Facing the Giants

I saw "Facing the Giants" the other night and it was about what I expected. Unfortunately, the Christian ghetto has once again shown just how bad it is at making movies. Technically speaking, it was good for a low budget film with an almost all volunteer staff. At times it was pretty funny and other times inspiring. However, it was the underlying message that disturbed me. What I got from it, and what I believe most unbelievers will get out of it, is the supposedly temporal blessings of being a faithful Christian. Even more disheartening is the films inability to ask the right question -- i.e., how does sinful man stand in the presence of a holy God? "Sin," which I can't recall the word actually being used once in the entire film, seems to be defined as failure to meet one's personal goals. The film's answer is, if you do your part and believe really hard, God might give you a winning football team, a new F-150 pick-up truck, and you get to go to heaven too! I have heard it said that Francis Schaeffer told his students, regarding evangelism, please first present Christianity as true rather than that it is helpful. In this regard, Facing the Giants misses the mark terribly.

"Faith Night"

I ran across a story on Marketplace yesterday regarding ballparks sponsoring "Faith Nights" to help boost ticket sales on certain games. On "Faith Night"there will be personal testimonies from star players to be followed by a Christian rock concert. I think these "Faith Nights" are rather appropriate since our culture tends to worship sports and athletes. Moreover, churches, more and more, resemble stadiums. I am surprised some church growth guru hasn't thought of offering free baseball hats to the first 500 people to attend Sunday worship!

I know -- I am being very cynical. . .

The Christian Ghetto

". . .[P]ietism tended to create a 'Christian ghetto' that the Reformation had attempted to dismantle. Called out of the church into the world, evangelicals were again encouraged, especially through the revivalism of the last century-and-a-half, to help build a Christian empire within America. Eventually, we came to the place where we had our own networks, movies, talk shows, cruises, rock stars, entertainers, and other trappings of modern hedonism, without having to bother leaving the ghetto. We called it evangelism, and perhaps we even intended it to be evangelism, but it has ended up only creating a church that is of the world but not in it, instead of being in the world but not of it.

Therefore, we often judge our spiritual health in terms of how many people are involved with small groups, Bible studies, prayers circles, and accountability groups; and we are led by the statistics to conclude that we are actually quite vigorous. But Reformation Christianity (i.e., biblical Christianity) should lead us to different standards for judging health: Is the church truly being the church? That is to ask, Is the Word rightly preached? Are the sacraments rightly administered? And is there a healthly concern for the practice of church discipline and good order? If those questions cannot be answered with any degree of confidence, there is not health, regardless of the bustling activity in the ghetto." Horton, Michael, Where in the World is the Church, 141-142 (2000).