Seattle Metro Church

For some time now, our church has viewed and discussed films that have something to say about spirituality. Film and Spirituality, as it has come to be called, has been an interesting way to engage the culture around us, by giving us an avenue for discussing the way that spirituality is expressed in media. Personally, I find this a proactive way of connecting with the culture around us in potentially redeeming ways.

Modern western evangelicalism, with its Platonic separation of the sacred and secular, has dictated to the church what are and what are not acceptable acts of worship. I have been discovering that this was not always the case. Other cultures have understood and exemplified that all of life is worship. Ancient Celtic Christians, for example, acted to sanctify their day-to-day activities by having prayers for milking a cow, bathing, etc. There is even Biblical precedent: “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17).

Back to movies. Films are one of the major ways our culture expresses itself: its wants, fears, hurts and desires. Films have the power to change public perception, to educate, to entertain. They open our eyes to a wider reality; they show us a world that is bigger, brighter, darker, more full of life, beauty, and danger than our everyday experiences. They are a primary medium for our generation’s mythology. Almost anything that we (as a culture, a nation, a society, a generation) believe about ourselves, God, and our world can be found in our movies.

What a pity that the church has widely regarded movies as problematic, something to be either shunned altogether or dissected on an arbitrary decency scale. I empathize with those who wish to protect society’s children from overexposure to sexuality, violence, coarse language, and occultism. However, I believe that isolationism, opposition and denial are not the best alternatives that Christianity has to offer. I think that the challenge to Christians is to be a prophetic witness to culture. Just as Daniel interpreted the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar, so I believe that we as the church will be able, with God’s help, to provide meaning to the often meaninglessness of contemporary art forms, such as movies (even when such meaning was unknown to the creator at the time of its creation).

I would go further. Beyond saying that we Christians, the Bible, God, or simply our worldview has something to say regarding film, I would contend that the conversation can and should go two ways - namely, that film can and should influence our reading of Scripture. Something that has been missing from the Church’s movie-watching, if it has done any, is the allowance for the film to speak to us in a worldview-shaping way.

In his book Useless Beauty: Ecclesiastes through the Lens of Contemporary Film, Robert K. Johnston attempts to do that with the specific subject matter of the book of Ecclesiastes. He juxtaposes some of the book’s major themes: “life’s vanity, death, amorality, our existence’s incrutability” (p. 185) with several modern films, allowing them to illustrate these topics and provide a fuller picture of what the writer said. Not surprisingly, in light of the subject matter, many of the movies Johnston covers are rated R (Magnolia, Monster’s Ball, and American Beauty, among others). According to Johnston, several scholars have lately entered the arena of film, seeking to “reverse the hermeneutical flow,” or allow the conversation between faith and culture to be two-way.

This is a call for the community of faith to get involved, to get our hands dirty, to be actively engaged with our society - not just to have something to say to culture, but to listen for the voice of God in our circumstances, no matter how unlikely the source.

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Real Live Preacher wrote an article that ponders “What if we could do church any way that we wanted?” The result is nearly an exact description of Seattle Metro Church. Amazing.

We would begin with between five and fifteen people who are committed to following in the way of Christ, confessing their weaknesses and turning their lives over to God as they understand him or her. We would make certain commitments to God and to each other:

• We would meet once or twice a week to worship together. This meeting would be a very high priority in our lives.
• We would make these friendships intentional ones and make it a point to spend time together.
• We would agree to pray and study the scriptures together and on our own.
• We would nurture each other and care for one another, especially if one of us was hurting or in need.
• We would simplify our lives to the point where we could give 10% of our income to the community. Some who have been on the journey longer might give more.
• Each of us would find a personal and fulfilling way to serve God by serving the world. Finding your joyful place of service would be a central part of being in this community, for we would agree that Christianity is a way of living more than a set of doctrines.

We would never pay anyone to be a professional Christian. There would be no staff, no paid ministers, no salaries, and no overhead. If there were even ten wage earners among us, our collected offerings might be between twenty and fifty thousand dollars. With no salaries, buildings, or other administrative costs, almost all of this money would be used to do good things in the name of Christ.

Maybe once a year we would sit around a kitchen table and say, “What do you want to do for God this year?”

There would be a little money left over to buy coffee or even a guitar if someone wanted to play it during worship. Maybe twice a year we would all go on an extended retreat together. Those with limited funds would never have to worry about being able to afford that sort of thing.

If there were children among us, they would sit on our laps and worship with us. We would not have children’s classes. We wouldn’t need them. We would teach the children ourselves and let them be a part of everything we do.

We would never purchase or rent a place to worship. Homes would suffice. If and when the gathering became too large to meet comfortably in a living room, we would divide into two groups. Perhaps the two living room churches would meet together once a month at a park or in some borrowed space. We wouldn’t worry about what will happen someday. These things will work themselves out. I’m of the opinion that there is far too much planning in churches nowadays.

We would never advertise our faith community. Advertising tends to cheapen things, and I think we wouldn’t want to start going down that road. We would bring friends with us as we felt led. I’m sure some would find us in very mysterious ways. We would trust that those who are ready to find us would find us. Anyone would be welcome to meet with us in the living room, of course. Some might join the community when they felt ready to embrace our commitments.

If there is preaching, it would be done by everyone. All who feel ready to share would take their turn. You would have weeks or even months to read your passage of scripture prayerfully. Then you would simply share the wisdom you found in the scriptures with your good friends.

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