Just hours after reading Joel Mayward’s article, I sat with my son in a full theater and watched the latest installment of the Mission: Impossible movies (perhaps the whiz-bangiest of the series). A few months ago I sat through a gem of a sci-fi film called Another Earth—not whiz-bangy at all.
We go to escapist movies because we need to escape. We go to comedies because we need to laugh. We go to romantic movies because our wives tell us to.
I am a huge fan of cynicism and skepticism, and Mayward asserts that we become Christian consumers when we bring these into our faith. I don’t agree. Much of the Old Testament was written for the purpose of creating loud discussion with flailing arms and passionate voices. It is when we sit quietly and keep still and don’t ask questions that our faith becomes boring. Iron only sharpens iron if you are willing to have the sword fight.
When it comes to church, youth leadership and worship, I agree with Mayward’s thoughts about students and entertainment. Lose them in the first few moments and you won’t get them back again. However, this argument (like the one for whiz-bang worship) is based on the supposition that we as a congregation and our youth are an audience. This is not accurate. God is the audience.
We do not participate in worship so we can sing to ourselves. When we begin with that mindset, our entire perspective changes. See a movie on a Friday night with a theater full of college students and you will have a completely different experience than if you go to the same movie on a Sunday afternoon. However, it is not just the when and where of the event itself. It’s also what we bring to the event. What mindset do we go in with? What are we expecting to get out of the event?
I once lived a city that wasn’t known for its sports teams. I’ve explained to my students that we who lived there did not necessarily go to watch our teams win. We went to sit outside on spring days (or in winter blizzards), to be part of something bigger than ourselves. Mindset matters.
We get out of worship what we put into it. If we walk in thinking, Dang, this is going to be boring, what can we expect? We often walk in expecting to be entertained. Then, if the worship leader doesn’t earn our attention at the beginning, we tune out. What if the connection is our responsibility as well?
Slow and contemplative worship requires more than our presence. It requires us to be fully present as we believe that God is fully present. Long, slow, contemplative worship services last in our minds. Show worship lasts until Sunday dinner.
Think about the mission trips you have led. The truly God-connecting moments usually occur at night, in the dark, with the group sitting around a candle and you with a flashlight and a Bible. There is no whiz-bang there. You don’t need it. And yet, these are the moments that remain in our students’ memories. These moments change lives.
Next week or the week after, I will not remember Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. Yeah, I paid my 10 bucks, and I was thoroughly entertained for 90 minutes. I’ll remember it when someone brings it up in conversation. However, I saw Another Earth months ago, and it is still with me. There were three of us at the theater that night, and the discussion over burgers lasted almost as long as the film.
We shouldn’t discount a popular film simply because it lacks substance. Yes, as Mayward said, most of our students have seen Hangover 2. So let’s find the lesson there. Let’s find the moral questions of Mission: Impossible. In that sense, every movie, even the ones that skirt the edge of morality or lack substance, can be used to teach.
My own pastor is fond of saying, “The table is set. Come and let us worship.” What we need to teach our students is that it matters what they bring to the table. Are we bringing a pack of gum to the potluck and impatiently slouching in our chairs? Or are we bringing the best desserts and a desire to be actively involved in the conversations around us?
Yes, Mission: Impossible and Hangover 2 are escapist movies. There’s nothing wrong with that. Many people come to church for the same reason. Mayward, however, seems to be justifying dullness. Let’s be careful not to do that. Dullness isn’t necessary to begin with. Perhaps my disagreement stems from his use of the word boring. Quiet is not boring. Silence is not boring.
We don’t teach boring. We teach meaning, and as Joel says, this takes time and effort. We must teach our youth to think in terms of depth. Any movie can wash over us like a loud wind, but to open ourselves up and allow that wind to pass through us, penetrate us down to our souls, is something that is learned. That’s not just a song sung on Sunday morning. That’s a hymn to God, the creator of all things.
We must teach our students to open up to those words, those harmonies and the intentions of the composer. To do this we must slow down. Turn off the cell phones in meetings. Play fewer videos. Sit close together. Teach less and talk more. Invite students into the prayer time. Participate in the process. Pray in the basement or the janitor’s closet. Or simply shut off the lights in the youth room and pray around a candle.
I resonate with these questions at the end of Joel’s article:
• What does it mean to love my neighbor?
• Is it ever okay to doubt God?
• What does it mean to be called to a place or a people?
• Which is more difficult—to die a martyr’s death, or to live out a long obedience in the simple and ordinary ways of being Christ’s disciple?
These questions must be asked in the silence and discussed in the quiet. The connection with God comes in the pauses. Slow worship gives us time to hit the pause button.
What is the sacrifice here? Who is willing to lay down his life for his friends? Who is patient? Who is kind? Who is acting out jealousy and who isn’t? These are great questions that can all be asked at the end of Hangover 2. An escapist summer flick? Sure. But we can make it holy. We can assign meaning to the simplest of things.
Our job as youth workers is to make the everyday sacred and the sacred every day.
The table is set.
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