Iranian film director, Nader Talebzadeh, just released a movie called Jesus, the Spirit of God, a movie presenting the Muslim understanding of Jesus. A Middle East Times article about the movie states that this “is the first film giving an Islamic view of Jesus Christ, in a bid to show the ‘common ground’ between Muslims and Christians.”
According to the article, Jesus is not the one who is crucified, but Judas–which is what the Koran teaches. Jesus is rescued by God and taken up into heaven before he is crucified.
I’d be interested in seeing this movie if it’s ever available in the U.S. Should be interesting to see if it makes news in the wider media.
Before I get to Cloverfield, I just want to mention that today has been a pretty good day so far–and it’s only 3:00 p.m.! This was my first Sunday back at church after a week of vacation and a week of study leave, and I was honestly really glad to be back. We had one combined service today (which was nice for me) followed by our annual Congregational Meeting.
This was my first time moderating a congregational meeting–and I think it showed! I had a lot of help from people in the congregation (the long-time members) reminding me of some of the things that had to happen–like declaring a quorum, appointing a clerk, etc. But it was all in all a good meeting. We talked a bit about our Appreciative Inquiry process (which we’re calling Positive Storytelling), and after opening up the floor for questions a lot of folks who have already done the AI interviews shared what a great experience it was! I was really excited to hear them share that!
After the meeting, I got a compliment from someone (although I’m not 100% sure it was intended as a compliment). A lady said to me, “I think that was the least Presbyterian congregational meeting I’ve ever been to.” I smiled and said, “Well, to someone like me, that’s not really a bad thing…”
So, I left feeling pretty good about the morning. Robin took the kids to see her brother and parents this morning, so I have the afternoon off. I headed to Panera to do some reading for class and suddenly realized, “Hey, I could go see a movie!” (something parents of young children rarely have the opportunity to do…)
So I popped into the theater just in time to see the 12:45 showing of Cloverfield.
It was a pretty fun movie, though rather simplistic. I can see the filmmakers working on the idea: “What if we make a giant-monster -destroys-the-city movie, but told it from the perspective of someone actually experiencing it with a video camera?”
The movie used every familiar giant monster sci-fi movie convention we know. In a sense, in order to understand this movie a person has to understand the conventions of 20th century sci-fi monster flicks. The only way to understand what was going on in this movie was to know what happens when a giant reptilian alien attacks New York city: it destroys buildings (a la King Kong, Godzilla, and one of my favorite 1980’s video games, Rampage). And how does this giant creature take control? Its offspring lays eggs inside human beings to multiply.
But this is never explained in the movie. One of the characters is bit by one of the spiderlike offspring of the giant creature and a few minutes later she explodes (all we see is the silhouette inside a tent). We’re never told what happens (we don’t even see the alien come out), but we all know that the alien spiders laid parasite eggs inside her that grew into full-grown alien spiders whose only way of escaping their host was to burst out of her abdomen (think John Hurt in Alien; here’s a picture).
Everything in the movie is predictable. But I think that’s kind of the point. The movie is essentially an experiment in telling a story that everyone already knows, but from one average Joe’s perspective.
And the movie ends without any answers. What was that creature? Was it from outer space? From 20,000 leagues under the sea? What happened to New York? Did they kill the creature? Did they save the city? The point is, the answers to those questions don’t really matter. We all know how the story ends because we’ve already seen it a hundred times.
Anyway, while it wasn’t the greatest movie I’ve ever seen, it was a pretty fun movie. And I’m just happy I got to see a movie in the theater for a change!
More great stuff today! To be honest, though, there’s no way I can really communicate everything I’m learning. So in these updates I’m just giving a small taste of what we’re covering.
Today we talked a lot about the Missional Change Model (primarily the model found on page 83 of The Missional Leader) which says, first of all, that change never happens in a straight line. First we move this way a little bit, then that way, then this way, then another way altogether until we finally reach a destination (although, to be perfectly honest, we never really reach a final destination–we’re always moving through change).
In a nutshell, these are the five stages of change:
Awareness - Begin where people are at this moment and help them become aware of where they are, what the reality of the situation is. This involves a lot of listening–listening to people’s stories and helping them to know the story in which they are living.
Understanding - This is an ongoing process of listening and reflecting. People begin to better understand where they are and begin to think about the implications of that.
Evaluation - The congregation examines current actions, attitudes, and values in light of new understanding. What does what we now know say about who we are as God’s people, as a community at this time?
Experiment - Risk some change. People are afraid of failure. As a result, churches generally create environments in which failure doesn’t happen. We need to create an environment in which it’s ok to fail. We also need to relieve people’s anxiety by letting them know we’re not changing things, we’re just experimenting.
Commit - Sign on to new ways of being church. Notice it’s not a commitment to doing new things, it’s a commitment to a new way of being.
We also spent a lot of time on the Pastor/Leader Survey that we were to have filled out by people in our churches, colleagues, etc. last fall. I, however, didn’t do this survey. The professors told me to wait a year until I’ve been at my church for longer than just a few months. That way people will better be able to gauge my leadership in this church.
In the evening the whole class went to see Atonement. Pretty cool movie. I thought it was going to be a chick flick. Not so. It was a love story, but it definitely wasn’t Runaway Bride.
Well, thanks to Vance, I finally have a digital version of a video I edited back in 1999 just before The Phantom Menacecame out. So, I uploaded it to YouTube and made it public to the world!!
What I love about this song is that it captures the theology of the story of Anakin Skywalker, and I’ve tried to bring it out even more in this video.
The story of Anakin is essentially the story of humanity according to the Bible. Anakin begins in innocence, experiences a fall into sin (the “dark side”), becomes a slave to that sin (especially the Emperor), but ultimately experiences redemption following a sacrifice. The difference between Anakin’s story and our story is that Anakin paid his own sacrifice, while for humanity Jesus paid the sacrifice.
Anyway, here it is. The lyrics are below.
“Annakin” by The Dell Griffiths (I think they misspelled it on purpose to avoid any legal issues)
All of you
Part of me
Hidden from view
Another world
Kept from me
Kept from you
But something’s different
Since you’ve found your heart again
So this is heaven, Anakin
Treacherous
Evil hands
You had on us
Breathing deep
Through steel
And misplaced trust
But something’s different
Now you’ve found your heart again
So this is heaven, Anakin
Anakin
Oh, this is heaven, Anakin
Anakin
Oh, this is heaven, Anakin
Anakin
Anakin
This is heaven
Anakin
How you feelin’?
Are you feelin’ ok, Anakin?
How you feelin’
Now that you’re in heaven, Anakin?
How you feelin’?
Are you feelin’ ok, Anakin?
How you feelin’
Now that you’re in heaven, Anakin?
I know, I know… I haven’t posted anything new in over a week! I guess I’ve been in one of those non-inspired states. Or maybe it’s more like this: I’ve been pouring all my energy into the church and into my Doctor of Ministry, so StretchyChurch has gotten shorted.
I’ll just share a couple quick things:
First, I’m soooo happy living in San Diego! I love the church I’ve been called to lead. I love the people. I love the neighborhood. And I love the potential that this church has to become a vibrant presence in the community of Clairemont!
I’m also happy because we live so close to the ocean. It’s better than I could have asked for! I’ve never been in a place where I could go surfing almost anytime I want to. This past week I went surfing on Thursday morning before work (from 6-8am) and then I went again on Friday morning after dropping Micah off at preschool. It’s just more than I could have ever hoped for!
The second thing I thought I’d share has to do with a comedy duo called Flight of the Conchords. They are hilarious!! My friend, D.G. has a couple posts with some videos from them. Check them out here and here.
Well, today I just found out that Bret (the smaller guy in the duo) played an elf in The Lord of the Rings trilogy! In The Fellowship of the Ring, Bret plays one of the elves at the Council of Elrond. And in the extended version of The Return of the King, he plays an elf who says to Arwen (as she is getting ready to leave Middle Earth) something like, “We must leave, my Lady.”
Believe it or not, there is an entire website dedicated to Bret’s role in The Lord of the Rings. The site is called Figwit Lives! (Figwit is an acronym for “Frodo is grea…who is THAT?!?” Very random… But I guess the girls think he’s pretty cute!)
I know this news isn’t particularly new, but it’s something I’m pretty excited about. I’m talking about the Indiana Jones 4 movie! So, here’s a link to the Indiana Jones website. They’ve got some great video from Comic-con (which just happens to be in San Diego, which just happens to be where I’m moving next month!) as well as from the set. And I gotta say, it’s really cool seeing Steven Spielberg and George Lucas working on this movie together in some of those videos!
Every now and then, Ed McNulty (who publishes a film review journal for ministry leaders called Visual Parables) will ask me to review a movie for him. I used to review a lot more than I do now, but having a baby kinda changes things. In fact, it’s been about a year since my last movie review.
Just thought I’d share my review of Transformers with you. I’ve also included two videos: 1) a video of the old Transformers cartoon that I used to watch every day after school (Ah, the good ol’ days…), and 2) another Transformers video that’s just really cool–you gotta check that one out!
Anyway, here’s the review…
—–
If the theme of Transformers, directed by Michael Bay, were to be distilled into a single statement, it would be this: There is “more than meets the eye” to the human race. The pun throughout the film, of course, is the fact that this quote comes directly from the old Transformers theme song—“Transformers, more than meets the eye…. Transformers, robots in disguise!”
Unfortunately, this theme is communicated only a couple of times in a few lines of dialogue. Other than that, the movie is little more than giant robots smashing each other.
Don’t get me wrong. As a 34-year-old white male—and having spent countless hours playing with Transformers as a Jr. Higher in the mid-80’s—I’m more than happy to watch Optimus Prime and Megatron duke it out in the streets of downtown Los Angeles! In that sense, the movie definitely delivers!
But in terms of depth—well, there really isn’t any. And the few attempts at thematic substance only sound hokey and preachy. I’m talking about such lines as Optimus Prime referring to humans as a “young race” that has a lot of potential. Or the exchange in which Megatron says that humans deserve to die and Optimus Prime says that humans deserve the choice whether or not to die. It was during those scenes that I found myself thinking, “Less talking; more smashing, please.”
In a nutshell, the film is about a young man named Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf) who buys a car that turns out to be an Autobot. He and Mikaela (Megan Fox), his high school crush, are then thrown into the middle of the war between the benevolent Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, and the evil Decepticons, led by the brutal and power-hungry Megatron.
In the end, the good guys win, of course, with just enough open-endedness to leave room for Transformers 2.
The cast also includes Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson as soldiers who survive a Decepticon attack while stationed in Qatar, Jon Voight as the U.S. Secretary of Defense, John Turturro as Agent Simmons, Anthony Anderson as computer hacker Glen Whitmann, and Bernie Mac as used car salesman Bobby Bolivia.
Questions for Discussion:
1) Is it true that there is “more than meets the eye” to the human race? What kind of a first impression would we make on a race of alien robots? What kind of an impression do we make on God?
2) Do you think the human race tends toward evil or toward good? Why? What evidence do you have for your conclusion?
3) Do you think God sees potential in the human race? What kind of potential?
4) What do you think is God’s greatest hope for humanity?
Well, immediately after writing my last post about not posting, I watched a movie called One Night with the King, which, as many of you know, is the story of Esther from the Old Testament. Let me give you my thoughts…
The special effects are pretty good. Lots of CG shots of Babylon that actually look pretty real.
Overall the production quality was pretty good. It didn’t totally feel like a low budget Christian movie.
The ladies will love King Xerxes with his big, well-oiled pecs! (This picture doesn’t do him justice–you’ll just have to see the movie. Oh, and just for fun, here’s what Xerxes looks like in 300.)
There’s a forced reference to the coming Jewish Messiah.
Cons
There’s a forced reference to the coming Jewish Messiah.
On the one hand Esther comes across a bit too much as a happy-go-lucky American . On the other hand, even though the character shows courage by going to the king unbidden, she comes off as kind of a wimp whenever she’s around Haman.
Everyone does great British accents (because for most them it’s their real accent), except for Esther and Xerxes.
The movie is actually pretty hard to follow (even for someone who knows the story).
The ending is really cheesy. Esther has this necklace with a jewel that projects Stars of David all around when held up to light. In the end, it turns out that only Esther can see the stars. Haman can’t see them. Xerxes can’t see them. But wait–at the last moment Xerxes reveals he actually can see them. And they all live happily ever after.
There’s one more thing I have to mention–and it’s a bit of a “Yikes!” factor. In the end credits, I discovered that the movie was produced by Matt and Laurie Crouch. Matt Crouch is the son of Paul and Jan Crouch of the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Yikes! (I guess that’s where they got their budget….)
Anyway, all in all it wasn’t a bad movie. It was good production quality (so it didn’t feel cheap) and the story is a good story (the story has been around for thousands of years, after all…). And the cast was really good. I just wish they hadn’t made it so confusing by adding all kinds of unnecessary “motivation” to the characters.
Iranian film director, Nader Talebzadeh, just released a movie called Jesus, the Spirit of God, a movie presenting the Muslim understanding of Jesus. A Middle East Times article about the movie states that this “is the first film giving an Islamic view of Jesus Christ, in a bid to show the ‘common ground’ between Muslims and Christians.”
Markus Watson
