ANOTHER VIEW: What would
Jesus direct?
There is a lot of buzz these days in both religious and Hollywood circles that a new relationship is being forged between faith and film. Is it for real? Or is it just a lot of hype?
Michael Flaherty, president of Walden Media, a partner with Walt Disney Studios in bringing C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe to the silver screen, comes down on the side of the optimists.
“I think there's definitely an interest” in Hollywood in religious themes, he said, but added: “One of the mistakes that people make is they think they can just throw in a church scene here, throw in a bit of Scripture here. They're missing the point that it's [filmmaking] all about a great story. And so if it [religion] doesn't exist in the DNA of the story, you can't just dab it on like makeup.”
Flaherty made his comments during a panel discussion—”What Would Jesus Direct”—at the recent Tribeca Film Festival in New York. The panel was moderated by Kim Lawton, managing editor of the PBS television program Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly. Other members of the panel included Jonathan Bock, president of Grace Hill Media, founded in 2000 to “bridge the chasm” by marketing films to people of faith; Ralph Winter, producer of X-Men: The Last Stand, released May 26; and Academy Award-winning actor Cuba Gooding Jr.
Asked whether the new interest in faith on film is about putting Bible stories on the screen, or films that may not be explicitly religious but tackle themes with religious and moral overtones, Flaherty opted for the latter.
“And you know, it's like the Apostle Paul said to the church of Philippi: Look, whatever's good, whatever's true, whatever's praiseworthy, this is where you need to be putting your focus, this is where you need to be putting your minds,” he said.
“I think that there's a lot of people in the faith community who are looking for those films that are really inspirational and uplifting and might not necessarily be considered deliberately religious per se,” he added.
But it was an explicitly religious film—Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, which earned at least $370 million in the United States—that panelists pointed to as the breakthrough movie creating an awareness in Hollywood of the Christian market.
“The Passion of the Christ kicked the door open for these kinds of [religious] projects,” Winter said. “But I think they have to be entertaining. No one wants to be preached to in a movie theater.”
There's a fine line, Bock said, between the kinds of movies filmmakers want to make, the kinds of films audiences want to see, and most importantly, the kinds of films studios are willing to bankroll.
“I think the question just can't be what would Jesus direct,” Bock said. “I think it's got to be what would Jesus direct and would Paramount distribute because, look, film is a collaborative process. It requires a lot of money.” Gooding, who won Best Supporting Actor in 1996 for his role in Jerry Maguire, said he laughs at Hollywood's timing.
“It's funny,” he said. “They go where the money is. OK, The Passion of the Christ made a … lot of money … and now everybody's scurrying to have the next faith-based project that goes through the roof. The audience has been there for
years.”
Bock said Hollywood is just discovering the audience.
“The statistics are overwhelming,” he said. “For example, on Sunday, 43 percent of America was in church. Forty-three percent. And for studios not to recognize that that's an audience now, it's like a studio saying we're not making movies for men.
“What you are starting to see,” he added, “is studios are starting to put their toes in the water.” A number of studios, he said, are making small-budget films—$2 million movies—aimed at the Christian market. He said he hopes Grace Hill will play a role in reaching “he relatively untapped market of religious America.”
But he said the process is going to be evolutionary.
“I actually think it's not all that different than what African-Americans went through with seeing them come from, you know … these Blaxploitation films that were made for very small dollars, and then that kind of grew into ‘maybe we can make a buddy comedy' kind of thing.
“I think that's what we're going to see here too: low-budget Christian films that … let's call them ‘Godsploitation' films.”
Gooding said that if filmmakers are going to reach a Christian audience, they need to have a certain passion for their work. “If it's something that the faith-based audience feels is a statement that would inspire us as Christians, or as Catholics, or whatever, then they'll rally behind it,” he said. “That's why, when you have copycat movies, when people are trying to capitalize on money, people see through that.” The panelists agreed that most religious leaders now believe faith and pop culture need to be connected.
“Movies for many denominations were a sin,” Bock noted, “and I think what most Christian leaders have seen happen is that pop culture has moved on without them. And you can't stop it.
RIGHT OR WRONG
A member of our church consistently becomes rowdy—talking too much and loudly—during our business meetings. His behavior is extremely distracting, and some members have quit attending because they know he'll be there. Something needs to change, but how?
The issue you relate is one faced by many churches. Individuals like the one you have described are not rare. A friend of mine has suggested the person's name is Legion (meaning “many”)!
I wish I could offer a simple—and guaranteed-to-work—answer. I can't. You have taken an important first step by realizing that something has to change. You cannot ignore the situation and hope it will go away. The longer you wait, the more likely Legion is to inflict long-term damage on your congregation. The decision made by some members to stop attending business meetings is an indication of the harm already done. Keep in mind your responsibility to be redemptive, both to Legion and the church.
Begin with prayer—for Legion, for those who will take leadership in addressing the situation and for those who have stopped attending. Pray for wisdom and guidance in conversations that must occur. Pray for a spirit of reconciliation among all who are involved. Pray that God will help you understand why Legion acts as he does. Is he addressing substantive issues that need further dialogue and
resolution? Or does he fit the description of a difficult church members as named by Brooks Faulkner in his book Getting on Top of Your Work: Manual for the 21st Century Minister? Difficult church members may: (1) “run right over you,” (2) feel “entitled to your preferential treatment,” (3) “talk your ear off,” (4) have “a temper like Mount St. Helens,” or (5) be “an unpleasable perfectionist.”
You may have to visit personally with Legion and express the concerns that have been raised. Seek common ground. Although Legion's behavior may be inappropriate, he is expressing involvement and passion. He cares for his church.
Legion may never change, but don't let him derail the church from its work. His behavior may be an attempt to use the congregation's fear of conflict to impose his will on the church. Enlist the help of members who have quit attending. Visit with them, and help them realize others share their frustration. Encourage them not to allow one person to drive them away from participating in your church's decision-making process.
Evaluate the procedures you use in business meetings. Set guidelines. Limit the amount of time and the number of times any one person can speak to an issue. Legion may perceive he is not being heard. His actions may be the way he assures he will not be ignored. Make sure your procedures are fair and everyone has a chance to speak.
David Morgan, Pastor, Trinity Baptist Church, Harker Heights, Texas
Roanoke
pastor
named
strategist
RICHMOND — Tom Stocks has been named the Virginia Baptist Mission Board's field strategist for the Valley Region, effective Feb. 4.
Stocks has served since 1989 as the pastor of Rosalind Hills Baptist Church in Roanoke. He has a bachelor of arts degree in sociology from Mars Hill College, a master of arts degree in sociology from Appalachian State University, a master of divinity degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and a doctor of ministry degree from Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond.
He and his wife, Paula, have two daughters.
Stocks has served as a member of the Virginia Baptist Mission Board and as chaplain of the Roanoke County Police Department.
Churches hesitant to sue NFL
CHARLOTTESVILLE (BP) — John Whitehead is aching to take the National Football League to court but can't find a church willing to take on the influential pro football colossus.
“You go to any bar on Super Bowl Sunday and they'll be showing the game on their [big screen] TVs,” the president of The Rutherford Institute said.
T h e c o n s e r v a t i v e n o n p r o f i t l e g a l o r g a n i z a t i o n i n Charlottesville represented Fall Creek Baptist Church in Indianapolis, Ind., last February in its legal tussle with the
NFL.
“They want to restrict it to a 55-inch screen, which in a big church you'd need binoculars to see,” Whitehead said. “It's designed to prevent churches and groups like that from doing this. If churches en masse wanted to do this, they could get the law changed.”
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the reason bars and sporting establishments are permitted to show the game on larger screens is a legal exemption for organizations that use them year-round instead of for a one-time event. Baptist Press knows of at least one unidentified church that called the NFL earlier this year and cited the exemption for those who use large screens year-round. The church argued that because it uses its screen year-round, it should be exempted. The NFL allowed the church to hold the party without interference.
Measured against the increased size of home TV sets, not only is the screen size stipulation absurd, Whitehead said, but the law cited by the NFL is vague and silly.
Though he hasn't discussed the issue with any congressmen, Whitehead said he is sure some legislators agree the law is obsolete and would overturn it if church members organized a grassroots campaign.
The pastor of Fall Creek Baptist said the church didn't proceed with a lawsuit last February because they decided a legal case would create a distraction from their ministry.
Even a church with the financial muscle of Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Ky., which is among the 10 largest churches in the nation, decided it didn't want to have the reputation as the church that brought litigation, its minister of single adults said.
Leader who warned of Islamic
takeover hired to aid SBC’s
world mission effort
RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) — David Clippard, the former Missouri Baptist Convention executive who earned national headlines when he said Islam has a plan to “conquer and occupy” the United States, was hired Dec. 10 by the Southern Baptist Convention's world missions agency to enlist Baptist churches to spread the gospel to non-Christians worldwide.
According to a news release from the International Mission Board, Clippard will serve as managing director of the IMB's church services team. He will use his new position to enable all Southern Baptist churches to reach the world's 6,000 unreached people groups, the release said. He is especially interested in involving young pastors in the outreach.
BP Photo Clippard
Clippard won national attention in when he preached a sermon in 2006 to the Missouri convention claiming the “real threat” to the United States is that “Islam has a strategic plan to conquer and occupy America.”
He claimed the Saudi Arabian government paid for 15,000 Muslim college students to come to North America to study and funded scores of Islamic study centers and mosques here with the intention of taking the continent for Islam. “They are after our sons and daughters, our students,” he said.
Hired in 2002 as the executive director-treasurer for Missouri's Southern Baptist-related convention, Clippard was later fired by the same conservative leaders who hired him. Himself a conservative, Clippard ultimately failed in demonstrating the solidarity for which convention leaders had hoped.
He was fired April 10 after divisions within the convention's Executive Board emerged regarding leadership styles, spending and real estate. He had recently settled a harassment lawsuit involving convention controller Carol Kaylor and been charged with having an “autocratic and dismissive” leadership style. Clippard, who has also worked with the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma and Evangelism Explosion International, spent much of his tenure at the Missouri convention working with projects involving El Salvador, Romania, Iraq and Turkey.
Insurer of churches won’t pay
disputes
DES MOINES, Iowa (ABP) — One of the nation's three largest insurers of congregations has backed away from covering lawsuits filed as a result of church splits and denominational disputes.
Since July, GuideOne Insurance of West Des Moines, Iowa, has been adding the endorsement to new and renewed policies for “directors and officers coverage.” No specific incident triggered the policy change, according to GuideOne general council Tom Farr. “We're just following the developments of the church niche in general,” he said.
But the very public dispute over homosexuality that erupted among Episcopalians last year “got us to thinking,” Farr said. “We had read about disputes among others over property,” he added.
Insurance is designed to protect the insured against “unforeseen and accidental events,” he said, but a church split or disaffiliation is “clearly not accidental … not like somebody running a red light. That's an internal matter and not either unforeseen or an accident,” he added.
Most churches and religious organizations carry two types of policies — general and directors/officers coverage. General policies usually include property, bodily injury and personal injury coverage. Directors-and-officers coverage typically is broad and covers claims against wrongful acts or issues created by wrongful actions. “It's financial injury coverage,” he said.
Conflict between two factions in a church or other religious organization often splits the body, leading to a fight over property and assets, Farr said.
The decision to exclude those risks “is purely a financial act,” he said. GuideOne should not have to pay legal expenses for both sides in a lawsuit that erupts from internal disagreement. “We felt that our policy didn't cover it anyway, but we decided to clarify” that stance, the attorney said.
The other two primary insurers, Church Mutual of Merrill, Wisc., and Brotherhood Mutual of Fort Wayne, Ind., apparently have made no changes.
Brotherhood Mutual's policy already has a limitation in place, and the firm does not plan to broaden it, explained Mitzi Thomas, assistant vice president of corporate communications. Neither Church Mutual's legal council Charles Kirby nor corporate communications director Jay Lillge would discuss
whether the firm is considering a similar endorsement or other limitations. A few Church Mutual policyholders indicated they had seen no changes and had not heard about any pending changes from company representatives.
“It's unfortunate but something a congregation has to consider,” Farr said. “There is a business side [to] running a church. [Schism can become like] a squabble between business partners.”
GuideOne's endorsement will be applied to regional and national religious bodies as well. Denominations that are more centrally controlled generally and individual churches and groups with provisions for splits in their governing documents or property deeds are not as much at risk, he said.
Brotherhood Mutual's current directors-and-officers policy provides $15,000 to cover the legal costs of a declaratory judgment of ownership. The policy contains a provision that requires the parties to solve the issue, and then the insurance company will determine which party benefits from the policy's coverage.
“We will not pay both sides,” Thomas said. “We don't want to be caught up in the problem. We don't feel like we need to deny coverage [with a provision such as GuideOne's]. We just don't want to be caught in the middle.”
Virginia Baptist Foundation
awards 12 grants to ministry
partners
RICHMOND — The Virginia Baptist Foundation has awarded 12 grants totaling over $100,000 to 11 Virginia Baptist ministry partners, according to Ronald C. Hall, president and CEO of the Foundation.
Hall announced the following recipients, which were awarded g r a n t s b y t h e F o u n d a t i o n d u r i n g a r e c e n t t r u s t e e administrative committee meeting:
• African Christian Community Church in Richmond, for the purpose of supporting the Barnabas Project, a ministry that addresses the physical, educational, and spiritual needs of African immigrants and refugees in Central Virginia;
• Anita Bailey, a member of Poroporone Baptist Church in Shacklefords, for the purpose of participating in a mission trip to Honduras with a team from Christopher Newport University;
• Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, for the purpose of launching a pilot project designed to assist congregations facing decline and closure;
• Bluefield College, for the continuing ministry support of the Daniel G. MacMillan Center for Service, Mission and Ministry on campus;
• The Center for Baptist Heritage & Studies, for the purpose of developing print and media materials to teach high school and college-aged students Baptist history, heritage and principles;
• Iglesia Bautista Hispana Emanuel Church in Alexandria, for the purpose of assisting young people to attend the 15th Baptist Youth World Conference in Germany this summer;
replacing the roof of the Reverend J. F. Fletcher Chapel on campus;
• Shiloh Hope Builders in Culpeper, for the purpose of supporting a Christian mentoring program for impoverished and abused women;
• The Religious Herald, for the dual purposes of consulting media experts to increase circulation as well as providing scholarship assistance to attend a conference at The Center of Philanthropy in Indiana;
• The Virginia Baptist Mission Board's emerging leaders team and Woman's Missionary Union of Virginia, for the purpose of constructing a Habitat for Humanity house in Lynchburg during the Missions Connection Celebration at Eagle Eyrie;
• The VBMB's Impact Virginia program, for the purpose of supporting youth construction camps in Bluefield, Bowling Green, Culpeper and Staunton this summer.
William E. Watson, chairman of the Foundation's board of trustees, said, “The grant program is growing and I am excited with this year's grant beneficiaries. The purpose of this program is to fulfill Christ's Great Commission, while also strengthening Virginia Baptist's Kingdom Advance initiatives. Clearly this is a step in that direction.
“The Foundation is honored to be the chosen agency by so many deceased Virginia Baptists to look after the fruits of their labor. We make these grants with the proceeds of these deposits to help support these valued Virginia Baptist causes.”
Grant applications for 2009 will be available on the Foundation's website (www.vbfinc. org) in November 2008.
Surgery leads Mohler to bow
out of SBC race
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, will bow out of the race to head the Southern Baptist Convention, according to a Feb. 14 statement.
Mohler will undergo surgery for a pre-cancerous tumor in his colon, according to the release. Mohler, 48, has headed the institution since 1995.
Three other candidates for the SBC presidency have already been announced: Georgia pastor Frank Cox and Californians Wiley Drake and Bill Wagner.
Music
collaboration
to
benefit African school
RICHMOND — American Youth Harp Ensemble and Richmond area choirs will join forces next month to present “Amani Peace Concert,” an African music collaboration benefiting the Grace Baptist Institute in Liberia.
The performance takes place on Sunday, May 4, at 2:30 p.m. at Grace Baptist Church, located at 4200 Dover Rd. in Richmond. Last year, Grace Church developed a relationship with Grace Baptist Church in Monrovia, Liberia, and the church's K-9
school, Grace Baptist Institute.
“The relationship began when one of our members, Dr. Deborah Carlton Loftis, professor of music and worship at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, visited the church and school during a sabbatical,” said Wanda Sauley Fennell, minister of music at Grace. “Since then we have funded numerous scholarships and sent a large amount of school supplies to the Institute. Their pastor was with us in worship on Easter 2007, and we even have a family in our church who come from the church in Monrovia.”
The Amani Peace Concert, imagined and organized by Lynnelle Ediger-Kordzaia, artistic director of the American Youth Harp Ensemble, lends the talents of the AYHE and four supporting choirs to this effort. The AYHE hopes to raise over $10,000 for the Liberian school and its students. The AYHE, which includes 50 students ranging in age from 5 to 18, utilizes the harp as a catalyst for personal growth and community service. For the event, the American Youth Harp Ensemble will collaborate with over 80 singers from the Richmond Montessori School Honors Choir, the Richmond Symphony Orchestra Chorus, the Baptist Theological Seminary Choir and the Grace Baptist Church Choir to team up with the Harp Ensemble and native African drummer Nana Frimpong for a two-hour extravaganza of harp, percussion and voice. During the lively performance of traditional African works, the moving underlying story of Liberia and, specifically, Grace Baptist Institute is narrated by Broadway/Hollywood celebrity Jasmine Guy. The concert also presents the world premiere of a newly commissioned African-style work, “African Reflections,” composed by Monika Stadler for the American Youth Harp Ensemble.
All proceeds of the concert will be donated to the Grace Baptist Institute.
Pugh, and Dr. Loftis will travel to Liberia in June to deliver money and work in a variety of ways with our sister congregation,” said Fennell.
Tickets, which are $20 for adults and $10 for students and seniors, can be purchased in advance at Coppola's Deli and at Plan 9 (both in Richmond's Carytown) and, up to a week prior to the concert, by calling (804) 837-9355 or visiting online at www.harpensemble.org.
