Church Leadership Conversations

How to Sort Through Which Movies are Worth Seeing
I highly recommend Christianity Today’s Our Top Rated Movies page on their website.

When I am looking for a movie to see, I am in the habit of checking the reviews on Christianity Today’s Movie site. I will hardly ever see a movie that didn’t get at least 3 out of 4 stars from them. I just don’t want to spend two hours filling my head with complete filth and it is hard to judge a DVD by its cover in the video store.

For your convenience, they have placed all of their 3 1/2 and 4 star rated movies on one page called Our Top Rated Movies. I admit that I have sometimes printed that page out and brought it to Blockbuster Video with me. I have also wished that I had internet access on my phone so I could check out this page at the movie theater.

You should know though that their "star ranking" is NOT a group process where all of Christianity Today’s editors watch a movie and then decide what it should be ranked! No, the ranking is one Christian critic’s opinion. I happen to think their 10 critics are pretty trustworthy voices but I also glance at why the movie has gotten the MPAA rating (PG-13, R, etc.) it has gotten. (The review page for the movie gives all of this information in "The Family Corner" section of their review – how much violence, sex, etc.). If it is rated R, I look a bit more closely at why the critic has given it such a high star rating before I see it.

Christianity Today also provides links to reviews by other Christian critics on each of their reviews:

• Plugged In
• Crosswalk
• Catholic News Service
• Past the Popcorn

They also have other lists that you might appreciate:
• Most Redeeming of ’06 – they made this list as a group of critics
• Critics’ Choice 2006 – they made this list as a group of critics
• Readers’ Choice 2006

The reviews are also organized this way:
I will often also check the website Rotten Tomatoes which collates movie reviews and gives you a percentage of how many of the reviews by mainstream critics are positive. Most of the high rated movies by Christianity Today also get a 85-95% positive reviews by all movie critics at Rotten Tomatoes. If a CT review is very high and the mainstream critics give it a low rating, you might want to look more closely at CT’s review to see what they see that the mainstream critics don’t.

Below I have pasted from Christianity Today’s Our Top Rated Movies page, the movies they have given 4 stars or 3
1/2 stars, that I have seen. I have sometimes been disappointed, but not often.

I should say also
though that few of these movies are "veg out and relax" movies. Most
were ranked high by the critics because the themes were dealt with thoughtfully. I have made a comment about each.

4 Stars
- The Aviator (2004, PG-13) – lots of academy awards about idiosyncratic character Howard Hughes.
- Batman Begins (2005, PG-13) – excellent.
- The Gospel of John (2003, PG-13) – the whole Gospel of John. Long but details are quite well done.
- The Incredibles (2004, PG) – delightful!
- Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003, PG-13) – pretty good.
- The New World (2006, PG-13) – surprisingly good (about Pocahontas).
- The Shawshank Redemption (1994, R) – disturbing but memorable. Stephen King.
- Spider-Man 2 (2004, PG-13) – excellent.
- The Story of the Weeping Camel (2004, PG) – a bit odd. It is a foreign film.
3½ Stars
- Amazing Grace (2007, PG) – about William Wilberforce who championed the anti-slavery movement in Britain. Lots of Christians love this film.
- The Bourne Supremacy (2004, PG-13) – they gave the one that just came out this summer 3 stars only so it isn’t on this list.
- Children of Men (2006, R) – Surprisingly good. I think reading the review will help you appreciate this one.
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (2005, PG) – C.S. Lewis – lots of Christians like it.
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004, R) – I was a little disappointed in this one. An artsy film.
- Glory Road (2006, PG) – a feel good basketball movie about conquering racial differences.
- Just Like Heaven (2005, PG-13) – a little odd . . . not really a romantic comedy. . . it is a thoughtful drama.
- Kicking and Screaming (2005, PG) – I thought this one was pretty dumb.
- The Manchurian Candidate (2004, R) – a bit disturbing. I didn’t appreciate it.
- Million Dollar Baby (2004, PG-13) – lots of academy awards. I liked it.
- Millions (2005, PG) – interesting story about boys and money and some other creepy stuff. It was ok.
- Miss Potter (2006, PG) – good romantic movie with some sad twists but ultimately happy.
- Most ("The Bridge") (2003, Not Rated) – disturbing short Christian foreign film.
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006, PG-13) – I liked it but you have to read the Wikipedia articles on Pirates of the Caribbean to appreciate the plot if you like me forgot the plot leading up to it.
- The Queen (2006, PG-13) – I liked this glimpse into Tony Blair and the Queen working together responding to Princess Di’s death.
- Shrek 2 (2004, PG)- funny and smart.
- Spanglish (2004, PG-13) – this is thoughtful romantic drama that focuses on resisting an affair.
- Spider-Man 3 (2007, PG-13) – very good.
- Super Size Me (2004, Not Rated) – memorable and good for most of us to think through. Critique of fast food.
- An Unfinished Life (2005, PG-13) – a hard drama about difficult families directed by Clint Eastwood.
- Walk the Line (2005, PG-13) – the music of Johnny Cash pulls you through the pain of his life.
Ben Witherington is a New Testament scholar at Asbury Seminary. This does not automatically make him a good film critic! But I enjoy reading his take on things on his blog.

He has recent reviews of:
The Bourne Ultimatum– The Ultimate Thriller
‘Hairspray’– Another Hare Brained Musical?
Live Free or Die Hard– or Live Hard and Die Free?…
‘Ratatouille’– A Midsummer’s Gourmet Treat

So, if you are like me and don’t have time to read every review of every film that comes out, listen to Christianity Today’s critics as a starting point. Their 3 1/2 and 4 star rated films are at Christianity Today’s Our Top Rated Movies page.
August 7, 2007
“A Former Pastor Goes Church Shopping” – my post is up on Leadership Journal’s blog Out of Ur

Amy and I have been looking for a church here in Durham, North Carolina after moving here for my Doctor of Theology (Th.D. program) at Duke Divinity School. I have a new article published on Leadership Journal‘s blog "Out of Ur." It is called:

"A Former Pastor Goes Church Shopping: And he wrestles with the advantages and disadvantages of mainline and nondenominational churches."

You can click on the title above and go directly there.

Make your comments there!

July 26, 2007
Small church vs. large church

On Out of Ur, the Leadership journal blog, the latest post is about two nonChristians who have been attending churches in Toronto. The post is called: "Razzmatazz or Ragamuffins? Two non-Christians paid to visit churches are impressed with charity not facilities."

They were turned off by the megachurches they visited but were moved by the devotion to Jesus by a small church that served the homeless. I posted the following comment.

This post is exactly right to point out that churches without flash and pizzazz can still definitely show people who Jesus is. Small churches do not have the resources to put on a fancy Sunday morning show. They should be who they are – equipping their people to serve and showing the community Jesus by serving them. Many, who are not attracted to the slick production, will be attracted by them.

But I do question the implication that the majority of young people and unchristian people are not attracted to quality Sunday morning programming. I do not think we can make that conclusion based on the opinions of these 2 college students.

My experience is that more young adults and nonchristians are attracted to megachurches and cool emerging churches than poor social justice churches. But I would be thrilled to be wrong.

The sample size of two is inconclusive. Are there statistics about how many people are coming to Christ in megachurches vs. small-churches that are more oriented toward social justice? There are many sociologists people out there doing research on this kind of thing: Gallup, Barna, Christian Smith, Christian Schwarz (Natural Church Development), Lilly Endowment, Baylor survey, denominational stats, and the Alban Institute.

There is still a place I think for quality Sunday morning programming (welcoming, music, and preaching) for the purpose of drawing in new people and equipping the Christians. And yet it is easy to spend all of a church's resources on the Sunday morning show.

May the Spirit of God give us eyes to see what he is doing through the variety of church forms.

Further thoughts:

I want to affirm small churches and churches that care for the poor. I also want large churches to appreciate these small churches. Posts like this one on Out of Ur serve to do that. That is good.

But it also bothers me when churches don't at least try to have quality Sunday morning programming. (The end results will vary depending on the size of the church. A church of 500 can do more than a church of 30 in terms of quality programming).

This probably bothers me because this is one of my strengths – organizing people into a team to improve Sunday morning programming. (See my post "How to plan and lead worship.") I just don't want churches to get complacent thinking that the quality of the Sunday morning programming is irrelevant to their outreach to young adults and nonChristians. I think the seeker folks (like Granger Community Church and Willowcreek Community Church) are right to urge churches to welcome people well, clearly explain the elements of the service to them, and try to relate the eternal truths of Scripture to the world of today.

July 24, 2007