Church vs. Movies: An Unfair Comparison But One I'm Going to Make Anyway

Nine years ago, I sat in a darkened movie theatre in SoHo in New York City, watching a pre-release of a movie that would not only win a few Oscars, but would launch the career of two major Hollywood leading men. I was working for Sony/Columbia Tri-Star Pictures as an intern at the time, which means I got a lot of early passes to movies. Most of them, like "Starship Troopers" and "Seven Years in Tibet" were not good films. But this one was different.

I saw this film with about 30 other people and discovered, with them, what I think is one of the best movies of the last decade. The movie was "Good Will Hunting." As I came out of that movie, and began walking up 5th avenue toward my tiny rented room, I realized I had just seen a great - not a good, but a great - movie. And I was depressed. I was depressed, mainly because these two guys were not only way better looking than I was, but had created a screenplay by themselves that would go on to win an Oscar. I used to fancy myself something of an aspiring writer, so you can see how that might depress me. I remember thinking to myself, "I will never be able to say anything that beautiful or deep. I just don't have that in me."

Then, this morning, I read the list of pictures who are up for Best Film. It's an interesting list. They're all, as film critics would say, "experiments in realism." Their topics are the stuff of the headlines.
• Racism and Race Relations - Crash
• Middle East politics and Terrorism - Munich
• The death penalty - Capote
• Gay unions - Brokeback Mountain
• Media trust - Good Night, and Good Luck

I was reading an article today that said that there is a trend in modern movies toward realism.

"People want more honesty and authenticity," adds John Michalczyk, director of the film studies program at Boston College. "Twenty years ago, if you made a biopic it was a canonization of values. Now you have to make it balanced and honest."

New generations of moviegoers were raised on reality television - and their very own hand-held cameras, says Chad Hartigan, box office analyst for Reelsource.com. "People want things that remind them of their own lives and tell them about other people's real lives," he says.

This attraction to the "real" is not only evident in the subject matter - biopics such as "Capote" and "Good Night, and Good Luck" - but also technique. "Munich" and "Crash" use hand-held cameras and natural lighting, as well as improvised dialogue and character development - all techniques drawn from the documentary world and used by feature filmmakers to heighten a sense of immediacy and realism.

This is interesting to me. Seems to me that hyper-realism is a symptom that people these days just want to experience something. Anything. Just something. Anything real. That's the good news, I guess, that people are hungry for what's real. The bad news is they're looking for it at the movies.

I was listening to Erwin McManus the other day, and he asked this question that I think is worth asking. He said, "Why is it that the most stirring, most memorable, most inspiring moments for most people happen in a dark movie theatre?"

I think McManus is dead on - and I think that's a disgrace. I think the most stirring, most soul-wrenching, most soul-lifting moments of life should be found in church. It doesn't have to be a grand production, but it should grip you. I guess that's my passion. I am passionate about the local church being at least as inspiring as a movie theatre. And that maybe not every week, but at least a few times a year, people should walk out of the doors of their church and say, "Man, that impacted me and I'll remember that for a long time."

The hope of the world isn't movies. It's the church. And if that isn't a place for massive inspiration (thereby leading to massive life change), then I'm not sure it's doing it's job. Not many movies have the ability or capacity to actually make the world a better place. Not many movies have impacted me in that way. But the church - the church! Church should be like that. Church should make you a better person. Church services should make the world a better place. Church services should be 10 times better than a movie. 100 times! Movies are like a nine-volt but church -church!- the church has the Living God of the Universe, who has unlimited amperage and voltage.

So I guess I really am praying for more people to get hit by lightning in church. After all, in the words of Francis Shaefer, "When you come into contact with a lightning bolt, you're going to be different."