Sermon Illustrations on Entertainment

Torrey's Guide To Amusements

In 1906 R. A. Torrey published this guide to amusements:

1. Don't do anything you have doubts about.

2. Must be to the glory of God.

3. Must not hurt your influence with anybody.

4. Must be able to be a matter of prayer.

5. Christ must be able to feel at home.

6. Must be acceptable as if Christ would return in middle of it.

7. Must not harm others, even if it never harms you.

On third point Torrey gave this illustration:

Young Christian lady tried to witness to her companion at a dance. She asked her partner, "George, are you a Christian?"

"No," he said, "I am not, are you?"

"Yes," she replied, "I am."

"Then," George retorted, "what are you doing here?"

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Popular Culture and the War Against Standards

Movie critic Michael Medved bemoans the standards displayed in many Hollywood movies. He has criticized them, and been rebuked by the establishment. He feels Hollywood ignores soul and substance, glorifies ugliness, assaults the family, and is hostile to religion.

“One of the symptoms of the corruption and collapse of our national culture is the insistence that we examine only the surface of any work of art. The politically correct, properly liberal notion is that we would never dig deeper - to consider whether a given work is true, or good, or spiritually nourishing - or to evaluate its impact on society at large.”

“In the visual arts, in literature, in film, in music of both popular and classical variety, ugliness has been enshrined as a new standard, as we accept the ability to shock as a replacement for the old ability to inspire.”

“Today, the movie business regularly offers us characters who are smaller than life, who are less decent, less intelligent, less noble than our own friends and neighbors.”

“Hollywood portrays a world ... in which ugliness - and emptiness - emerge as the new standard for our society.”

“A war against standards leads logically and inevitably to hostility to religion, because it is religious faith that provides the ultimate basis for all standards.”

Bible Pattern: A Church Full of Ministers

Acts 21:11

The modern trend in worship is to excite people's interest by providing entertainment. In May 1991, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL reported that one of America's largest evangelical churches had held a wrestling match between church employees in one of their Sunday services. "To train for the event, ten game employees got lessons from Tugboat Taylor, a former professional wrestler, in pulling hair, kicking shins, and tossing bodies around without doing her harm." No physical harm to the staff members, perhaps, but what is the spiritual effect on the church itself of such an exhibition?

There seems no limit to what some churches will do to keep their people entertained. Another WALL STREET JOURNAL article in December 1990 profiled a large evangelical church in the Southwest that has taken the entertainment philosophy to an extreme. This church sent staff members to study live special effects at Bally's Casino in Las Vegas. Then they installed a half- million-dollar special-effects system in the main auditorium. Now they can produce smoke, fire, sparks, and laser lights to accent the key points in the pastor's messages.

The article describes how the pastor ended one service by ascending to "heaven" via invisible wires that drew him up out of sight while the choir and orchestra added a musical accompaniment to the smoke, fire, and light show. It was just a typical Sunday show for that pastor: "He packs his church with such special effects as ... cranking up a chain saw and toppling a tree to make a point... the biggest Fourth of July fireworks display in town, and a Christmas service with a rented elephant, kangaroo, and zebra. The Christmas show features 100 clowns with gifts for the congregation's children.

There's no denying that these antics draw crowds. Church attendance may increase, but does anyone really believe that entertainment can equip the saints for the work of ministry?

Natural Born Sinners, Part 2 [Part 2 of 2]

Luke 9:51

Continuation of article on how we evade responsibility:

8. AMUSING OURSELVES TO DEATH.

If we had no other barometer of American interest in amusement, we could

measure it by the salaries of professional athletes and other entertainers.

By this barometer, we value amusement more than good law, medicine,

government, ministry, education, architecture, or scientific research. For

these are all salary- or fee-compensated professions in which, very often, the

financial rewards pale by comparison with those for baseball players, rock

singers, and talk-show hosts. In a capitalist culture, money is how you keep

score, and in the professions, such as medicine and football, salaries and

fees separate the winners from the also-rans. Thus, the orthopedic surgeon

who examines the anterior cruciate ligament of a bench-sitting guard for a

professional basketball team is looking, and likely looking up, at his

cultural superior.

And, of course, jocks and clowns are important people. We need them and what

they do. Who doesn't need and relish amusement now and then? Who doesn't

need a partly playful attitude toward her own work? Isn't it the sin of

pride that turns so much of human life gray with earnestness? Isn't grace,

not achievement, the light of the gospel and the center of the Reformation?

Still, the value we place on entertainment suggests that it has become a

diversion not only in the sense of a playful relief from the main business of

life, but also in the sense of a distraction from it, an evasion of it, a

sometimes grim, big-business alternative to it.

When people begin to focus their lives more on amusement than on doing their

work well, raising their children securely, gaining an education, and helping

those in need, they begin to evade responsibility. The problem is that the

evasions are lots of fun and therefore very tempting to all of us. It takes

strength to resist them. When we fail, when a whole society fails to resist,

life turns around in such a way that consumerism and the hunger for unreality

converge and the spending of one's leisure becomes one's occupation. Being a

deft and knowing consumer of clothes (ones that make a statement), films,

sports events, pro wrestling, concerts, tapes, compact disks, and video

games-and especially of the entertainment products in which these things

combine-becomes a main goal of one's life and a measure of its success.

Even Christian worship has been affected by the national obsession with

amusement, perhaps in part because worshipers watch a lot of television and

some of them watch a lot of televised worship. But worship does not fit the

television medium very well, just as the music of a string quartet does not

fit well into the warm-up events of Saturday night auto races. The reason,

as Neil Postman observes, is that we cannot consecrate the space in which we

experience TV religion -- it is the same room and the same screen we

associate with sitcoms, hockey games, and cartoons. Moreover, we are able,

and we know we are able, to change channels on anything, including a prayer

that lacks pizzazz. Everything about our experience of TV tells us that it

is an entertainment medium; everything about our experience of TV religion

tells us that its producers know this at least as well as we do. After

watching many hours of Robert Schuller, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swaggart, and

others, Neil Postman reports what every sober viewer can see with her own

eyes. On TV, "everything that makes religion an historic, profound and

sacred human activity is stripped away; there is no ritual, no dogma, no

tradition, no theology, and, above all, no sense of spiritual transcendence.

On these shows, the preacher is tops. God comes out as second banana."

These developments remind us that corruptions of true religion generally

proceed in the same direction as corruptions of the general culture, and that

our contemporary religion, to borrow some words from John Henry Newman, would

therefore benefit from becoming "vastly more superstitious, more bigoted,

more gloomy, more fierce" -- not because these qualities are desirable, but

because they would serve as an antidote to our superficial cheeriness,

because they would shorten the grins on the happy faces of show-biz religion.

DERELICTS

At the heart of all such evasive maneuvers lies a more fundamental evasion,

or perhaps two others. The sinner who abandons his children, or who goes on

permanent safari within his own psyche, or who shuffles back to bed instead

of helping someone who is being stabbed in the street has turned his back not

only on his neighbor, but also on God, and even, in some way, on himself. By

refusing his calling he extracts his own core, hollowing himself out to a

shell of a human being, without weight or substance.

How so? Our neighbor is God's child just as we are: to sell a neighbor short

is therefore to sell God short and to fail a brother or sister. We ourselves

are God's children: to fail God and our brothers and sisters is to shrink our

own role in the great drama of redemption and to cut some of the lines that

attach us to its center. The gospel, after all, is a portrait of the courage

of Jesus Christ -- the one who "set his face like flint" to go to Jerusalem

and meet its terrors, the one who gathered himself to undertake there the one

piece of work that was harder than the creation of the world.

The gifts of God -- vitality, love, forgiveness, courage against evil, joy at

our depths, and everything else that flows from the terrible work of Christ --

may be found only in the company of God. And we keep company with God only

by adopting God's purposes as our own and following through on them even when

it is initially difficult or painful to do so. To place ourselves in range

of God's choicest gifts, we have to walk with God, work with God, lean on

God, cling to God, come to have the sense and feel of God, refer all things

to God. Contrary to our self-interested impulses, we have to worship God

with a disciplined spirit and an expectant heart.

Despite certain modern assumptions, life with God isn't mainly a matter of

knuckling under to our superior, the image that modernity so much detests.

We do have to trust and obey, not first of all to be "happy in Jesus," but

rather to rise to the full stature of sons and daughters, to mature into the

image of God, to grow into adult roles in the business of redeeming the

world. God wants from us not numb obedience but devoted freedom, creativity,

and energy. God wants not slaves but intelligent, grownup children who show

enthusiasm for the family business.

In short, we are to become responsible beings: ones to whom God may entrust

deep and worthy assignments, expecting us to respond by making something

significant of them -- expecting us to make something significant of our

lives themselves. No one of our lives is an accident. None of us simply

finds herself here in the world. We have been called into existence,

expected, awaited, equipped, and assigned. We have been called to undertake

the stewardship of a good creation, to create sturdy and buoyant families

that pulse with the glad give-and-take of the generations. We are expected

to show hospitality to strangers and to express gratitude to friends and

teachers. We have been assigned to seek justice for our neighbors and,

wherever we can, to relieve them from the tyranny of their suffering. Some

of us have been called, in imitation of Christ, to bear unusual suffering of

our own.

But we have also been called, and graced, to delight in our lives, to feel

their irony and angularity, to make something sturdy and even lovely of them.

For such undertakings, we have to find emotional and spiritual funds from the

very God who assigns them, turning our faces toward God's light so that we

may be drawn to it, warmed by it, bathed in it, revitalized by it. Then we

have to find our role within God's big project, the one that stretches across

the border from this life into the next. To be a responsible person is to

find one's role in the building of shalom -- the rewebbing of God, humanity,

and all creation in justice, harmony, fulfillment, and delight. To be a

responsible person is to find one's own role and then, funded by the grace of

God, to fill this role and to delight in it.

The alternative is more hopeless than we ever imagined on the rainiest Monday

morning of our lives. For when we flee responsibility, we turn our backs on

God's presence and blessing, we walk out on the one work project that will

outlast every recession, and we begin the slow process of converting

ourselves into derelicts. We "hate the light and do not come to the light."

Instead, we gather all we have and make our way toward a far country, toward

the outer darkness, toward a place of self-deprivation, a place of our own

making.

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Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., is professor of systematic theology at Calvin

Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the author of "Assurances

of the Heart" (Zondervan). This article is adapted from the preface and

concluding chapter of "Not the Way It's Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin," to

be published next month by Eerdmans.

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Gladiators In Wrestling Tights?: the Lurid Appeal of Pro Wrestling

Earlier this month, wrestling impresario Vince McMahon announced plans for a new professional football league. McMahon promised football with "a lot more fun and a lot more attitude."

Well, if the pro wrestling he has produced is any indication of what he means by "fun" and "attitude," parents will soon have to set their TV's "V-chip" to block-out football broadcasts.

Professional wrestling used to exist at the fringes of society. Most people thought it was too vulgar, beneath their dignity. But in less than two decades, McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation have turned wrestling into what Newsweek described as a "national obsession."

One wrestling program, called "Raw is War," is now the top-rated show on cable TV. Another, called "Smackdown!" is the number-one show on the United Paramount Network. And success on television has translated into booming sales for wrestling-related merchandise.

There are WWF videos, video games, and toys. Wrestlers named "Mankind" and "The Rock" have books at the top of the New York Times best-seller list. Little wonder that shares in WWF's initial stock offering were snatched up by investors last fall.

So what's the formula? Give the crowds what they want -- the more degrading the better. Wrestling promoters have long since abandoned any pretense that wrestling is sport. They market it as a form of entertainment, especially to young males, who are the target audience.

The typical WWF broadcast includes lots of violence -- with people slamming each other with chairs, tables, or whatever else is handy. Blood, usually fake, but sometimes real, flows freely.

And there's a lot of sex. Scantily-clad female wrestlers battle each other -- sometimes in the ring, sometimes in mud, or even chocolate pudding. And to keep viewers from getting bored, or changing channels, WWF broadcasts are punctuated with profanity and the more-than-occasional obscene gesture.

Despite the high ratings, all this mayhem has given some advertisers pause. Coke threatened to pull its advertising from one program unless McMahon created a "PG" version of the show.

Good.

The smartest thing any parent can do is guide his children away from WWF broadcasts altogether. At best, such programs merely reinforce the vulgarity that characterizes popular culture. At worst, it is this generation's version of the gladiatorial games of ancient Rome.

In my book "Loving God" I tell the story of Alypius, a student and friend of Augustine. Alypius was addicted to the games at the Arena, and he vowed never to attend them. But his friends dragged him there. Even though he covered his eyes, the frenzied cheering of the crowds drew him in; he opened his eyes, and he enjoyed it. It was addictive.

This is similar to what happens at wrestling events today. No one really dies during "Raw is War," but the attraction -- just as it was for young Alypius -- is wrestling's appeal to the darker side of our nature.

Ultimately, the only way to stop wrestling's corrupting influence is to turn the set off. And if enough people do that, by saying no to the WWF and refusing to indulge in the gratuitous violence and brutality, advertising dollars will soon dry up, and promoters like McMahon will feel the effects where it means the most to them -- in their pocketbooks.

And that's a step in the right direction.

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Entertainitis

John 6:25

Try to picture this: Teenagers in a seminar for two hours, sitting on concrete the whole time, taking notes, and asking for more when it ends. Fantasyland, you say? No. Haiti. When I was doing youth outreach in Haiti, I was asked to do an early morning seminar for Christian young people in a gym where they were seated on concrete bleachers. I was told to teach for two hours. I did, and I was the first one done. So those kids gathered up their notes and rushed to catch the end of another seminar that hadn't finished yet. Sound like the American young people you know? Listen, when I got back to speaking to young people in America, I knew I had better be done in about twenty minutes or I'd be talking to myself. But before we're too rough on North American teenagers, let's realize that they have a disease that afflicts much of the North American Church - a disease that produces spiritual midgets.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about “Entertainitis.”

This is not a new disease. We can find it in our word for today from the Word of God from John 6:25, among the people who had just experienced the excitement of Jesus' feeding of the 5,000. When He left them to go across the lake, they wanted more. The Bible says, “When they found Him on the other side of the lake, they asked Him, 'Rabbi, when did you get here?’ Jesus answered them, 'You are looking for Me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.'“

When Jesus spoke to them about spiritual food, “They asked Him, 'What miraculous sign then will You give that we may see it and believe You?'“ (John 6:30) By the time Jesus is finished talking to them about laying down His life, verse 66 says, “From this time many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him.” Now, here was a crowd who was ready to follow Jesus as long as there was a good show - miracles, excited crowds, surprises, good feelings. But as soon as it got serious or demanding, they checked out.

This may have been the first known case of entertainitis - an interest in following Jesus as long as it's easy to take, as long as it's fun. I didn't really realize how shallow our faith is until I met Christians in other countries. They know how to pray powerfully and extensively. They're hungry, not for jokes and stories, but for solid Biblical teaching. They're interested in the substance of Christianity, not the style of the speaker. While we're having socials, they're having revivals! While we accept mediocrity, they're expecting miracles.

We're a product of a media culture where the image, the subject changes every few seconds. But compared to believers in much of the rest of the world, we have a “Sesame Street” faith. Now, the first step toward a cure of this disease is to recognize that we have a disease and want a cure. We need to retrain our hearts to look for the truth in a message, not the entertainment value; to look for the Bible in a song, not just the beat; to quit expecting speakers to do all the work for us. “Mr. Speaker, if you'll come about 80% of the way to me, maybe I'll meet you with about 20% of me.” Spiritual grown-ups will pack the auditorium for a sermon, not just for a movie or a concert.

We need to remember that what we're involved in is a war, not a picnic. We need to commit ourselves to the spiritual discipline of being personally taught by God through Bible study every day. Dare to say, “Lord, deepen my shallow 'entertain me' faith.'“ Entertainitis is a serious disease to deal with. Remember what happened to the people who had it first. They eventually abandoned Jesus.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #16699]

The TV psalm

THE TV PSALM

The TV is my shepherd, my spiritual life shall want,

It makes me to sit down and do nothing for the cause of Christ.

It demandeth my spare time.

It restoreth my desire for the things of the world.

It keepeth me from studying the truth of God's Word.

It leadeth me in the path of failure to attend God's house.

Yea, though I live to be a hundred, I will fear no rental;

My "Telly" is with me, its sound and vision comfort me.

It prepareth a programme for me, even in the presence of visitors.

Its volume shall be full.

Surely comedy and commercials shall follow me all the days of my life,

And I will dwell in spiritual poverty forever.

R. Crossley, We Want To Live, p. 66.

The Purpose of Worship Is Worship

Job 1:20

Someone recently asked me an interesting question, “What’s so important about worship?” I can’t say that I’ve ever considered that question, in part because worship has been a part of my life ever since I can remember. In seminary I learned ABOUT worship — its history, its purpose and meaning — but there was always an unspoken assumption about its utility, which was never questioned. If I had asked, I’m sure I would have been told something akin to “because God says it is.”

The word worship occurs 168 times in the Bible, but I was struck by the way it is used in the book of Exodus, where on six occasions (Exod. 7:16, 8:1 & 20, 9:1 & 13 and 10:3) God says, “LET MY PEOPLE GO, SO THAT THEY MAY WORSHIP ME.” Here we see how worship is deeply connected to Israel’s freedom, its identity and its relationship with God. That sounds pretty important to me.

The truth is that we don’t always regard worship as something that connects to our freedom, our identity or our relationship with God. Instead, we sometimes see it as an obligation, a habit, a chunk of time taken out of our weekend, something to be endured or — if we’re between the ages of 13 and 17 — something our parents make us do. Robert Schnase’s book, THE FIVE PRACTICES OF FRUITFUL CONGREGATIONS, goes even further, stating that sometimes:

... we unconsciously enter worship in the evaluative posture of [a

movie critic.] We rate the sermon, the time for children, the prayers

and the music ... Our attention turns to the imperfections,

mispronunciations, missed cues, discordant sounds, the weaknesses of the

leaders and the flaws of our fellow worshipers.

In short, we enter expecting to be entertained, and as entertainment, worship has a hard time competing with AMERICAN IDOL, LOST or the Yankee game.

Schnase suggests, as an alternative, approaching worship with a sense of EXPECTANCY. Rather than attending to the rough spots, looking for those times when we encounter and experience the presence of God:

What is God saying to me through the ... Scripture ... imperfectly read;

the sermon [with its] weak illustrations; ... the music, even if [it]

drags the pace?

And when something happens that we don’t like, or that makes us uncomfortable, or that seems strange, to ask the question, “Is there someone else here that God might be speaking to through this part of the service?”

The purpose of worship is worship — which is the act of God’s people praising God. But the effect of worship, as Exodus demonstrates, is to affirm our free choice to love and serve God, to strengthen our sense of identity as the body of Christ, and to help deepen and strengthen our relationship with God.

Not a bad return for one morning a week. I’ll see you in church.

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[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #6356]

If They're Gonna Chunk, I Ain't Goin'

Jude 1:3

My Source:

FOUR STATE GOSPEL NEWS

Volume 38, #11, November 1999

Author: Danny Tunnell

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IF THEY'RE GONNA CHUNK, I AIN'T GOIN

by Danny Tunnell

Much of what the world presents today as "religion" is nothing short of showmanship. That's inevitable, when men ignore Paul's charge to Timothy to "preach the word" (2 Timothy 4:2). Today, we have "Power Teams" entertaining large religious crowds with their feats of physical strength. We have religious performers such as Benny Hinn standing before thousands, enthralling the crowd, as Mr. Hinn blows on someone, who immediately faints and falls to the floor.

In Dan Rather's book entitled, I REMEMBER, Mr. Rather talks about his youth, growing up in Texas in the 1930s. During the spring and the summer of that era, in small Texas towns, along came a spectacular extravaganza, the traveling revival tent. Mr. Rather writes...

Although this was the showcase for a circuit-riding

fundamentalist preacher to emit hellfire and brimstone,

we considered the experience less religious than

entertaining.

Mr. Rather continues in his book...

"I remember an occasion when I sat on the wooden

bench in the revival tent next to my grandparents and the

preacher had worked himself up to a furious pitch about

our shaky loyalty to the Lord. At the height of his emotion

he reached into a trunk behind him, produced two snakes,

and then threw them into the crowd.

This was an unprecedented feature of the revival service,

at least for us. The snakes didn't land too close to our

row, but nobody could figure out whether they were

poisonous, and so the shrieking and the general rush out

of the tent was a sight to behold.

"You see," thundered the preacher triumphantly, "your

faith is fragile!"

I received the stunt with a mixture of fear and amusement

and a touch of admiration for such unrestrained

showmanship.

Grandma Page reacted negatively to the snake tossing.

When we used to talk about throwing, as in baseball, we'd

call it "chunking." After the snake incident, whenever

Grandma was told that a revival tent was coming to town,

she'd frown and demand, "Is they gonna chunk?" Then

she'd say with finality, "If they're gonna chunk, I ain't

goin'."

We live over 60 years removed from Dan Rather's childhood days in Texas. But, religious charlatans today are still using their methods of showmanship and exploiting shock for the amusement of their vast audiences.

1221 C, N.E. Maimi, OK 74354

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DRL NOTE: The article above may bring us a little chuckle, but there is a strong point to be made here. We have seen a remarkable and amazing influence of such "tent revivalists," and their showmanship, among our own brethren--at least in spirit. The concept seems to be, if they won't be drawn in by the gospel of Jesus Christ, we'll just get them in here by putting on a show. Just today I read of an announcement in a church bulletin from Arkansas of an upcoming visit from the entertainers, ACAPPELLA. They were coming so that funds might be raised to produce a "Christmas Tape," by some other singing group. The "minister" was selling $10 tickets for that purpose.

Is it any wonder how worldly men like, Dan Rather, have developed their cynicism toward organized religion? But my question is why do my brethren want to make contribution to such cynicism with their own showmanship emPHAsis (yes, the accent is definitely misplaced) in worship assemblies?

Would that more would have the wisdom of Dan Rather's grandmother and say: "If They're Gonna Chunk, I Ain't Goin'!!!

Commencement Follies: Signs of the Times

Since the end of World War II, commencement ceremonies have been the occasion for some of the most memorable and important speeches of our time.

A good example is the 1963 commencement address at American University in Washington. It was there that President John F. Kennedy announced a halt to atmospheric nuclear testing and pledged to work for "not merely peace in our time, but peace for all time."

Thirty-nine years later, another commencement address on the same campus showed what our culture regards today as important.

According to THE WASHINGTON POST, nowadays what people are looking for in a commencement speaker isn't lofty rhetoric about "big issues." Rather, it's star power, combined with the ability to "amuse the grads."

To achieve this winning combination, the American University class of 2002 heard from actress Goldie Hawn, who told the audience that it was time for them to attend the "college of you."

In the same way, three years ago, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Anna Quindlen told graduates of Mt. Holyoke to "set aside" the expectations, demands, and requirements imposed by others. Instead, she urged her audience to do what they thought was best for them.

This emphasis on entertainment and the self was repeated on college campuses across the country this commencement season. New graduates heard from the likes of humorist Garrison Keillor, Oscar-winning actress Kathy Bates, and playwright Tony Kushner.

What the POST calls the "new favored focus" of graduation speeches represents the coming together of two of the dominant trends in our culture.

The first is what sociologist Philip Rieff calls "The Triumph of the Therapeutic." The values of psychotherapy with its emphasis on individual fulfillment, dominates our thinking. The therapeutic worldview urges us, as Hawn and Quindlen urged their audiences, to "find yourself." Instead of greatness or accomplishment or leadership -- the traditional themes of commencement speeches -- we should strive for emotional and psychological well-being.

The second trend is the impact of mass media. Several generations raised on cable television, movies, video games, and the Internet have come to regard not being bored as a right. Thanks to our twenty-four-hour-a-day media culture, they expect that every bit of information coming their way will arrive in an entertaining package. If it doesn't, they're likely to just tune out.

I wish I could say that Christians were immune to both of these trends. But as Ken Myers of Mars Hill Audio has written, our churches also feel the need to entertain. And Christians are just as preoccupied with self as the rest of the culture.

Christians, of all people, should know that mighty acts and moral greatness are not achieved by people preoccupied with the self and insisting on being entertained. To rise to greatness requires just the reverse: a sacrifice of self and a willingness to conform our desires to a cause greater than ourselves.

No wonder these qualities seem to be in short supply in younger people. We spend four years giving them an education and then pander to their worst instincts as we send them off into the world.

For more information:

Charles Colson, "Doing the Right Thing," audiotape of 2002 baccalaureate speech at Parkview High School in Lilburn, Ga.

Amy Argetsinger, "On the Dais, Witty Replaces the Weighty," THE WASHINGTON POST, 20 May 2002, B1.

You can read President John F. Kennedy's commencement speech at American University (10 June 1963) here: .

You can read Anna Quindlen's commencement speech at Mt. Holyoke College (23 May 1999) here: .

Ken Myers, ALL GOD'S CHILDREN AND BLUE SUEDE SHOES: CHRISTIANS AND POPULAR CULTURE (Crossway, 1989).

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Fuzzy Grammar: Truth In the Age of the Image

According to the Hollywood Reporter, 89 million Americans watched at least part of the two-hour special, "A Tribute to Heroes." The program, which aired on September 21 to raise money for the United Way's relief fund, featured performances by various famous entertainers.

The night before, 7 million fewer Americans tuned in to any part of the President's address to Congress about the war on terrorism. Even fewer had tuned into the prayer service at the National Cathedral.

It's hard to imagine a clearer illustration of the centrality of popular entertainment in our culture. Increasingly, Americans -- consciously or not -- are taking their cues about the meaning of life, as well as right and wrong, from popular media.

The problem is that images cannot replace words when it comes to communicating truth. That's because the goal of visual media is not to convey ideas in a precise manner, the way words do; it's to elicit an emotional response.

That's why it's almost impossible to argue with another person's interpretation of what they've seen. The experience is subjective, not objective.

This quality of visual media is what columnist Terry Mattingly calls its "fuzzy grammar." You can see that "fuzzy grammar" at work, for example, in the ending of TITANIC. As Rose, the woman who tells the story, lies in bed, the camera takes us back to the Titanic, where the audience sees those who died when the ship sank. There the lovers are reunited.

Was it a dream or was it the afterlife? We don't know. This kind of ambiguity isn't only common, it's deliberate. According to film critic Roger Ebert, what's important is that any possible interpretation "provide emotional closure" for the audience.

And while that may be a good way to end movies, this subjectivity and appeal to emotion is increasingly being applied to all of life. As popular media has occupied the role formerly played by the church and family, Americans have begun to look at all experiences through that same lens.

The result is, as apologist Ravi Zacharias puts it, a generation that "hears with its eyes and thinks with its feelings." The fuzzy grammar of media is what allows people to believe things like "that may be true for you, but not for me." Our image-saturated culture is one in which almost everything is subject to interpretation -- and no interpretation takes precedence over any other. It is a world in which all truth is presumed to be subjective.

In Christianity, words are the medium through which truth is communicated. The Gospel of John describes Jesus as "the Word." The Greek word logos, means, among other things, "the ordering principle" -- that is, ultimate truth or reality. And it exists, therefore, independent of our feelings. It is our duty to discern it and argue on its behalf.

This is the great challenge posed by our media-centric culture. Apologetics in the age of the image requires Christians to help their neighbors understand the limitations of those images. It requires us to help people recognize that life isn't like the movies and treating it as if it were is a dangerous mistake.

They need to be reminded that all the "emotional closure" in the world is no substitute for truth.

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Torture TV: Creating A 'Lust for Cruelty'

Job 16:17

It was not a sight for the faint of heart: The woman was shackled to a chair. And then her tormentor picked up several needles and drove them into her arm until they came out the other side. The woman grimaced in pain and began to sweat profusely. Blood dripped from her arm. How much more could she take before she broke?

Torture is a terrible thing, and we've heard a lot of talk lately about whether we should torture al-Qaeda terrorists. And just this week in Germany it was reported that a policeman will be prosecuted for threatening to torture a kidnapper to find out where the child he kidnapped was being held.

Most commentators say that we should never resort to torture. But ironically, the torture scene I was just describing was not involving terrorists or kidnappers. It was torture being administered for the entertainment of a television audience -- another indication of how degraded our culture has become. No one had to watch, of course; they watched willingly.

The woman in the chair was a “guest” on the NBC program FEAR FACTOR, the latest and perhaps vilest of so-called “reality” TV.

It was bad enough when, in past weeks, FEAR FACTOR contestants ate cockroaches or allowed themselves to be bitten by rats to win big money. And chowing down on liquified pig livers and reindeer testicles is beyond gross even if you get your “fifteen minutes of fame.”

More than one reality TV reviewer says that, while he is revolted by what he is watching, he can't tear his eyes away. And that ought to sound a warning bell for Christians.

The early Church faced a similar situation when it confronted the bloody and murderous gladiatorial contests. In the second century, the Bishop Tertullian criticized Christians who enjoyed these spectacles and warned that their own degradation would result from nourishing a “passion for murderous pleasure.”

A story from Augustine's CONFESSIONS helps us to understand why. Augustine's friend Alypius vowed that he would never again witness a gladiatorial contest. But one day he was dragged by some friends into the arena.

Augustine writes that “Alypius shut his eyes tightly.... [But] if only he had shut his ears as well! For an incident in the fight drew a great roar from the crowd.”

Alypius couldn't contain his curiosity. He opened his eyes, and, Augustine says, “His soul was stabbed with a wound more deadly than any which the gladiator had received in his body.” He reveled in the gore, drunk with bloodlust. Alypius was hooked.

The secular Roman playwright Seneca warned that when we make a sport of maiming and killing human beings, we render ourselves less humane. We destroy the respectful kindness, the humanitas, characteristic of the virtuous person. Research bears him out. Criminologist James Q. Wilson describes research that links violent television with real-life copycat crimes.

Most commentators believe that torture is something in which no civilized people should engage. That includes the torture of terrorists or kidnappers for information. But can we, on the one hand, oppose that, and then enjoy torture in entertainment? TV shows that offer torture for fun destroy our humanity -- our compassion toward our fellow creatures for whom Christ died.

Feeding Bloodlust: the New Shockumentaries

Job 16:17

Turn on your TV set any night of the week, and you'll see entertainment that would have delighted the most bloodthirsty citizen of ancient Rome.

Out of a sense of decorum, television news programs usually omit the most horrific images of crime or tragedy. But for those who relish every bloody detail, we now have "shockumentaries" -- and they have no problem living up to their names. They seem to be getting worse.

One recent program showed police photos of the naked corpse of a young woman, lying by the road where her killer dumped her. Another program routinely shows murder victims in the blood-spattered rooms where they died. Narrators describe every detail of how victims are kidnapped, raped, tortured, and killed.

And if that's not enough to turn your stomach, tune into shows that include "dramatic reenactments" of the actual crime -- reenactments that dramatize every sickening detail.

"Shockumentaries" are so popular that during ratings weeks, networks pull their regular shows to provide extra helpings of real-life blood and gore. But Christians ought to hit the off button long enough to ask themselves what impact these programs are having.

The early church faced something very similar: It took a strong stand against the bloody gladiatorial contests. In the second century, the Bishop Tertullian criticized Christians who enjoyed these spectacles, and warned that their own degradation would result from nourishing a "passion for murderous pleasure."

A story from Augustine's Confessions helps us understand why. Augustine had a friend named Alypius, who was disgusted by the brutality of the gladiatorial games: He vowed to avoid them. But one day Alypius met some friends who dragged him to join them at the arena.

Augustine writes that the arena "was seething with the lust for cruelty. Alypius shut his eyes tightly, determined to have nothing to do with these atrocities. If only he had shut his ears as well! For an incident in the fight drew a great roar from the crowd."

Alypius could not contain his curiosity. He opened his eyes, and, Augustine says, "his soul was stabbed with a wound more deadly than any which the gladiator had received in his body." He reveled in the gore, drunk with bloodlust. He was hooked.

The Roman playwright Seneca warned that when we make sport of maiming and killing human beings, we render ourselves less humane. We destroy the respectful kindness, the humanitas, characteristic of the virtuous person. Modern research bears him out. Criminologist James Q. Wilson describes research that links violent television with real-life copycat crimes.

Those of us who would never dream of watching a trashy film think nothing of sitting down to an evening of real-life murder and mayhem. But programs that turn human suffering into entertainment coarsen us, making us less sensitive to the pain of others. And, as Alypius discovered, they're addictive.

So, the next time you're channel surfing, surf right past the "shockumentaries." And whatever it takes, don't let your kids watch these programs. For so- called entertainment programs like these literally destroy our humanitas -- our compassion towards those for whom Christ died.

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The church and entertainment

The church has gone into the entertainment business! People must be amused, and as the church needs the people’s money, the church must supply the demand and meet the craving! How else are godless hypocrites to be held together? So the picture show and entertainment … take the place of the gospel address and the solemn worship of God. And, thus, Christless souls are lulled to sleep and made to feel “religious” while gratifying every carnal desire under the sanction of the sham called the church! And the end? What an awakening [in eternity]!

Rock Bands Mull Christian 'Label'

Sing about Jesus at your own risk. That's the conclusion of some rock bands that perform Christian music and then seek crossover success.

They say they face constant questions about their faith, a tough road to mainstream acceptance and charges of selling out if they ever hit it big.

Just ask members of Sixpence None The Richer, who started on a Christian music label but broke into pop stardom with 1999's decidedly secular "Kiss Me."

The group - whose name comes from a C.S. Lewis essay on religion - has faced the question that nags many mainstream performers who sing about spirituality: "So are you a Christian band or not?"

The answer: No. Well, sort of.

"We don't consider ourselves a Christian band," said Jay Swartzendruber, publicist for the five-person band. "But we do see life through that Christian lens."

Cue confusion among fans and the media.

On the Web site for the hard-rock band Creed, band members devote much of the "frequently asked questions" section to addressing whether they're a Christian band.

Lyrics on the group's 1997 debut album - "My Own Prison" - contain frequent references to God and faith. But they insist they aren't a Christian band and have so tired of the question they decline most interview requests (including one for this article).

"People want to put that label on them," said Creed manager Jeff Hanson. "Creed's not running away from that, but they are doing their own thing. There are so many bad role models, I think Christians are probably happy to get what they can."

So why is it such a big deal whether musicians call themselves Christians in a country where most people say they identify with the faith?

"That's a good question," said Frank Breeden, president of the Nashville-based Gospel Music Association. "America no longer acts like a Christian nation. Today's approach toward religion is very postmodern. Most Americans do believe in God but don't want to endorse one religion. They prefer the cafeteria plan: Christianity is one of many faiths."

In other words, Jesus Rock doesn't sell.

"When people are confronted with that, it puts them face-to-face with a lot of issues that are hard to deal with: hell, eternity, fall from grace. In this society we don't talk about that kind of stuff," said Jerry Williams, programming director at WVFJ-FM, Atlanta's largest Christian radio station.

But when Christian musicians score a crossover hit that doesn't mention God, the genre's faithful level charges of selling out.

"There's people who say they want to have their cake and eat it, too, walking the line and having it both ways," Hanson said.

Dabney Gordon, 14, listens almost exclusively to Christian pop even though most of her friends at a Christian private school prefer Eminem or Britney Spears. She complained that bands have to choose between morality and commercial success, and often they pick rock stardom.

"I don't think it's pleasing to God," she said of bands that downplay their Christian roots. "It's a little disappointing to me. But our world always wants to talk about sex and things like that. That's what people are interested in, so that's what they buy."

Swartzendruber said the Christian music industry itself is to blame for the difficulty Christian bands have reaching the mainstream. Managers want every song to be "a three-minute sermonette," he said, and artists are allowed little creativity.

Like many Christian bands, Sixpence was put on a church tour, but band members complained of pressure to give religious speeches after they played. Those expectations put up a wall between secular and religious acts and drove Sixpence from its first label.

"We're not preachers," Swartzendruber said. "But there are some very narrow-minded believers who think the message, not the music, is the only thing that's important. It's an inbred community, a small fishbowl."

WVFJ's Williams agreed, but said it's changing.

"There are people who want to count the Jesus-per-minute references, but I don't think that's the majority anymore," he said.

"Just because a band isn't as overtly spiritual on some albums, it doesn't mean they're turning their backs on their faith. Christian bands used to be called on the carpet if they got away from the message. Now some people are disappointed if the big hit doesn't mention Jesus, but they're more accepting. It just takes time."

ENTERTAINMENT

Now a word from the director of the FBI: "Movies are doing more to advance crime and juvenile delinquency than any other factor today." The book writer who quoted the FBI head went on, "This is, of course, because of the steady stream of dirty sex, brutality, and violence. Millions of our young generation learn evil thoughts, evil acts, law-breaking ways, perverted sex, murder, and divorce from the films they see. The movie theater has become America's college for an education in filth and crime."

These words of warning sound contemporary, but they aren't. They were written in 1962. (Selected)

We Care More For the Trivial

"We seem to care more for the trivial than the important. People who should mean much to us don't, while people who don't even know we exist have become our idols. We overlook the faults of entertainers and sports celebrities, but won't do the same for our own family members. We might have multiple marriages, but we remain loyal to our favorite team."

-- Chuck Baldwin

Must Close-your-eyes T?: the Chair & the Chamber

In his classic "CONFESSIONS," Augustine tells the story of his friend Alypius who vowed to avoid the gladiatorial games because of their brutality. One day, however, some friends dragged Alypius to the Arena.

Augustine tells us that "Alypius shut his eyes tightly, determined to have nothing to do with these atrocities." But his curiosity got the better of him. He opened his eyes and "his soul was stabbed with a wound more deadly than any which any gladiator had received in his body." In other words, he was hooked by the sight of blood.

While our culture hasn't sunken quite as low as Augustine's, it's closer than you think.

ABC's "The Chair" and FOX's "The Chamber" both feature contestants being asked quiz questions by irritating hosts under -- well, we'll say, unusual circumstances.

On "The Chair," the contestant must not only answer the questions correctly, but must also keep his heart rate below 130. To up the ante, the show's producers throw in sudden electrical shocks, fire jets, and alligators lowered from the ceiling.

Even worse torments await contestants on "The Chamber." Air cannons blow in excess of 120 miles an hour, and the chamber's temperature drops below zero. Spraying water causes several inches of ice to accumulate on contestants, and their chairs shake violently. And if that weren't enough, there are electrical shocks that cause their muscles to contract involuntarily.

The BALTIMORE SUN called "The Chamber" "the dumbest show in television history" and a "putrid mess that makes dwarf-tossing look sophisticated." The TORONTO STAR went even further, calling both shows "the end of the civilization as we know it."

But none of this keeps the studio audience from cheering, or viewers from tuning in. An associate of mine watched an episode of "The Chamber" and found himself drawn in just as Alypius was. He couldn't bring himself to change the channel.

If you think that comparisons to the gladiatorial games are overwrought, think about the trajectory of so-called "reality television" over recent years. We've gone from "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?", where people answer questions for big money, to "Fear Factor" where they eat bugs, get bitten by rats, and walk on tightropes for less money. Now, we watch people being tortured for even less money. It's clear that degradation and abuse, not money, is what draws us in.

Now, "Chamber" has been pulled for low ratings -- good news. But FOX promises us it will be back. And there's really no end in sight. As George Will points out, the supply of people willing to degrade themselves, and even risk injury, for money is "limitless."

There seems to be nothing that will stop this trend. Christianity's growing influence over Rome eventually brought an end to the games. By contrast, our post-Christian culture regards entertainment as an entitlement and lacks a worldview that can distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate entertainment. As Will puts it, we can't object to televised Russian roulette.

That's why Christians must do more than simply avoid this kind of programming. We can use shows like this as an opportunity to explain to our neighbors where our culture's worldview has led us: A world where anything can be called entertainment, and where we're all better off keeping our eyes closed.

For further reading:

St. Augustine, CONFESSIONS (Nelsonword Publishing Group, 1999).

George F. Will, "TV for Voyeurs," WASHINGTON POST, 21 June 2001.

Kevin Cowherd, "Contestants on Fox's 'The Chamber' aren't its only victims," BALTIMORE SUN, 24 January 2002, 1E.

"New and terrible diversions," TORONTO STAR, 22 January 2002, D05.

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Surround-sound Salvation

Mark 7:18

It is not by accident that some of our country’s brightest minds work in the advertisement sector. Though commercial breaks are often tedious to endure, some are very clever.

Perhaps you’ve noticed a recent commercial that begins with a highly capable-looking man walking onto a subway. Dressed in a sharp suit and wearing refined glasses, he unfolds a newspaper - yet something is awry. Soon you notice a small monkey on this man’s back, fiddling with the man’s eyewear. Then another primate paws at his paper. Finally, the camera cuts to a third monkey removing the man’s billfold, emptying its contents.

With the monkeys on his back, the man arrives at his dimly lit den and seats himself on a plush couch facing a surround-sound home theatre system. An intense intergalactic dogfight appears on the screen. (The point of this commercial is becoming increasingly clear.) The booming sound, the high definition picture, the theatre experience literally scare the monkeys off this man’s back. The not so subtle point is that you can entertain your worries away.

This ingenious ad is selling more than audio-visual technology; it is selling therapy through gadgetry. The underlying rationale is that through advanced techniques of mind absorption, one has a mechanism for dealing with stress.

But think about its message. I imagine that for most of us, commercials like these escape our attention without critical thought-and understandably so, as we are not usually honing our attention skills during these sales pitches. This commercial illustrates the basic underlying philosophy of many advertising campaigns: the consumption of products will dissolve your anxieties.

Would that life were so simple. We all seek escape, but we cannot run from reality. Life itself brings necessary burdens. Jesus tells us something fascinating. While He lifts burdens, He does not run from their existence. He only teaches us how to put them in perspective in the light of His truth. In fact He gives fresh burdens that we might carry those which are worthy of being carried. Sound and music may drown those burdens which claw at us. But only Christ can put a song within that helps us know why some burdens are worthy and what we can comfortably cast onto Him. You see, the problem is not the monkey on the back. Rather, it is a parasite within that is called self which gnaws away at peace. For that only the Great Musician is the cure.

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The Young and the Clueless

Ephesians 5:1

The Young and the Clueless

Read: Ephesians 5:1-8

Among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. — Ephesians 5:3

The question in the Campus Journal article asked, “Is it better to read Romans 1 to find out about sin in the world or to watch daytime soap operas?” I was surprised to see that one among the list of questions having to do with the way entertainment media influenced my spiritual life. Not long before, I had stopped watching soap operas.

I started watching them when I was 9 years old. It was just something I did with my aunt. As I got older, I got more into them, especially when I reached high school. My friends and I would keep up with all the characters and story lines. Some were harmless, but most did not reflect godly values. As young believers, we knew that, but we had excuses. It was just entertainment, we would tell ourselves.

Now I’m convicted otherwise. The world may view soaps as simple entertainment, but behind all the good-looking actors there is something harmful. When you think about it, isn’t that always the way our spiritual enemy packages his products? (James 1:14-15).

I know that some people, even you, may say watching soaps is no big deal. At one time I would have agreed. Now I have to take God’s Word into consideration where He said, “Among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people” (Ephesians 5:3).

It does not matter what lies we say to convince ourselves. It is never okay with God for us to indulge in sin, whether we’re watching it on daytime television, prime-time, at the movies, or hearing it in the music we listen to. “Therefore do not be partners with them” (v.7). — Norian Brown, Coral Springs, Florida

REFLECTION

• Does my entertainment build up my relationship with the Lord? If not, what can I do to make it so?

• Is it always wrong to view shows that undermine everything that God is and wants us to be?

They call them “soaps,” but they don’t make you clean.

Television Unplugged: Solving the Entertainment Dilemma

All last week the story of Justin Timberlake ripping off part of Janet Jackson's bodice during the Super Bowl halftime show kept the country in an uproar. CBS apologized, but the raging debate continued. Most people had the innate sense that this was a watershed moment in the culture war.

Jackson, of course, was trying to jump-start her sagging career. And Timberlake left his band and is trying to make it on his own. What do entertainers in that position want more than anything else? Publicity. And they got plenty.

But it wasn't just the bodice-ripping. As FCC Chairman Michael Powell told GOOD MORNING AMERICA, “I personally was offended by the entire production.”

As I thought about Powell's comment, I realized that our concerns go well beyond the Super Bowl fiasco. That's only the tip of the iceberg. I personally am offended by most TV. I realize that it is an entertainment medium, and the nature of entertainment is to push the limits.

But, as Ken Myers wrote in his book ALL GOD'S CHILDREN AND BLUE SUEDE SHOES, “Television's role as an entertainment appliance presents at least two problems.” First, access to televised entertainment is easy, and we humans have an endless hunger for entertainment - something that will distract us in a fallen world. It pains me to see my own grandkids sitting zombie-like channel-surfing, focusing on nothing but fleeting images.

The second problem, says Myers, is that television is a visual and dramatic medium. “The dramatic images of television have much more power than anything that is SAID on the air,” he writes. “Television doesn't have much power to encourage reflection.” Television is a flood of sights and sounds that overwhelms everything else. The flow never stops, and we don't have time to think - at least not until someone's bra gets pulled off.

Yet as Myers notes, “Abstract ideas are ... essential to the maintenance of the social order; freedom, justice, and duty, to name a few abstractions, can be ILLUSTRATED in drama, but understanding the essence of them requires the analytic powers of language.” He goes on to apply this to our faith, saying that drama and images can illustrate, but cannot communicate “the essence of what God has revealed in propositions.”

Now, I know some Christians who advocate, as the bumper sticker says, “Kill Your TV.” Just get rid of it. Well, if you can't control it, that's good advice. But I have a suggestion that allows you to keep it for important things like current events, sports, and movies.

My advice is: Unplug it. That way if you want to watch, you'll have to get down on your hands and knees, reach behind the furniture, and plug it back in. The inconvenience may make you think twice. Plopping down in your favorite chair and flipping the remote will be a thing of the past. And every time you want to watch TV, you'll be forced to make a choice rather than going on auto-pilot.

While we need to protect ourselves and our kids from the overt problems with TV programming - sex, bad language, and violence - we need to be just as careful about the less obvious problems of a visual, image-driven medium. My solution is: Unplug it.

FOR FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION:

• Dan Ackman, “The FCC Is Not Amused,” Forbes, 4 February 2004.

• Nekesa Mumbi Moody, “Jackson, Timberlake Apologize for Flash,” Associated Press, 3 February 2004.

• Leonard Pitts, Jr., “What was really exposed on national television,” Seattle Times, 8 February 2004.

• Katy Kelly, Kim Clark, and Linda Kulman, “Trash TV,” U.S. News and World Report, 16 February 2004.

• BreakPoint Commentary No. 040203, “Only a Matter of Time: Why the Super Bowl Incident Isn't Surprising.”

• Ken Myers, All God's Children and Blue Suede Shoes (Crossway, 1989).

• Chris Jones, “When is bad publicity a bad career move?“ Chicago Tribune, 8 February 2004.

• BreakPoint Commentary No. 020208, “Must-Close-Your-Eyes-TV.” (Archived commentary; free registration required.)

• Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death (Viking, 1986). Call 1-877-322-5527 to order ($18).

• Thomas Hibbs, Shows about Nothing (Spence, 1999).

• Peter Kreeft, How to Win the Culture War (InterVarsity, 2002).

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Time Well Spent

I heard the other day that the average American will have spent 15 years in front of the television during his or her lifetime. Can you imagine fifteen years of sitting in front of that box, clicking away? What a waste of life.

On the other hand, the Bible speaks of many rewards in heaven for the person who faithfully serves the Lord during his or her lifetime, and even speaks of crowns that will be given. In fact, I think we might be shocked when the awards are presented in heaven. We may expect them to go to all the big names that we know. But just imagine if most of the awards were given to someone named Maude Firkenbinder. You hadn't heard about her. She never pastored a church. She never recorded Christian music. She never wrote a book. But she used the gifts that God gave her. Maybe God called her to be a person of prayer. Maybe she labored in obscurity somewhere. But God saw her. When you get to heaven, what will you have to show for your life on this earth? Every man will be tried. Every woman will be tried. All of your accomplishments will be evaluated when you stand before Christ. It is not so much a judgment for sin, but a judgment of time that was spent in a worthless way. Did you have more passion or excitement for your career or for a sport or for your possessions than you had for the things of God? It will all come to nothing. Wasted hours. Wasted days. Wasted years.

Fifteen Minutes of Fame - American Idol and the Apprentice

Andy Warhol famously remarked that everybody gets fifteen minutes of fame. But he may not have realized just how far some people would be willing to go for their fifteen minutes. I doubt it ever occurred to Warhol that people would one day line up for the chance to be humiliated in front of millions of eager television viewers.

I could be describing any number of television shows, but I’m thinking of two in particular: Fox’s American Idol, now in its third season, and NBC’s new show, The Apprentice. It’s pretty clear that most people aren’t watching these hit reality shows just to find out which singer will score a recording contract, or which lucky entrepreneur will get to work for Donald Trump. They’re watching mainly to see who’s going to blow his or her big chance and how brutal the judges are going to be. These are the parts of the shows that get all the hype.

On American Idol, the highlight is the insults fired by judge Simon Cowell at the would-be superstars. No believer in letting people down gently, Cowell prefers to use terms like “ghastly,” “horrendous,” and “the worst singer in America.” But there are plenty of minor highlights, as the camera follows the contestants behind the scenes and records their bickering and backbiting, or catches them standing onstage and insulting Cowell right back.

Similarly, The Apprentice is structured so that the climax of each episode is the moment when Donald Trump looks a squirming contestant in the eye and announces, “You’re fired.” But not before we’ve seen an hour of the contestants’ complaining and gossiping about each other, as well as openly denouncing their fellow contestants to Trump. And I haven’t even yet mentioned the sleazy methods some of the contestants have used to get ahead, as when the women’s team dressed as provocatively as possible to lure customers into the restaurant they were advertising.

In short, neither of these shows nor the other shows like them was designed to appeal to our better natures. Now, I’m not saying competition or having a winner is a bad thing. But on shows like American Idol and The Apprentice, the point isn’t just winning. If it were, the people who seem destined to humiliate themselves wouldn’t make it on the shows in the first place; they’d be screened out in the auditions. The point is to get trampled on, browbeaten, and laughed at while trying to win, all for the viewing pleasure of people like you and me.

Thanks, but no thanks. Even if these people don’t mind being exploited, that doesn’t mean we need to participate in the process. When we cheer for their degradation, we may not be hurting them personally. But what does it do to us? I think it erodes our respect for human dignity and our ability to be considerate of others’ feelings. I think we’re the ones who are degraded, just like the Roman citizens in the depths of the corruption of the Roman Empire used to cheer the gladiators, killing one another in the arena. Shows like this are why I’ve been urging BreakPoint listeners just to unplug the television. Sure, you can turn it on when you want to for news programs, but you have got to get down on your hands and knees-it’s a pretty good discipline.

People can make fools of themselves, and they do often enough. But I don’t have to watch it and call it entertainment.

Lift Holiday Parties Toward A Higher Aim

Luke 7:44

At a holiday party she hosted several years ago, author and women's ministry leader Page Hughes watched the movie “It's a Wonderful Life” with her guests while they enjoyed soft drinks and refreshments.

Before the movie credits rolled, Hughes shared that the most wonderful thing in her life was her relationship with Jesus.

“I had an operation with complications the summer before this party and almost died in my own home,” Hughes said. “During that time I had experienced such peace and never knew fear. I shared this experience with my guests.”

After she shared her feelings, one of the guests asked many questions about God, heaven and other spiritual issues.

Just a few weeks later, Hughes found out that the young lady who had asked the questions had died tragically.

“I'm not sure where this precious friend is spending eternity, but I know that I did what God was leading me to do,” Hughes said. “God was using me to give her another chance.” Hughes, a member of Westwood Baptist Church in Alabaster, Alabama, uses this example to show how everything in life - even the simple act of hosting a party in your home - can be an opportunity to tell others about Christ.

And each Christmas season rolls around, Hughes encourages women to entertain for the holidays with just that purpose in mind. While hosting parties is a wonderful way to share hospitality and the Gospel, she acknowledged that many women may feel inadequate in doing so.

EASY ENTERTAINING

There are many ways, though, to make entertaining easy and stress-free; there are also many ways to share a witness in non-threatening ways. She shares many of these ideas in her book, “Party with a Purpose” (New Hope Publishers, a subsidiary of Woman's Missionary Union).

Several party ideas for Christmas that are easy to plan and host are:

• Cup of Cheer Party, at which all guests bring a mug wrapped for a gift exchange.

• A Few of My Favorite Things Party, at which each woman brings a copy of her favorite book for a gift exchange and the host shares her favorite desserts, decorations and recipes with guests.

• Giving Party, at which guests are told to bring items for a designated missions project.

Hughes said she encourages hosts to always find a way to share their faith at their parties. “For every party I plan, I always ask how can I get the Gospel message across,” she explained. “At times I have a devotion time, share a story or a book, or maybe even put a verse of Scripture on a small favor I send home with my guests. For the My Favorite Things Party, you can share about your favorite story as recorded in Luke 2.”

Every great party includes great food, decorations and activities, and Hughes said these things easily can be planned as well.

KEEPING IT SIMPLE

Hughes' favorite ways to decorate for Christmas utilize inexpensive items, many of which can be found around the house and yard. “Go out in your yard or a wooded area nearby and snip pieces of greenery,” she said.

“Place the greenery around your home and enjoy the beauty and its fresh smell.” She also said that lighting is an easy and effective decorative element; add lights to greenery or faux trees for a shimmering effect.

When it comes to food, Hughes again looks toward easy items.

Some of the easy appetizers she enjoys include peanut butter sandwiched between graham cracker sticks and dipped in melted chocolate. Tart apple slices served with caramel dip is another of her favorites.

“You don't have to be a great cook to enjoy good food,” Hughes said. Modern women often feel inadequate in entertaining, she said, because they feel the pressure to present a “perfect” party that isn't actually practical.

“Television and magazines show fabulous party ideas, but women feel they can't entertain because the standards are just so high,” Hughes said. “They can also be costly, which presents major stress.”

Women should look to the biblical story of Mary and Martha to help with this stress, Hughes said.

“Jesus told Martha that she was worried about many things, whereas Mary had chosen the best. Mary had chosen to make her guest the priority, not just the preparations,” she noted.

“The best hostess is the one who keeps it simple enough that most of the preparations are done before guests arrive,” Hughes said. “The party also needs to be basic enough that others don't feel intimidated.”

THE HOLIDAY SEASON

Hughes and her husband, Les (senior pastor of Westwood Baptist Church), host many parties during the Christmas season.

“We have had ornament swaps and cookie swaps, as well as just times where we gathered for bowl games and the like over the holiday season,” she said. “We often just share times with family and friends.” Hughes said that hosting such get-togethers is a wonderful way to get to know others around you and to share your faith with strangers and friends alike.

“In America today we rarely take time or have opportunities to get to know those who live on either side of us, work at the same place or even have children playing on the same athletic team,” she said.

“Partying encourages us to make opportunities to get to know others and celebrate our faith in Christ.”

An ornament swap held in her home just last year provided an opportunity to reach someone for Christ, Hughes said.

At the party, she read “The Parable of the King” by Beth Moore, which tells the story of a king's daughter who ran away and became rebellious; when she came back home and confessed her disobedience, the king accepted her with love and affection.

Hughes said she received a letter months later from the granddaughter of a woman who'd attended the party. “The young lady had become pregnant out of wedlock and the grandmother purchased a copy of that book to give to her,” Hughes said. “The girl said she read it each week when she'd become discouraged.

“It had been a source of hope and forgiveness for her. She now reads the book to her young son, and said that she could never express her thanks for the gift I had given her.”

That experience, Hughes said, shows how God can use a party for a higher purpose. “I did not realize what God was doing. I was simply having a party, sharing a book,” she said. “God had much bigger plans!”

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Cheryl Sloan Wrap is a writer for The Alabama Baptist, online at www.thealabamabaptist.org.

*

Amusing Ourselves To Death

1 John 2:17

When the apostle John cautioned us about loving the world and the things in it — “the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does” — I'm sure he could not have imagined a context such as ours, where images, ideas, and pleasures dominate our horizons 24 hours a day, and where the availability and accessibility of any kind of fantasy is ubiquitous.

Entertainment and all that it implies and conveys is not simply an option that we have the privilege to explore occasionally; it has become for many a way of living. For many others, it has become simply an ailment undiagnosed. The problem with living in a culture is that we are blinded to its nature, narratives, and influence on our lives.

Thankfully, there are voices of caution from higher education, such as Neil Postman’s. In his book AMUSING OURSELVES TO DEATH, he contrasts the futuristic visions of George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s BRAVE NEW WORLD:

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared

was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no

one who would want to read one.... Orwell feared that the truth would

be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea

of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture.

Huxley feared that we would become a trivial culture.... As Huxley

remarked: the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the

alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost

infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Huxley added, people are

controlled by inflicting pain. In BRAVE NEW WORLD, they are controlled

by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will

ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

His book examines the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right, and his point is well taken.

Our cultural mantra invites us to easy, laid-back living, to life as it essentially pleases, entertains, or comforts you. And by subtle and not-so-subtle means, it undermines and erodes the core commitments and essential virtues necessary to live a life of freedom, reality, and truth. Living only for the sake of pleasure can only in the end make us slaves. The unrestrained appeasement of desire only expands our hunger for it. Popular culture fosters alternative views of ultimacy; it invites us to escape from reality, to submerge ourselves in a world of fantasy, make-believe, and imagination. By brilliant technical skill and powerful use of image and sound, our emotions are stimulated, our senses enlivened, and our dreams (and nightmares) envisioned.

Entertainment may have a place in our life, but it becomes a serious issue when it is the supreme focus of our life. The God revealed to us in Creation, in Scripture, in the story of Israel, and ultimately in Jesus, calls us to a singular focus, a serious commitment and a life of obedience, worship, and discipline. His call for our lives is to set our focus, our attention and our commitment upon Him, his will, and his way. We are invited to enter life as God intends, to enjoy the works of creation, and to explore the cultural mandate to express our creativity under God.

The apostle John may not have envisioned a world such as ours when he cautioned against being blinded by love for the world, but God's Word is exceptionally relevant: “The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:17). He invites us to consider whether we are pursuing that which is true life, or whether we are more accurately “amusing ourselves to death.”

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[see also HolwickID #17685]

The Whole Earth Is Full of His Glory: the Recovery of Authentic Worship, Part 1

Job 1:20

Surveying the literature on worship currently being published, and listening to the conversations currently taking place among the churches, one can quickly discern that worship is now one of the most controversial issues in the local congregation. As a matter of fact, many current book titles in the evangelical world suggest that what the church faces today is “worship warfare.” The very combination of the words “worship” and “war” should lead us to very sincere and sober biblical reflection. What is worship? And what does God desire that we should do in worship?

The symptomology of the current confusion over worship is seen in the fact that now many believe some modifier or adjective must be appended to the word “worship” in order to indicate that will take place. Traditional worship, liturgical worship, contemporary worship, blended worship, seeker-sensitive worship, praise and worship! But what in the world is WORSHIP?

It is true that worship has led to some warfare. In local congregations we see not only confusion, but also fighting, controversy and splitting. And what is the meaning of all of this? Jack Hayford, one of the nation's most eloquent proponents of “renewal worship,” suggests that nothing less than a new reformation is taking place. The reformation of the sixteenth century was a reformation of doctrine. It was a necessary reformation as biblical truth was recovered. But he says we are experiencing in this generation a reformation in worship that is just as necessary and just as historic.

My concern is that the issue of worship will define not only our church services, but also our theology and our beliefs about God. There is no more important issue for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ than that we worship as God would have us to worship Him.

Geoffrey Wainwright of Duke University reminds us that theology and worship are inextricably linked. Setting the context of missions as primary, he entitled his systematic project DOXOLOGY. We should be reminded that the purpose of the theologian is to serve the church so that the people of God worship Him more faithfully. By understanding God's revelation in His Word we know how He would wish to be worshiped. The Lord himself reminded us that God seeks those worshipers who will worship him in spirit and in truth (Jn 4:23). But what does it mean to worship God in spirit? What does it mean to worship Him in truth?

Theology is by definition not an ivory tower discipline. It is not merely a form of academic discourse. When rightly conducted, theology is the conversation of the people of God seeking to understand the Lord whom we worship and how He wills to be worshiped. So, we might ask in that light, what are the proper conditions of evangelical worship? What is the pattern for worship among those persons who claim to be established in the gospel and submitted to the Word of God?

We know the history of worship through the ages. We know what took place in the Reformation. We know what transpired in the English reforms. We know what took place as features were stripped away that were considered to be unbiblical -- and yet we see these same things returning. What is the condition of evangelical worship? It is not an exaggeration to suggest words such as pandemonium, confusion, and consternation.

In the midst of the upheaval, there is a great deal of encouragement to be found from reading the late A. W. Tozer. This is what he said some decades ago: “We have the breezy, self-confident Christians with little affinity for Christ and His cross. We have the joy-bell boys that can bounce out there and look as much like a game show host as possible. Yet, they are doing it for Jesus' sake?! The hypocrites! They're not doing it for Jesus' sake at all; they are doing it in their own carnal flesh and are using the church as a theater because they haven't yet reached the place where the legitimate theater would take them.

Tozer takes his argument further: “It is now common practice in most evangelical churches to offer the people, especially the young people, a maximum of entertainment and a minimum of serious instruction. It is scarcely possible in most places to get anyone to attend the meeting where the only attraction is God. One can only conclude that God's professed children are bored with Him for they must be wooed to meeting with a stick of striped candy in the form of religious movies, games and refreshments.”

This has influenced the whole pattern of church life and even brought into being a new type of church architecture designed to house the golden calf. So we have the strange anomaly of orthodoxy in creed and heterodoxy in practice. The striped candy technique has so fully integrated into our present religious thinking that it is simply taken for granted. Its victims never dream that it is not a part of teachings of Christ and His apostles. Any objection to the carryings-on of our present gold calf Christianity is met with the triumphant reply, “But we are winning them.” And winning them to what? To true discipleship? To cross-carrying? To self-denial? To separation from the world? To crucifixion of the flesh? To holy living? To nobility of character? To a despising of the world's treasures? To hard self-discipline? To love for God? To total commitment to Christ?

Of course, the answer to all of these questions is “no.” As these words were written several decades ago, Tozer certainly saw the future. But there are contemporary witnesses as well. Kent Hughes, who is Senior Pastor of the College Church in Wheaton, Illinois, has written perceptively on this issue. Hughes put it this way: “The unspoken but increasingly common assumption of today's Christendom is that worship is primarily for us -- to meet our needs. Such worship services are entertainment focused, and the worshipers are uncommitted spectators who are silently grading the performance. From this perspective preaching becomes a homiletics of consensus -- preaching to felt needs -- man's conscious agenda instead of God's. Such preaching is always topical and never textual. Biblical information is minimized, and the sermons are short and full of stories. Anything and everything that is suspected of making the marginal attender uncomfortable is removed from the service....Taken to the nth degree, this philosophy instills a tragic selfcenteredness. That is, everything is judged by how it affects man. This terribly corrupts one's theology.”

Hughes is right. Our confused worship corrupts our theology and our weak theology corrupts our worship. Are these voices alarmist? They do mean to sound an alarm. But there are others who are saying, “Don't worry -- be happy -- go worship.” One recent church growth author has written, “Worship is like a car to get us from where we are to where God wants us to be. Transportation and communication are imperative; the mode or vehicle is not imperative. Some worship God in cathedrals with the rich traditional organ tomes of Bach and Faure from the classics of Europe. They travel in a Mercedes Benz. Some worship God in simple wooden churches with a steeple pointing heavenward. They sing the gospel songs of Charles Wesley or Fanny Cosby. They travel in a Ford or Chevy. Some worship God with the contemporary sounds of praise music with a gentle beat. They travel in a convertible sports coupe. Some worship God to the whine of a guitar and the amplifiers to the max. They travel on a motorcycle, without a muffler.”

But surely there is more to worship than the spectrum of taste from a Mercedes Benz to a motorcycle. There must be something weightier here. “Worship is like a car to get us from where we are to where God wants us to be.” Can that be said with a straight face as we listen to the Scripture speak of worship? We know from the onset that there are many different Christian opinions concerning worship. This does not come to us as news. But the real issue for us this morning is whether or not God Himself has an opinion on this issue. Does God care how He is worshiped? Or is He some kind of laissez-faire deity who cares not how His people worship Him, but is resting in the hopes that some people in some place will in some way worship him?

Scripture reveals that God does care. Leviticus 10:1-3 serves as a witness to this point. “Now Nadad and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, “It is what the Lord spoke, saying, 'By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, and before all the people I will be honored.'“

These were Aaron's sons. But they did what God had not commanded them to do in worship. They brought strange fire to the altar and they were consumed. Clearly, God does have an opinion about worship. He is the God whom we have come to know in Jesus Christ, the God who has revealed Himself in the Bible. He is a jealous God -- a God who loves us and is calling out a people but a God who instructs and commands His people that we should worship Him rightly.

In one sense, I think you can say looking throughout the Bible that there has been worship warfare even in the Scripture itself. As a matter of fact, I think you can look back to the very first murder and see that it had to do with worship as well. What is an acceptable sacrifice to the Lord? Cain and Abel saw this issue differently.

Well, Scripture makes clear that worship is something that we do, not just something we attend. It is not merely an issue for the pastor and other ministers. It is not just an issue for the musicians and those who will plan the service. It is an issue for the entire congregation, for worship is something we do together. It is our corporate and common responsibility to worship God as He desires.

Where shall we turn for instruction on how we ought to worship? There is only one place we can turn, and that is to the Word of God. The norm of our worship must be the Word of God -- this Word that He has spoken. As we turn to this Word, we do see a pattern of worship, a pattern that is replicated throughout the fabric of Scripture from beginning to the end.

_______

This is Part One of a three-part series. Tomorrow: Authentic Worship Begins with a True Vision of the Living God.

*

Entertaining Ourselves To Death

Charles Colson is concerned about a trend in Christian radio that is jettisoning teaching and talk-oriented programs and replacing them with programming that is more oriented toward entertainment.

Voicing his concerns in a recent issue of Christianity Today, the founder of Prison Fellowship wrote, “One station canceled my four-minute BreakPoint commentary saying that four minutes is the equivalent of one song.... Besides, the station manager allowed, BreakPoint is too serious and not contemporary enough.”

It is not only his radio commentaries that Colson is concerned about. “Several stations recently -– many acting on the advice of a leading consulting firm –- have dropped serious programming in favor of all-music formats,” he reported. “For example, a major station in Baltimore has dropped four talk shows in order to add music.”

American society and even Christians, it seems, are surrendering to the insatiable desire to be entertained. Our quest for amusement has become not only a national past-time, it has become an addiction.

There is little about life in the United States that is not tarnished by entertainment. GameBoys, Walkmans and iPods provide fun and diversion that is portable. Cell phones and PDAs now come with games as standard equipment.

Americans pursue electronic pastimes via television and computer. The Internet, which helped usher in the information age, now is used primarily for amusement -- much of which is unseemly. And movies are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year via cable.

Professional sport even has been affected by America's entertainment addiction. The contest itself was once amusement enough. Not any more. I was treated to an NBA game recently. There I encountered non-stop entertainment. During breaks in the action there were contests, souvenir give-a-ways, dancing girls, and video replays. It was dizzying.

Even politics is dominated by entertainment. A candidate's image has become more important than a substantive platform. Televised debates are nothing more than rehearsed sound bites and staged spin. A political pundit recently declared that a particular individual would make a good candidate because he makes the public feel good.

Even the church is succumbing to the quest to be entertained. A local fellowship was once evaluated by its commitment to biblical truth. No more. Many who file in and out of houses of worship now expect a service to flow with flawless musical presentations and engaging messages peppered with humor. Conviction must now contend with amusement.

There is little in American society that has not been tainted by entertainment addiction. Perhaps we should consider the song “Let Me Entertain You” as our new national anthem.

All addiction has consequences. America's obsession with entertainment has produced a society that has become increasingly more passive toward life. It seems we would rather watch reality on television than experience it first-hand.

Entertainment is designed to appeal to an audience's emotions. Those addicted to amusement lose their desire to think critically. The entertainment addict reacts to information, and even life, based on how it makes him or her feel. Emotion, rather than fact, is the supreme barometer for those enslaved to entertainment.

Addiction is also, by its very nature, an escalating condition. That is, an addict's appetite never plateaus. Hence those obsessed with entertainment desire more and more amusement that is increasingly more spectacular. The end result is that the sensational trumps the substantive.

The attention span is the casualty of all addiction. The entertainment addict is not only easily bored and distracted, but also has difficulty retaining relevant information for a very long period of time. Those obsessed with amusement are unable to juxtapose contemporary happenings with history. Thus, current events become nothing more than passing bits of trivia.

A society addicted to entertainment is comprised of individuals whose obsession is their own pleasure. Once a people lose the desire to pursue life and to think critically, once a society fails to recognize the substantive and cultivate a historical perspective, once these realities become the rule rather than the exception, a society is in real danger.

There are many things in life that taken in moderation are not necessarily negative. Entertainment is one of them. However, America has crossed the line of moderation and is plunging headlong into addiction. It seems we are, in the words of New York University's Neil Postman, “Amusing ourselves to death.”

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Boggs is editor of the Baptist Message newspaper in Louisiana.

Is It Really So Super?

Prior to Super Bowl VI between Dallas and Miami in 1972, Cowboys’ running back Duane Thomas was asked by a reporter what it felt like to be playing in the ultimate football game. Thomas replied, “If it’s the ultimate, why are they going to play it again next year?”

In a simple sentence Thomas forced football fanatics and pop culture junkies at least to consider keeping some perspective on the annual “super” event. However, it seems his comments have been wholly ignored by society at large.

The Super Bowl began rather inauspiciously on Jan. 15, 1967. The game was part of an agreement between the well-established National Football League and its new rival, the American Football League.

The terms of the agreement included a game that would pit each league’s champion in an “AFL-NFL World Championship Game.” In 1970 the two leagues finally merged.

The first world championship contest took place between the NFL’s Green Bay Packers and the AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs. Not quite 62,000 fans gathered in Los Angeles’ 100,000-seat Memorial Coliseum, and an estimated 60-million watched the game on television.

Ticket prices for the Green Bay-Kansas City match-up ranged from $6 to $12 and a one-minute television commercial sold for $75,000 to $85,000. Halftime entertainment at the “AFL-NFL World Championship” consisted of performances by the marching bands from the University of Michigan and the University of Arizona as well as an appearance by trumpeter Al Hirt.

For the record, the Packers defeated the Chiefs 35-10.

Fast Forward to Super Bowl XLI –- the Chicago Bears will take on the Indianapolis Colts in Miami. The crowd will fill all 76,500 seats of Dolphin Stadium. The face values for tickets to this year’s game are $600 to $700. However, many of those in attendance will have shelled out three to five times the face value.

Advertisers will spend $2.6 million for a 30-second spot. Singer Billy Joel will perform the National Anthem and rocker Prince will provide halftime entertainment. An estimated 140 million will watch the game via television and many of will do so from Super Bowl parties.

The consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. estimates that U.S. companies could suffer lost wages of approximately $820 million as Americans focus on the Super Bowl. The unproductive time will include chatting about the game, planning parties, organizing betting pools and researching big-screen TVs.

What caused the Super Bowl to go from a football game that many ignored, to the behemoth event that now captivates America’s attention?

One contributing factor is America’s obsession with entertainment; make no mistake about it, professional football is entertainment. There is no other reason to justify the presence of scantily clad, gyrating “cheer” leaders. I ask you, what value do they add to the actual game?

The Super Bowl is hyper-hyped as crowning achievement in professional sports. In fact, in many fans’ minds a player’s career cannot be considered a success unless he triumphs in the “ultimate game.”

However, one of the main reasons for the Super Bowl’s success lies in the fact that so many Americans live without a sense of purpose. In a life that is void of meaning or purpose, only experience holds any real significance.

A person that has no meaning or purpose motivating his or her life seeks to find fulfillment in experiences. So a big event, like the Super Bowl, becomes an opportunity to share a moment, something significant that will add value or a sense of meaning to life.

Sports provide a wonderful outlet for those drifting through life without purpose. There is always the next game or the next season to which to look forward. Some even live vicariously through their favorite players. After this year’s Super Bowl many fans will boast, “We won,” when the only effort they expended was to walk to the refrigerator for a snack.

On Monday the “ultimate game” will be talked about and individual plays will be rehashed. However, the only lives that will be richer for experience are the players that participated and the Miami businesses that benefited from Super Bowl spending.

The day after the Super Bowl many will have shared an experience, they will have enjoyed a game, engaged in a gaudy distraction, but few lives will have been changed.

The Super Bowl is, after all, only a football game.

I agree with Duane Thomas -- if the Super Bowl is so ultimate, why will it be played again next year? And when it is played next year, how many actually will be able to recall this year’s ultimate experience?

Using the Bible In Discipleship and Worship

John 5:39

Some time ago I visited a church in another town; it was a pleasant service, with pretty music and a brief but impassioned sermon. The service concluded with the congregants embracing and encouraging each other.

After the service, I eyed the hundred or so adults who exited the sanctuary. Something about the service had made me curious, and my suspicion was validated: I saw a total of only about 15 Bibles in their hands.

The pastor’s sermon had raised this suspicion. Halfway through it, I realized that he had not made a single reference to Scripture. In fact, he never mentioned the name of Christ during the entire service. The sermon had revolved around encouraging the flock to think about how they might live their lives according to their own definitions of right and wrong. It was a moral-sounding sermon, but it had not centered upon the Word of God.

This church was not Baptist, but I had a similar experience a few months later at a large Southern Baptist church. This time the worship was lively and the songs contained Scripture. The sermon was expository, proceeding clause by clause through the passage. It was, in fact, one of the best biblical sermons I’d heard in recent memory.

I left that service feeling invigorated, until I noticed something as I walked through the parking lot: almost no one carried a Bible. I realized that even my host, a minister with a parachurch organization, hadn’t bothered to bring his Bible with him. There was no reason to open the Word and read it for oneself: the Scripture passages had been flashed on the sanctuary wall. We had spent an hour hearing God’s Word, but the congregation had been passive consumers in nicely padded seats, not active readers and worshippers of Christ. They had instead been entertained; it was a pleasurable experience, but the service had not caused people to dig into God’s Word.

Worship should glorify Christ. We are not worshipping the Bible when we give it prominence; we are underscoring that God’s revealed Word is the authority under which we live and through which we know Christ. Intimacy with Scripture is central to intimacy with Christ Himself.

Intimacy is not a passive quality; it requires us to “do” something, to pursue a relationship. James 1:22-24 implies this dynamic state: “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.”

This exhortation reminds us that “doers” are changed by God’s Word and not merely passively entertained. Nowhere is this concept more important than in Bible study and worship. When those of us who are teachers and preachers allow people to be passive in their use of the Bible, then we are in direct violation of our responsibilities as leaders.

We should take a regular inventory of our teaching and preaching to see if we are encouraging an active use of the Bible. A visual check is simple: Are Bibles present and open in people’s laps, with pens in-hand and in-use? An auditory check is helpful as well: When a Scripture reference is called out, can pages be heard turning to the appropriate passage? When additional Scriptures are cited, can an immediate rush of page-turning be heard throughout the room?

If these checks provide disappointing feedback, it is easy to encourage active use of the Bible. Stop printing entire Scripture passages on outlines or Powerpoint slides; instead, provide Bibles for those who did not bring a copy and indicate the page number of the passages in that Bible. This will encourage those who are not familiar with finding passages with an easy way of finding the passage without allowing them to be passive. In fact, I would recommend placing a prominent sticker on these Bibles encouraging people to take them home and return them the following week. Additionally, these Bibles could have the plan of salvation pasted in them or even several brief devotionals that lead the person to study the Bible during that week.

We should encourage our Bible study classes and our worshippers to read the passages out loud through responsive readings. We should encourage them to sing Scripture in song. We should pray prayers that include appropriate verses. In short, Bible studies and worship services should drip with active uses of God’s Word.

When we are “hearers” alone, we are passive and do not allow God’s changing grace to work through our lives. When we are “doers” in study and worship, we cannot help but to allow God’s love to overflow into every aspect of our lives, including our relationships with others.

Once upon a time in our churches, we said that there was nothing more intimidating to the forces of hell than an open Bible in the hands of a godly man or woman. We need to stop allowing people to sit with their Bibles absent or closed, for without an open Bible, there is no way to be a godly person.

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Gene C. Fant Jr. is the acting dean of the college of arts and sciences at Union University in Jackson, Tenn. He is a Sunday School teacher at West Jackson Baptist Church and also serves as a supply preacher.

The Personal Characteristics of A Leader

Ezra 6:21

The personal characteristics of a leader bear witness to the lasting influence of that leader. Throughout his extended ministry, C. H. Spurgeon exhibited steadfastly the highest moral conduct in his personal and public life. James Douglas wrote in his biography of Spurgeon, “He was great as a man ... great in private with God, and great in public with his fellow men.” The man had a life-long consistency, and his influence helped to lead thousands of people to follow the Christ he loved and served.

One example of Spurgeon’s high moral standards was the subsequent rift that occurred between him and Joseph Parker over an issue that Spurgeon believed to be a compromise of Christian conduct.

Parker was pastor of the City Temple, a large London church. Parker and Spurgeon were ministerial colleagues and friends who cooperated in various evangelistic and ministerial efforts in the city for several decades.

But in the latter years of Spurgeon’s ministry his amicable association with Parker came into question when he discovered that Parker frequented the secular theatres of London. Spurgeon believed the theatre to be a bastion of immorality that represented the evils of the world. He could not fathom Parker’s support for such worldly amusements.

Parker responded to Spurgeon’s criticism by writing him an open letter that was published in London newspapers. The rift was never mended before Spurgeon’s death. One wonders how many of our Christian leaders today, given the level of compromise that has become the norm regarding popular forms of entertainment, would give a second thought to Spurgeon’s challenge.

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Larry J. Michael, SPURGEON ON LEADERSHIP (Kregel Publications, 2003)