One of my favorite questions is: "What's the point?". As I was driving home from church last night, I was giving a ride home to a couple sons of a church member and close neighbor. One of the boys was telling me about the movie he had just watched in the high school group. He said it was one of his favorite movies of all time. I asked him what made it his favorite and he said, he felt like he could really relate to it. It really hit home for him. The interesting thing was that I had just watched a movie myself, the movie "Courageous", with a group of men and women from our church. It was a movie I could relate to and "hit home" for me as well. I have seen the movie at least 4 times now and there are still multiple parts of the movie that affect me emotionally, spiritually, inspire and motivate me.The last message from Adam in the movie, when he presents the need for men to step up and lead their homes as the husbands and fathers that God has always intended for them to be, it is inspiring EVERY time I hear it. How does that happen? Why does that happen? And why are we watching movies at church?The bottom line is that movies are many things. They are entertaining, educational, inspirational, motivational, emotional, challenging, thought-provoking, life-changing, etc. They affect the individual, in an individual way. This provides a great opportunity for discussion and for learning from each other. In the high school group, they have great discussion around the points of a movie and they do that all summer long on Wednesday nights. The students get to share what impacted them about the movie and why. This fosters learning, especially, when that discussion is brought back to how the message or characters, in the movie, either do or do not relate to the Gospel message and the Christian walk, which is always part of that discussion.
In the movie "Courageous", there are many different values exhibited through the various characters: integrity, honesty, love, dishonesty, greed, anger, selfishness, etc.The values are exhibited through their life experiences, which, for me, drew me in to each character as I began to relate to the various values and how they were being "lived out" in the movie.The Gospel message is also presented in the movie, which is another learning, as there are many different ways to present the Gospel message to a stranger, friend, co-worker or family member.
What's the point? Movies provide us: husbands and wives, friends and co-workers, fathers and mothers, with a great opportunity for discussion about the characters and the message in the movie and how that compares to the Gospel message and what is going on in our lives right now in our Christian walk. Movies provide an excellent opportunity for parents to have a "faith walk" discussion with your children to help them see the right versus the wrong, the good versus the bad, the real versus the unreal, the truth versus the lie.
I will leave you with some of my favorite quotes from the movie "Courageous":
"A child desperately needs a dad."
"We need to understand how crucial the role is of the father."
"God desires every father to courageously step up."
"Don't waste the priceless time we have with our children"
"Thanks for your integrity(Javier)....it's rare."
"A child is a gift from God."
"You are accountable to God for the position of influence God has given you as a father."
"We all agreed we are doubly accountable..." (now that we know what God expects from us in our role as a father)
"I want the favor of God's blessings on my home."
http://www.courageousthemovie.com/
Terry Langenberg
Twitter: TheLangenberg
Facebook: TheLangenberg
No comments:
Post a Comment