might seem a bit odd but something arrived in my inbox that I wanted to react to. It was advertising resources for churches to use that are based on the next summer blockbuster.  It was not even a “Christian film”. What happens when we base sermons on a Hollywood movie?  What about doing that with Bible studies for youth?  Why do people create studies that are based on films or music?  Years ago I had a subscription to a service that provided monthly new Christian music and Bible studies that went along with it.  I tried out a few of them and found they left an odd taste in my mouth.  It seemed that what we were doing was a study of a song and then attaching some scripture to it.  Yes, we looked at the Bible but only as it related to the song which was the focus of the discussion.  I got thinking that if we are going to do a Bible study, we ought to have that rooted primarily in scripture rather than a song.  For these, scripture was secondary to the song itself.  I ended up trashing the so called Bible Studies and just used the music in youth group.

So, when I get this email that tells me about sermon outlines to the next Hollywood blockbuster, it raises questions in my mind.  Why would pastors want to base a sermon series on a popular film?  What does that say about the role of scripture in the writing of a sermon?  Same with Bible study guides to a movie.  Do we believe that scripture is sufficient or does it need popular culture to precede it? Do we believe that God’s word has the power to transform lives or do we need to supplement it?  The only Biblical text I can think of that approaches this subject would be Acts 17 where Paul addresses the men of Athens.  However, in that situation Paul spent some time listening to what the issues where that they were debating (philosophical matters) and spoke from scripture to them.  Luke does not report the event as being fruitful at all but the fact that he includes it I think points merely to the idea that Paul was listening to the locals to find a connecting point before proclaiming the gospel.  The context of it being public preaching to non-believers is an important observation to make as well.  So, would a sermon series based on a popular film be appropriate for a church? I suppose the answer to that depends on the audience and the intention.  If it were evangelistic and preaching to a non believing audience, then perhaps… but then it’s not really a worship service is it?  That would in my mind fall into the category of an evangelistic meeting.  And even then, what are we communicating to the non believer when our message is based on Hollywood fiction that we have tied some scripture to?  What does that tell them about the source of truth?  Another possibility would be to do a series that helps Christians connect God’s word to contemporary culture.  Yet if we doing that, it seems that the starting point has to be the Bible not the film.  We would then move from God’s truth to the context of the film.  I did not get the impression from the email that this was the intention or the approach.

Maybe the bigger question is why American Evangelicals are so desperate to be relevant to the culture?  Why don’t we see that being authentically unapologetically Christian is more relevant to a hurting world than our attempts to be culturally hip or cool?