Cole Phillips

Finding God in the Top 50 Movies of the 21st Century

Today, I heard Dr. Craig Detweiler, the author of A Matrix of Meanings: Finding God in Popular Culture. He said that at its best, pop culture can be our current wisdom literature that gives us a clear picture of the state of our world. As communicators of the Gospel, we can interpret our culture in light of the truth of the Bible by searching for God's fingerprints. If you look at the top 50 movies of the 21^st century, you can see that they can be broken down to 4 categories:

FILM NOIR
These are movies about gangsters, murders, and backstreets that reveal the destruction of original sin. The best example of this might be the film of the 90s: Pulp Fiction. Many times, they ask the questions, "Who am I?" "Where did I come from?" They deal with the way we are divided against ourselves and our ability to deceive even ourselves. Today, people are looking for a real picture of evil. The Joker in the new Batman movie is a picture of chaos and evil.

ENSEMBLE DRAMAS
These movies are about our need for community. They point out our difference and how we can live together and relate to each other and even those who don't like us. Little Miss Sunshine, Mystic River, United 93, Hotel Rwanda and Crash are examples of ensemble movies. They ask questions about how we need each other and can get along despite our differences.

HISTORY (beyond Nostalgia)
These are movies that help us deal with our past, process our pain, rebuild what's broken down and imagine a new future. Examples include Gladiator,
Cinderella Man, The Pianist, and The Lives of Others.

FANTASY
These movies explore myths, legends, other worlds, looking for a better place, and tell stories about an eternal cosmic drama. Some good examples are
Pirates of the Carribean, Big Fish, and Pan's Labyrinth

Where does the Gospel fit into all this?

• Our identity comes from God (Genesis 3)
• We've been made for community (Genesis 4)
• Our future is sure (Revelation 21-22)

Too often, we aren't telling the stories in the Bible of the beginning and the end that are now captivating the imaginations of our culture. We concentrate on what's in-between, let's look at the big epic story from beginning to end.

Image is Everything

Leonard Sweet's message at the National Worship Leader's Conference was incredible, as you would expect. He's got a way with words, well, as he would say, images, since we don't live in a Gutenberg world anymore but a Google world. Our culture is changing so rapidly, it's hard to believe that Google will be 10 years old this September, but look at the impact it's made in our world.

Len began by asking us for a biblical image of Jesus singing. He sang after the Last Supper. But we don't usually consider that Jesus sang Psalm 22, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" which is the first line of the Psalm, like the title that brings to mind the entire song. Keep in mind that you don't quote the Psalms, you sing them. Psalms is a hymnbook.

Metaphor is metamorphosis. We think in pictures, not words. Think of your dreams: they are pictures, not words. So, as we help paint new visual pictures, God changes lives. For the Christian, image is everything. Jesus is the perfect image of the invisible God. We are to perform brain surgery, or soul surgery, as we put truth to song and image. Our mind is composed of metaphors.

A worship leader's role is to put images and metaphors to sound. We are to "Keep Austin Weird" by making the familiar strange. What we are familiar with needs to be reexamined so we can see it in fresh ways. The Russian word is "ostranenie".

Jesus was a master at metaphor ministry. He always taught with pictures and stories. He always said, "You've heard it said (the familiar), but I say to you (the strange)…"

• 1 billion people live on $1 a day.
• 1 billion seconds ago, the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan.
• 1 billion minutes ago, Jesus walked the planet.
• 1 billion dollars ago, was a just a few minutes ago that our government has spent.
• 1 billion Cokes ago, was yesterday morning.

7 Metaphors for the Future

1) Design – we design everything, even our toilet bowl cleaners. Style is substance today. We need designer lives, designed by Jesus.

2) Transformation – the image of the pearl in the oyster

3) Pilgrim – Followers. We've had 30 years of "leadership" but a better Biblical image is of a disciple who is first a follower of Jesus. We lead from behind Jesus. And sometimes you're called to the front of the line, but you still follow.

4) Connection – The image is the web. (I especially like this one.) In 1973, the first cell phone call was made. Today, half the world's population has a cell phone and then in addition, some in third world countries have a small sim card and share phones.

5) Organic – the image of the apple. The past was like an orange which you peel and it's segmented. Life used to be segmented. Education used to be segmented. (A professor is seminary actually had me diagram the parables, which flies in the face of what Jesus' teaching was all about.) You eat an apple whole, peel and all.

6) Wind – the image is the Spirit. You build a church from the sound up. We are sound theologians. Spirit comes first. The Word became flesh.

7) Harmony – When you sing harmony, you sing different notes, different rhythms, different times, different words, sometimes different pages but all to sing the same song of praise to the Lord. Don't think in terms of job descriptions but in terms of making music together. The different parts bring harmony. How well does your spirit fit together with others?

Crazy Cupcakes

Today is Makenzie and Bethanie's birthdays. Yes, they were born 2 years apart on the same day. They've brought so much light and joy into my life. I'm so proud of them and thank God for them every day! Here's a birthday video we made today. ENJOY!:

Happy Birthday!

I Believe...

I’m working on next Sunday’s message called I Want to Believe and found these quotes in a file on my computer from students around the world. They completed the sentence: I BELIEVE…

• I believe! B, New Zealand, 16
  
• I believe in miracles. (I know this is probably an overused statement, but in the past three years God has proved over and over that with Him anything is possible - even when one of the nation's most brilliant surgeons says it isn't. I am truly amazed.) Casey Lynn, Michigan, 19
• I believe that the only real "true love" was displayed on a cross...and that truly does conquer all. Stacey, Ohio, 15
• I believe true love waits! Amber, Georgia, 16
• I believe my life can make a difference. Amy, New Zealand
• I believe that if you don't learn from history it's bound to repeat itself. I believe that if you don't learn from history it's bound to repeat itself. I believe that if you don't learn from history it's bound to repeat itself. I believe that if you don't learn from history it's bound to repeat itself. I believe that if you don't learn from...Well you get the picture. Shannan, 17
• I believe that duct tape can fix anything. Jenn, Georgia
• I believe music is God's gift to the world. Ben, Virginia, 17
• I believe that eye kan du allmost anethin butt spel!!! Beth, Canada
• I believe that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us! Lauren, Pennsylvania, 17
• I believe God's love has the power to change lives. Stephanie, Minnesota
• * b*l**v* * d*n't N**d T* *s* v*w*ls. (i believe i don't need to use vowels.) ruth, england
• I believe my daddy will safely come home from the war because God said he would take care of him. Claire, North Carolina, 16
• I believe it's ok to not act your age sometimes. Amber, Georgia, 16
• I believe that although it might not always make sense, God's will for me is still always better than anything i could ever imagine for myself. Christelle, Canada, 17
• I believe that every moment is a time to be cherished. As you grow those moments go by faster and faster. Daniel, California, 19
• I believe that chills were a gift from God to man. Daniel, California, 19
• I believe in miracles ... (since you came along, you sexy thing! lol) Aaron ,Texas, 13
• I believe that Jesus smiles when He looks at me. Jennifer
• I believe that when I am doing God's will I have the potential to change the world. Rachel, Georgia, 16
• I believe that JESUS ROCKS!!!!! Kristine, Northern Ireland, 16

This quote was scrawled on the wall of a Nazi concentration camp: "I believe in the sun even when it's not shining. I believe in love even when I can't feel it. I believe in God even when He is silent."

Movie Week

This week, my kids were gone and for some reason I ended up seeing a bunch of movies. Here's a rundown of the flicks:

Lars and the Real Girl: My brother recommended this to me, so Pam and I watched it on pay-per-view. This is the one where Ryan Gosling is a socially-stunted guy who shuns relationships. So he orders a doll off of an adult website and treats her as his fiance. Because of his high moral standards, he has his brother and sister-in-law keep her at their house. The small town loves Lars and embraces his fiance as a real person. Through their love and commitment to him, Lars learns to love the people around him and breaks free from his fantasy world. The movie is extremely slow but if you're in the right mood with time to kill, this one has a lot of content to chew on.

The Happening: Pam and I caught this one at the theater in San Marcos that shows  50 cent movies on Tuesday night. And it was still a complete waste of money. There was absolutely no mystery to it, as you see exactly what's "happening" in the first minute of the movie. If M. Night Shyamalan wants to induce people to kill themselves in cruel ways, he only needs to make more movies like this one. Marky Mark did a pretty good job carrying this otherwise ridiculous story. I want my money back!

Get Smart: Pam and I saw this one with the White's at the Alamo Drafthouse. I thought this one was going to be just a watchable movie that was semi-entertaining. Instead, I couldn't stop laughing. I loved the action and all the guest stars. This is one of the best comedies that I've seen in a long time.

The Dark Knight: Even though I never liked any of the Batman movies, Batman Begins changed all that. I loved that one and was so pumped about the new one. A friend of ours got Zak and I tickets for the premiere showing on Thursday night at midnight. This just might be the best movie I've ever seen. Yes, it's dark. But it explores so many facets of human nature that it kept me hooked the entire 2 and a half hours. I'm looking forward to God On Film this Sunday where we're talking about some of the themes in the movie.

Tomorrow night, I'm going to watch Journey to the Center of the Earth for Makenzie's birthday. And that will be the official end of Movie week.

A Little Help From My Friends

Bram just sent me this video. I just thought I knew what Joe Cocker was saying before, but this will change the song forever. I really needed this today and hope you enjoy it:

Chris Sligh is gonna rock the PAC

When Chris Sligh took a major risk on American Idol and sang dcTalk's "We All Wanna Be Loved," I knew that there was more to him than the typical wannabe rockstar. With his national platform on Idol, he had opportunities to go the major label route. But that's not Chris's style. He's more than just the next manufactured singer to be prodded through the reality show cattle call. He heard God's call on his life, stayed true to his artistic vision, and pursued a higher way. His debut solo album is by far one of the best of the year, with melodic rock filled with enough pop hooks to stay lodged in your head for months.

When we were given the chance by The River 102.3 to host Chris's first Austin, TX appearance, I jumped at the chance. It fits right in line with The Connection Church's strategy of sharing our faith through pop culture. Who better to bring in for our first major concert than the guy who gained attention by telling off Simon Cowell?

So we're going to celebrate "Back to School" with Chris Sligh and his band performing on Friday night, August 15th at 7pm at the PAC. Tickets are only $10. To buy tickets online, click here.

You've heard Chris' first single "Empty Me" on The River. If you want to buy his cd, you can download it on iTunes here. I've got a banner up on the side of my blog so you can order tickets anytime. This would be a great event to bring a friend to that you want to introduce to TCC.

Update: I just read this on Chris's blog and it got me even more pumped: You need to find a way to come to a Back to School date. The show is going to be incindiery. Your face will melt off and your heart will be melted. We've got some big plans.

Blocks Party

Nike's got the swoosh. Mickey D's has the golden arches. They're instantly recognizable symbols of a popular brand.

At The Connection Church, we've got the blue blocks. But what do they mean? Many people guess that they're a tribute to the awesome 80's video game Q*Bert. While that is cool, they actually mean so much more. The 3 stacked blocks are constant reminders of what The Connection Church is all about: Connecting people with God, Connecting with God, and our mission to Connect others to God.

The picture above was a gift to me welded by a really great guy in our church (Rod Garcia) who took 18 squares of sheet metal and fused them together to make a 3-D version of our logo. My dream is that one day the blocks will be as ubiquitous as the olympic rings.

Mega Sports Camp is On!

This is Mega Sports Camp week and the first 2 days have been great! It's so cool that we can offer so many options for the kids to choose from, the incredible puppet team, skilled coaches who are great with the kids. We started doing sports camp last summer instead of VBS for 3 major reasons:

1. Being portable, it makes more sense for us to do something outside, rather than trying to create a cool environment indoors someplace.
2. There are a couple of churches in town who already do a great job with VBS and we wanted to offer something unique to our community.
3. Sports Camp gives us a better chance to connect with unchurched people in our community who want their kids to improve their sports skills.

We've also figured out how to end droughts: offer a TCC event. After not raining for months, on Monday about 2 hours before camp started, a deluge hit. We already had over 100 kids pre-registered and I think every parent called us to find out if we were still on. I felt so stupid telling them, "Well, we haven't canceled yet." while there was no way it looked possible. But our incredible kids team kept the faith and by the time we were to start, everything was ready to go.

So we've got 2 more nights to go of the best week of sports camp ever.

Thank You for Being a Friend

I was looking back over some of the guest surveys we've received over the past several months and was reminded of one of the best things about The Connection Church. Whenever someone checks out the church as a guest on Sunday morning, we shoot them an email with a link to hidden page on our website where they can give us some honest feedback about their experience with us. One of the questions we ask is: What was your overall impression? This question isn't a leading question, in fact, it's wide open. But time and time again, the answer is always the same. Let me list these that I copied straight from the responses:

• We really liked and appreciated how welcoming everyone was
• The way everyone welcomed me as soon as I walked through the doors
• The people were friendly
• There were friendly people to greet you
• How welcoming everyone was
• The warm, casual and friendly atmosphere
• Friendly and Welcoming
• The friendliness of the greeters
• MANY friendly individuals welcoming everyone
• Friendly people greeting us as we arrived
• Everyone was friendly
• How friendly the people are
• Friendly people

It sounds like we just drill this into people, but the truth is, we don't tell people we're friendly. The other thing is that if you ask any church, they'll tell you they're a friendly church. What that usually means is that they're friendly to each other. The real test is: do the people outside of your church think you're friendly? Are you others-focused enough to welcome new people into the family? Friendliness and fakeness are 2 different things, and people can spot it quickly. I saw an incredible example of true friendliness last Sunday after the service when I introduced a new couple to some of our peeps and they were still getting to know each other 20 minutes later.

I am once again so proud to be the Pastor of the friendliest, most loving and welcoming people you'll ever meet. They love enough to put it into action. Don't just take my word for it, come and experience it for yourself!