New data about the influence of media blockbusters like The Passion Of The Christ is making a strong case that non-Christians aren’t as spiritually affected by seeing movies about Jesus as they are by seeing people thinking and living like Jesus. This may be proof that big screens do little more to influence thinking about Christ and faith in our society than tracts left on toilet seats in restaurants, or bracelets of multi-colored beads, or any other well-intentioned “witnessing” device since the fifties in America.
If the conclusions being drawn are correct, what an amazing opportunity to discover a more incarnational approach to “witness.” By “incarnational” I mean becoming Christ on earth – having our thoughts and actions inhabited by the character of Christ. This means taking seriously the pursuit of learning how God thinks, what His priorities are, what His agenda is and how we can adopt these thoughts, priorities and agendas as our own today where we live. This is discipleship. It’s the greatest form of evangelism that ever was.
It’s disciples that we are told to go make. Not believers in the story of Jesus but followers of the God Jesus – his ethics, loves, hates, and every other attribute on display when He walked the earth.
It’s a great time to be in the American church. She’s waking up from her love affair with being approved of and popular, her lust for quick fixes and big splashes. She’s realizing slowly that big isn’t necessarily better – that slow and steady, one person at a time, one disciple making one disciple making one disciple might be healthier and breed more loyalty and self-lessly devoted representatives of God in the end than a blockbuster shown to millions.
Hopefully when she’s fully awakened to the importance of discipleship she’ll be less convinced of the superior power of popular culture. She’ll still appreciate the beauty and message of a novel or rock song but realize in her maturity that the best of these are less potent than a community of people dedicated to being the love, mercy and peace of Christ on earth together. She’ll once day become a modern version of what Paul called a “living letter” – a living film about the Christ.
In the mean time our failed attempts to entertain people into belief aren’t going unnoticed by the very people we’re trying to entertain. Ever realized you were being laughed AT when your goal was to be laughed WITH? That’s where the church in America is today. But laughter is a great motivator. And it’s hard to sleep through.
Hope this wakes you up today. (And makes you laugh.)
