Page 4021 – Christianity Today (2024)

I just returned from five days with 1,400 friends at the National Pastors Convention in San Diego. My mind is still swirling.

It was a place to meet new friends, like Horace and Susan and Rick. Horace teaches hematology at a Chicago hospital and, oh yes, has also been pastoring an apostolic church of 4,000 on Chicago's South Side for 17 years. Susan, Horace's wife, is a registered nurse and pastors alongside her husband. Rick chairs the board of a Lutheran church near Detroit. He came to the convention with his pastor so they could enjoy some time together and develop their understanding of the church.

The four of us found ourselves in the same foursome at the convention golf tournament. Playing "best ball," we managed a round of even par, which wasn't even close to a winning score. (I'm not sure what that says about today's church leaders.) But I know that our little group—Pentecostal, Lutheran, and Baptist—learned a lot from each other, very little of it having to do with golf.

It was a place to renew friendships, sometimes with pain attached. A pastor and his wife, with whom I had shared a meal last year and had been so impressed with their gentle and caring spirit, met me in a quiet corner to tell me that their church had just fired them—and the entire church staff—two weeks ago.

Even after twenty years of hearing church war stories, this one stunned me. Together we discussed possible next steps and committed the future to Jesus.

Each day we worshiped, led by the clear tenor voice of Paul Baloche, whose song "Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord" is one our church often sings to express the aspiration of those coming to worship. We experienced a wide range of other worship forms—from the blaring brass and driving rhythms of the Latin band Salvador, to the footwork of the urban dancers/youthgroup Steps of Praise, to the watch-me-while-I- work experience of Mike Lewis, the Jesuspainter, who can produce a powerful painting while you're singing your songs of worship.

Perhaps the most lasting impression, however, was the phrase that one of the speakers implanted deeply into my mind. Bishop Ken Ulmer, who pastors Faithful Central Bible Church in Inglewood, California, which holds its services in the Great Western Forum, the former home of Los Angeles Lakers, spoke from Jeremiah 1:7-9.

"You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the Lord. Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now I have put my words in your mouth."

As only a masterful African-American preacher can do, he introduced a memorable phrase and explored each nuance with oratorical skill: "His word in my mouth; my life in His hand." The word we preach isn't ours; it's God's. Our role is to give voice to God's words. At times that will be accompanied by great risk. Our comfort and our challenge—at all times—is to place our life squarely in God's hand.

A sermon I can still quote, from memory, almost a week after I heard it. Now that's preachin'!

But then, what else would you expect from a truly National Pastor's Convention.

Marshall Shelley is editor of Leadership.

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Copyright © 2002 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal.Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.

Last November I interviewed “Movie Mom” Nell Minow for our sister publication Christian Parenting Today. To her radio and Internet fans, Nell is an impassioned advocate for parents being vigilant in protecting their kids from inappropriate and harmful movies (moviemom.com). The magazine received many appreciative letters, but a handful sounded like this one, which I received today: “I went to her Web site and found this: listed among her ‘All-Time Best Movies’ was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone! This is just a joke, right? If not, why do you call yourselves CHRISTians. You give us, who really want to follow Christ, a bad name. Refer to the following verses in the Holy Bible: Deut. 18:10-14; 2 Kings 17:17-18; 2 Chr 33:6; Gal 5:19-21. This is not the first time I found your magazine to be not only in bad taste, but down right stinks of Hell!”

Never mind that the Harry Potter movie was never mentioned in the article, and let us not dwell on the confusion of treating magic as a literary device (to which none of those Bible verses apply) with magic as an occult practice (to which the verses can apply)—the letter is a good example of how J.K. Rowling’s fantasy books have touched a raw nerve among some evangelicals. And the vitriol is not limited to the fringe element: take the venerable Ted Baehr, publisher of Movieguide and head of the Christian Film & Television Commission, a diplomatic mission to make connections between Hollywood and the Christian community. Normally cautious in his criticisms of the film industry and careful about making overgeneralizations that he may have to take back when meeting with studio heads, Baehr has openly campaigned against the Harry Potter movie, calling it “soft p*rn” in how it seduces our young into a life in the occult.

Cult watcher Richard Abanes has capitalized on the Potter hysteria and fanned the flames of fear in his book Harry Potter and the Bible: The Menace Behind the Magick (Horizon). But when debating the film on Dennis Praeger’s radio show, Abanes could not come up with a single anecdotal case of someone taking up the occult based on reading or viewing Harry Potter.

This primitive shunning of Harry Potter is made all the more strange when contrasted with the Christian response to The Lord of the Rings, the fantasy trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien and the blockbuster movie by director Peter Jackson. Superficially, there are many similarities between the projects. Both are fantasies by British authors who not only populate their stories with magical creatures but with magic as well. In fact, in both series magic is seen as a neutral instrument that can be used for either good or evil. And both authors allow their heroes to make full use of magic in their cause. So why are not both condemned equally?

If one indulged in this paranoid game of spotting evil, then I think a case could be made that Tolkien stinks more of hell than Rowling—as my pen pal would say. First, Middle Earth is surprisingly secular. We do not see any churches or temples, only monuments to past kings and historical figures. In fact, no wizard, elf, dwarf, human, or hobbit prays or mentions a deity (at least I don’t remember such a reference in the five times I have read the series, but I am sure someone will tell me if I am wrong). At least Harry Potter celebrates Christmas. Suffice it to say that religious piety is not modeled in Tolkien.

Second, if you want to condemn a work for what it has inspired, then turn up the heat for Tolkien. While neither Tolkien or Rowling has ever encouraged people to mistake their magical worlds for the real one (in fact, both have made quite the opposite point), many fans have voluntarily entered Middle Earth. It would be hard not to link the occult-friendly role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons to the influence and popularity of Lord of the Rings, which has provided the imaginative landscape for much modern fantasy. One Web site even sells Lord of the Rings Tarot Cards. Have some people used Tolkien as an entry point to the occult? The answer must be yes.

And yet, where is the brouhaha over Lord of the Rings? I have not heard it. All I have heard are desperate, wrong-headed attempts at explaining why Tolkien’s (and Lewis’s Narnia series’) use of magic is fine while Rowling’s is bad. Even Harry’s critics feel compelled to defend Tolkien.

In fact, Tyndale House, the publisher of the Left Behind series and the New Living Translation of the Bible, has gone so far as to publish Finding God in The Lord of the Rings. Written by a vice president at Focus on the Family (another organization that few would claim suffered from liberal leanings), Kurt Bruner and writer Jim Ware attempt to show the “strong Christian faith that inspired and informed [Tolkien’s] imagination.” No scent of hell in that.

Bruner and Ware point out, “Many hard-line believers have been hesitant to embrace a creative work that includes mythic figures, magic rings, and supernatural themes. This is unfortunate because the transcendent truths of Christianity bubble up throughout this story, baptizing our imaginations with realities better experienced than studied.”

Bruner and Ware are right about Tolkien, but their observations apply equally to Rowling’s Harry Potter books. Neither series makes much sense apart from a Christian ethic—whether or not this was the author’s intent, especially in Rowling’s case. Both works convey a palpable sense of Providence; both lift up agape love as the highest virtue; both flesh out what it means to have noble character; both see evil as coming from the heart and not “out there.”

So why does Frodo get a pass while Harry is demonized? Perhaps it is because Tolkien is a safe, dead, white male who taught at Oxford and helped C.S. Lewis become a Christian. He is one of us. Whereas Rowling is a divorced mother who only mentioned she was some kind of Christian when Christians starting attacking her. Perhaps it is because Christian parents get very anxious about things that so stir our ideals but do not come from our pews, like the Harry Potter craze and the Star Wars phenomenon before it. I do not know.

But here is where Bruner and Ware make their stand: “The Lord of the Rings is a tale of redemption in which the main characters overcome cowardly self-preservation to model heroic self-sacrifice [which is true of each of the Potter books]. Their bravery mirrors the greatest heroic rescue of all time, when Christ ‘humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!’”

I smell the same spiritual scent in both works, and it is not sulfur.

Michael G. Maudlin is the executive editor of Books & Culture.

Related Elsewhere:

Visit Books & Culture online at BooksandCulture.com or subscribe here.

Focus on the Family’s Plugged In Web site has an archive of articles on Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings to provide advice for “Christians grappling with pop culture’s mystical mania.”

“Movie Mom” Nell Minow said of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone: “A terrific book is now a terrific movie. Every family should enjoy them both.”

Christianity Today’s Weblog previously covered the Lord of the Rings vs. Harry Potter debate in “Frodo Good, Harry Bad.”

Previous Christianity Today articles on Harry Potter include:

Somewhat Wild About Harry | It’s well nigh impossible to hate the warm-hearted Harry Potter. (Dec. 28, 2001)

Let Harry Potter Conjure Up ‘Gospel Magic’, Says Christian Magician | Andrew Thompson and others agree that some Christians have a false understanding of what Harry Potter is about. (Dec. 18, 2001)

Potter’s Field | Harry doesn’t always make money magically appear. (Nov. 15, 2001)

The Perils of Harry Potter | Literary device or not, witchcraft is real—and dangerous. (Oct. 23, 2000)

Virtue on a Broomstick | The Harry Potter books, and the controversy surrounding them, bode well for the culture. (Sept. 7, 2000)

Opinion Roundup: Positive About Potter | Despite what you’ve heard, Christian leaders like the children’s books. (Dec. 13, 1999)

Parents Push for Wizard-free Reading | Bestsellers now under fire in some classroom. (Dec. 13, 1999)

Why We Like Harry Potter | The series is a ‘Book of Virtues’ with a preadolescent funny bone. (Dec. 13, 1999)

Previous Christianity Today articles on the Lord of the Rings include:

Fantasylands | How to tell an orc from an ewok. (Dec. 16, 2001)

Lord of the Megaplex | The onscreen Fellowship of the Ring launches a new wave of Tolkienmania. (Nov. 12, 2001)

Christianity Today’s weekly Film Forum looks at what mainstream and Christian critics are saying about new movie releases. Film Forum articles on Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings include:

The Fellowship of the Raves | Critics grope for superlatives for The Fellowship of the Ring. (Dec. 21, 2001)

Gandalf and the Gamblers | As everyone talks about The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, critics also get around to reviewing Ocean’s Eleven, In the Bedroom, and The Business of Strangers. (Dec. 13, 2001)

First Looks at a Feature Fantasy | Early reviews for Fellowship of the Ring are in. (Dec. 6, 2001)

Wary About Harry | Is the big-screen Harry Potter as delightful as the one in the book? And should you be worried about his witchcraft? Critics and viewers respond. (Nov. 21, 2001)

The current issue of Books and Culture has an article which asks whether the creator of the Lord of the Rings should be acknowledged as the foremost author of the twentieth century?

appears Mondays at ChristianityToday.com. Earlier Books & Culture Corners include:

Dictionary of the Future | Trendspotter Faith Popcorn on the words that will define our tomorrow. (Feb. 11, 2002)

Does Creationism Equal Holocaust Denial? | Yes, says Michael Shermer in Scientific American. (Feb. 4, 2002)

Theodore Rex | Is “popular history” getting a bad rap? (Jan. 28, 2002)

Letter to Martin Luther King, Jr. | A progress report. (Jan. 21, 2002)

Keeping the Dust on Your Boots | Remembering the Afghan refugees—and the church in Iran. (Jan. 14, 2002)

Coming Attractions | Books to watch for this year. (Jan. 7, 2002)

Books of the Year, Part 2 | After the top ten, here’s the best of the rest. (Jan. 4, 2002)

Books of the Year | Part 1: The Top Ten (Dec. 17, 2001)

“Daddy, What Is the Soul?” | Does the church have an answer? (Dec. 10, 2001)

‘We Now Know’ | The boast of imperial science. (Dec. 3, 2001)

“24 Cow Clones, All Normal”… | Oh yes, and a few cloned human embryos that died. (Nov. 26, 2001)

See Also

Page 4038 – Christianity TodayVBS, summer camps, concerts, programs all on tap for mid-July

“Discovering” Islam: The Intellectual Challenge | There’s good reason to believe that there will be staying power to the West’s belated “discovery” of Islam. (Nov. 19, 2001)

Disturbing the Peace | Is art always subversive when it’s doing its job? (Nov. 12, 2001)

It’s the time of the year when those in the music industry are on the edge of their seats, counting each second leading up to the most prestigious awards ceremony in the history of rock and roll. The Grammy Awards give fans the chance to see all of their favorite stars, looking their best while they strut their stuff. But for those artists up for the top trophies, it can be downright nerve-racking—the nomination outcome can make or break their career.

Every year there are a few surprises, and this year’s no exception. One of the biggest surprises is in the “Best Rock Gospel Album” category. Believe it or not, The Choir is up for the top honor in the Christian category thanks to their acclaimed Flap Your Wings disc, despite the fact it received no radio airplay or major label distribution. Although group members Steve Hindalong, Derri Daugherty, Dan Michaels, and Tim Chandler are gearing up for the gigantic telecast and subsequent private functions, even they are completely shocked with the announcement. “I’m still at the stage where I think it’s very funny,” quips Daugherty between spurts of laughter. “I don’t have a clue how the record got nominated. We just put it out because we wanted to do it. There was no agenda and no push to get the record into the hands of anyone but our immediate fan base.”

Not only was the disc recorded just for fun, but it was released independently on a shoestring budget. “It was the lowest-budget record that we spent the least amount of time making during our entire career,” chuckles Hindalong. “But after all we’ve done as a band to build up this history, it’s given us a great way to look at our career and feel very satisfied.”

In spite of the satisfaction that’s come with the possibility of taking home that Grammy, the group also recalls the times they yearned for such attention outside of their loyal followers. The Choir was a purveyor of alternative sounds to Christian circles, but their introspective and at times abstract lyrics, as well as experimental instrumentation, didn’t fall within the parameters of the CCM mold throughout the ’80s. “We’ve always been pleased that we could release as many records as we did, but at the same time, each time we put something out, it was commercially unsuccessful,” recalls Michaels. “We have worked for labels that were willing to give us a lot of freedom, but they also put on a lot of deadline pressure. When you’re rushed, the creative process is always stymied, but we always seemed to break those deadlines, appearing to go against the flow even more.”

However, The Choir did earn top nods on various CCM Magazine and Campus Life reader’s polls in the late ’80s and early ’90s. The press placements may not have made them a household name, but they kept plugging along. “We always hoped we would ‘make it big,’ but we knew we were fortunate to just play the next show on our schedule and record the next record in our catalogue,” insists Michaels. “I really wish we could have had a bigger role, but I certainly don’t wish that any of the bands in the spotlight over us would have had a lesser role.”

Ironically, some group members’ current roles in the music industry are right in the heart of the same industry associated with overlooking The Choir. Hindalong is the most visible through his production work with Common Children and, most recently, the City on a Hill worship collection. City on a Hill is known for bringing together a diverse group of today’s alternative and more mainstream artists to pour out their hearts in praise to God. In a sense, The Choir was doing that long before it was commonplace in Christian music, most notably on their At the Foot of the Cross series.

Fans have often wondered if the band will continue with the series, but according to Michaels, chances are “doubtful, because City on a Hill is really a follow-up to those records. If you look at the worshipful elements The Choir tried to convey with the first two At the Foot of the Cross discs, City on a Hill seems to pick up on that tradition.”

Fans also wonder if they’ll see any other new material from the band, aside from Flap Your Wings. “I don’t know if there will be another new album, but I can tell you that we’ve said our last six records or so would be our last,” shares Hindalong. Daugherty verifies that they’ve tried to call it quits before, but for him the desire is still there. “I’d love to do another record and be in a position to have a record company behind it,” he proclaims. “I love working with a guy like Steve in the studio and would always be open to working on projects with someone who is so extremely talented.”

The chance for seeing new music is clearly much better than the possibility of The Choir launching a full-blown tour. “We each have too much going on to get on a bus and go tour,” confirms Daugherty. “I certainly miss playing for the people we’ve become friends with over the years, but I don’t miss traveling through the night to get to the next gig and spending so much time away from my family.”

Plus, Hindalong would rather use the experiences from the road and in the studio to help other artists. “Now I get my whole rush from working behind the scenes,” he gushes. “I didn’t find a whole lot of personal joy from the stage route, whereas I truly love producing and helping other artists realize their vision.”

Whether or not the group records another project, or goes on the road to support it, the fingerprints of spiritual and musical growth will always be there. If anything, the Grammy nomination has reaffirmed the group’s legacy, which will undoubtedly last past their lifetimes. “We don’t have any major regrets about anything we’ve ever done together,” affirms Hindalong. “We’ve collectively and individually come a long way since we formed The Choir, and that’s what we’re most proud of. If we get a Grammy to add to that list, it’d simply be icing on the cake.”

Listen to song clips from The Choir’s Grammy nominated album, Flap Your Wings, at Musicforce.com.

When I was in college, I ran cross-country. Our competitions were held on area golf courses. Race officials placed flags on the course to mark the way for runners. A certain color indicated “left turn,” another meant “right turn,” a third meant “straight ahead.”

If the runners wanted a medal, they had to follow the proper course. A runner couldn’t decide, “This is a six-mile race, but I’ve only got four miles in me this morning. I’m going to take a shortcut. I hope nobody minds.”

It’s true for Christians, too. We have to run the race God intended us to run, not somebody else’s race or the race of our own choosing. Yet it’s easy to compare ourselves with others. When the race seems tough, it’s easy to look at someone else and say, “If I had his race to run, no problem. If I had his paycheck, if I had a spouse, if I had his good health, I could run with perseverance.”

We’re tempted to quit because our course is harder than someone else’s, but God says, “I want you to run this race. Don’t think about others. Just look at me.”

Hitting the WallAt the beginning of a marathon, runners feel strong and energetic. For years, they’ve followed a regimen prescribing what to eat, how much to train, and how much to rest. They’re ready.

Then the gun sounds, and they take off. Sixteen miles into that marathon, though, they no longer feel energetic, do they?

Blisters begin to rub raw; it feels like a knife has lodged in their side. Legs turn to mush, and muscles scream in pain.

It happens in life, too. We get down the road, and there’s pain involved. We say, “This hurts, so it must not be God’s will.”

But pain doesn’t mean it’s no longer God’s will. Sometimes the race God calls us to run is filled with pain. Remember that God didn’t call you just to begin a noble task or relationship. He wants us to keep running and be great finishers.

World-class runners have a “kick.” A “kick” is a runner’s term that means when they get to that last one hundred yards, they can still sprint to the finish line and win the race. God wants us to have a “kick.” No matter what the circ*mstance, God wants us to finish strong.

Never Stay DownThe 1981 movie Chariots of Fire portrays the true story of Eric Liddell, a man who competed for Great Britain in the 1924 Olympics before becoming a missionary.

One memorable scene that appeared to be Hollywood fiction, actually happened. A year before the Olympic showdown, Liddell ran in a meet between England, Ireland, and Scotland. In the 440-yard event, moments after the gun sounded, Liddell tangled feet with J.J. Gillies of England and tumbled to the track. Dazed, Liddell sat there, not knowing whether he could get up, when the official screamed, “Get up and run!”

He jumped to his feet and pursued the pack, now a full twenty yards ahead of him.

With forty yards to go, he pulled into third place, then second. Right at the tape he passed Gillies, stuck his chest out, won the race, collapsing in total exhaustion.

The next day The Scotsman newspaper reported, “The circ*mstances in which Liddell won the race made it a performance bordering on the miraculous.” Some described it as “the greatest track performance they had ever seen.”

Some of you have been knocked down by foolish decisions, by a person, or even Satan himself. When we’re down on the track, we’re ashamed and depressed. The only real shame is to stay down. God’s word compels you, “Get up and run!” Forget what lies behind and run for the prize God has waiting for you.

Philippians 1:6 doesn’t say, “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day you fail and flop on the track.” It says, “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.”

To reply to this newsletter, write Newsletter@LeadershipJournal.net

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Copyright © 2002 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal.Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.

If you’ve heard Faith Popcorn‘s name even once, you’re not likely to have forgotten it. Talk about branding! She’s “an internationally respected forecaster of consumer trends,” the dustjacket of her new book reminds us, “and a key advisor to many Fortune 500 companies”; among her clients are Bell Atlantic, BMW, Cigna, McDonald’s, and Procter & Gamble. (I wonder what her take on Enron was.) In short, we’re not talking about horoscopes.

The new book, written with Adam Hanft, is Dictionary of the Future: The Words, Terms, and Trends That Define the Way We’ll Live, Work, and Talk, just out from Hyperion. Popcorn and Hanft have identified and defined up-and-coming words and terms in a variety of fields, supplemented by more speculative entries for words and terms they predict will come into use. And a few of the entries, they note, are for words that are not at all new but are generally not well understood or are becoming newly relevant.

The definitions, discursive and even chatty rather than in the terse mode favored by lexicographers, are arranged according to subject in 35 categories, from Aging to Transportation, with stops along the way for Biology and Biotechnology, Crime and Terrorism, Fashion and Style, Health and Medicine, and so on. Most of the categories are standard, but some are not: Fear, Frustration, and Desire, for instance. Each category come with a mini-introduction surveying the territory.

This is irresistible stuff, whatever its value to marketing mavens. “Virtual Immigrants,” for instance, are “technology workers who serve U.S. companies from their native countries—such as China, Russia, and the Philippines—where they must remain because of immigration restrictions . …Imagine the economic impact in these countries when you have some people making $35 an hour working for a U.S. company, and others making $35 a week working for a local one.” Actually, despite such significant differences in pay, it’s lower costs and greater flexibility for the U.S. companies, rather than immigration restrictions, that primarily account for this phenomenon. But Popcorn and Hanft are surely right to identify it as a prime example of “the efficiency—and complexity—of globalization,” with implications that are not only economic.

Some of terms seem to identify trends that exist mostly in a few blocks on New York, in not solely in the imagination of the trendspotters. “Couch Surfers,” for instance, are “a group of young men who have everything except a place to live. As the New York Timesdefines it, these ‘yuppie vagabonds’ are ‘a nomadic subculture of young professionals in their late 20’s, 30’s, and even 40’s who appear to live normal, prosperous lives but in fact are couch-surfers who rely on the kindness of friends, seek shelter in their sports utility vehicles, or list about in all-night coffee shops.’ ” This sounds like a Saturday Night Live parody, but Popcorn and Hanft offer it straight.

B&C readers will be disappointed by the section on Religion and Spirituality, both because it’s so skimpy—surprisingly, it’s one of the shortest sections in the book—and because the entries are rather lame. The very first term in this section is “Church Planting,” defined as “the practice by which evangelical congregations establish multiple small groups of core worshippers who then ‘grow’ into full-fledged churches.” Here Popcorn and Hanft seem to have taken a venerable term and applied it rather fuzzily to one aspect of the church-growth movement. Their unfamiliarity with the subject is glaring.

Many of the words and terms collected or coined here are ephemeral, of course, but even if they don’t give us the future in a crystal ball they make a co*ck-eyed kind of sense as probes or soundings. Age Rage. BizVacs. Black-Water Rafting. Brain Fingerprinting. Eating Amnesia. Germography. You can look it up.

John Wilson is editor of Books & Culture and editor-at-large for Christianity Today.

Copyright © 2002 by the author or Christianity Today/Christianity Today magazine.Click here for reprint information on Christianity Today.

Related Elsewhere:

Visit Books & Culture online at BooksandCulture.com or subscribe here.

Leadership Journal, another Christianity Today International publication, interviewed Popcorn in 1997.

appears Mondays at ChristianityToday.com. Earlier Books & Culture Corners include:

Does Creationism Equal Holocaust Denial? | Yes, says Michael Shermer in Scientific American. (Feb. 4, 2002)

Theodore Rex | Is “popular history” getting a bad rap? (Jan. 28, 2002)

Letter to Martin Luther King, Jr. | A progress report. (Jan. 21, 2002)

Keeping the Dust on Your Boots | Remembering the Afghan refugees—and the church in Iran. (Jan. 14, 2002)

Coming Attractions | Books to watch for this year. (Jan. 7, 2002)

Books of the Year, Part 2 | After the top ten, here’s the best of the rest. (Jan. 4, 2002)

Books of the Year | Part 1: The Top Ten (Dec. 17, 2001)

“Daddy, What Is the Soul?” | Does the church have an answer? (Dec. 10, 2001)

‘We Now Know’ | The boast of imperial science. (Dec. 3, 2001)

“24 Cow Clones, All Normal” … | Oh yes, and a few cloned human embryos that died. (Nov. 26, 2001)

“Discovering” Islam: The Intellectual Challenge | There’s good reason to believe that there will be staying power to the West’s belated “discovery” of Islam. (Nov. 19, 2001)

Disturbing the Peace | Is art always subversive when it’s doing its job? (Nov. 12, 2001)

When Time magazine’s editors declared T.D. Jakes the best preacher in America, we wondered whether the nation’s preachers would agree. You did, in part. But some of you also took us to task for posing the question.

Time acknowledged Billy Graham as the longstanding holder of this distinction when they asked over a photo of Jakes, “Is this man the next Billy Graham?” Jakes and Graham are the only two evangelists who could pack out the Georgia Dome, which seats 79,000, they said.

But who would preachers say is heir apparent to the title Most Effective Preacher?

We first asked the question of you, the recipients of our e- newsletter. You nominated almost 100 preachers. Then we posted the top ten on our Web site for another balloting. The result was a tie: T.D. Jakes and Chuck Swindoll each received 23 percent of the vote.

Two very different preachers. What do they have in common? Time cited Jakes’s delivery and his skillful handling of Scripture: “He purrs like Isaac Hayes and screams like Jay Hawkins … And however leisurely Jakes’s presentation may seem, each sermon eventually reveals itself as perfectly calibrated and balanced, cohering into an often exquisite extended metaphor.”

Our readers appreciated exegesis and delivery in both Jakes and Swindoll, plus a tasteful measure of self-disclosure.

“When Swindoll speaks, you know he is conveying the word of God with the respect, dignity, and integrity it deserves,” says Rob Pochek of Nashville, Illinois. “He communicates with a tremendous openness about his own shortcomings. Rather than Chuck preaching to us, we listen to the Word preaching to and through Chuck.”

Valerie McDowell of Lanham, Maryland, says much the same about Jakes. “T.D. Jakes hits the areas America loves to keep secret: family problems, finances, children, marriage, sex. He doesn’t pretend to have been perfect all his life, but his ability to talk about lack of faith at times keeps it real for those who hear the message.”

The Contest That’s No ContestWe intentionally asked about “effective” preaching, trying to get at what causes some communicators to connect especially well with their listeners. The dozen top nominees were all prominent pastors and writers, most having radio or TV shows. That wasn’t surprising. What did surprise us was the number of readers took us to task over the “contest.”

Rob Freeborough of Peoria, Illinois, writes: “I don’t think God cares who is the best preacher. I think he cares much more about whether we are maximizing the unique gifts, abilities, and scriptural insights he has given us.”

And Dan Kimball of Santa Cruz, California, is concerned that people are getting the wrong message. “Preaching is only one, small part of being a pastor. Could we subtly be teaching church attenders not how to feed themselves from the Word of God, but to become dependent on the ‘greatest’ preachers?”

Steve Adams of Great Village, Nova Scotia, says the great ones are, despite modern technology, undiscovered. “The greatest preachers of our day are scattered on the front lines, laying down their lives in intelligent, compassionate, and sacrificial service to Christ and those he treasures.”

And while we are indebted to the high profile preachers for setting the bar, we appreciate the definition submitted by Daniel Crawford of Worland, Wyoming:

“The best preacher is the pastor of a small church who in season and out of season preaches the Word of God with conviction, passion, and determination, who relishes the challenge of interpreting difficult texts, who exposes his/her congregation to the whole of Scripture, not just a few favorite passages, and whose study of and love from the Word is reflected in the was he/she responds to the many situations and circ*mstances of daily life.”

That’s effective preaching.

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Copyright © 2002 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal.Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.

By the time the red carpet is rolled out for entertainment award shows—from the Oscars to Christian music’s Dove Awards—several honors have already been handed out at modest, untelevised ceremonies.

Christian rock band Third Day knows this well. “We were always the band that won the smaller awards,” says lead singer Mac Powell. “We were the pre-telecast band.”

But that changed at the 2001 Dove Awards. The five-man Georgia band visited the stage five times—during the televised ceremony—for honors including group of the year, artist of the year, and praise and worship album of the year.

The success of Third Day did not happen suddenly. In fact, three well-embraced albums and a strong live presence had already built a devoted Third Day fan base and earned three Dove Awards and two Grammy nominations.

But the 2001 Dove Awards did mark a pivotal moment.

“When we stood up on the stage, it really felt like ‘Okay, now, Third Day, people know who you are,’ ” drummer David Carr says. “More than ever, we felt like we’d become part of the industry.”

Before this, band members felt that the CCM culture perceived them as just a rock band. Now Third Day has proven—like bands Petra or dc Talk before it—that it can reach beyond its music genre to a wider Christian audience. It is no longer just a rock band.

When Rockers Worship

The difference was Offerings: A Worship Album (2000). For years, Third Day fans called for either a live or worship album; Offerings combined the two. The album dominated Christian charts for months, went gold (500,000 sales) in less than a year, and led the way for the band’s most successful tour. “People who weren’t familiar with us finally had an album they could listen to,” Powell says. “But we didn’t do anything differently than we normally do. I guess it was all in presenting ourselves in a different way. Worship has always been a big part of what we are all about, and on Offerings we could communicate that.”

Third Day plays driving, casual Southern rock in the tradition of Lynyrd Skynyrd or the Black Crowes. Third Day believes that being a rock band is its calling, but this is a rock band that worships.

Praise music has always been a major part of both live shows and albums. In fact, three tracks on Offerings are from the first Third Day album.

Half the songs are live versions of original tunes. “We never even thought of a couple of them as worship songs until we saw people at concerts with their hands up worshipping God to them,” Carr says. The other half comprises unreleased tunes and cover songs including Bob Dylan’s “Saved” and a little-known Christian rock ballad, “These Thousand Hills.”

“If you had a professional worship leader grade the album, he would probably give it a D-minus,” bass player Tai Anderson says. “We wanted to show worship could be different.”

‘We Aren’t from Nashville’

Members say the band has been different from the beginning. “What set Third Day apart and why we wanted to start the band in the first place was that we were excited about our faith,” guitarist Mark Lee says. “And as simple as that sounds, everything has extended from that.”

While still high school students in Georgia, Lee and Powell started a garage band, Nuclear Hoedown. At the same time, their faith was beginning to grow. They felt God wanted them to quit. But they loved music.

One night, Lee asked, “Hey, do you want to start a Christian band?”

So they did. A year later, they played at a church where drummer Carr and bassist Anderson were members of the youth group’s band. A few years passed until guitarist Brad Avery hooked up with Third Day at a benefit concert.

“I think there’s an innocence in the way Third Day came together,” Carr says. “It wasn’t like a record label put this thing together. We aren’t from Nashville. We were Christians, and we wanted to glorify God with our music.”

Third Day’s sound is most recognizable by the deep, captivating voice of lead singer Powell. Its instrumental sound has continually grown through experiment over the years. In 1995, the band independently released an album of pounding Southern roots rock. A year later, it signed with Reunion Records, which released the self-titled debut (1996) nationally.

Third Day followed up with Conspiracy No. 5 (1997), which switched to more standard, straightforward rock. Its third album, Time (1999), returned to head-bobbing Southern rock. The recent Come Together (2001) melds the various styles of Third Day with a new maturity and sophistication.

Throughout the growth, the quality has never suffered. Likewise, the Third Day message has not wavered. Songs range from praise to searches for truth and comfort. Lyrics aren’t limited to the blessings of living as a Christian. The band finds its mission in honestly tackling struggles, tribulations, and temptations.

“There needs to be more of that honesty in Christian music,” guitarist Lee says. “There is almost this plastic image to it. But I think fans want to see someone who is real.”

Early on, the members attended a Rich Mullins concert and respected his honest, genuine approach to songwriting. It rubbed off.

“If we made a whole album where it was totally blatant and we increased our Jesus-per-minutes,” bassist Anderson says, “we would probably sell more records, but that wouldn’t be Third Day.”

Instead, Anderson says, the band chooses to communicate the reality that “we love the Lord, he saved us, but there are struggles. I think more people can relate to that than a candy-coated, bubble gum life that none of us have.”

This honesty and palpable love for God often transforms the response of Third Day’s concert audiences. As Powell often says, fans may come for a rock show, but they find a church service.

At the 2001 Cornerstone Christian Music Festival in central Illinois, Powell led a sing-along hymn. Fans huddled close together, their eyes shut and hands in the air. Behind them, set against a purple sunset, a chain of linked hands lined the ridge of the hill. At other times, people raised their hands in praise.

“When I come home after a long time, my little girl runs at me as fast as she can and holds her arms out because she wants me to hold her,” Powell said at the concert.

“I think of how she wants to be held and feel my desire to hold her, and I realize that is how it is with God. We worship him and we lift our hands in worship because we want to be held.”

Todd Hertz is online assistant editor of

Christianity Today

.

Copyright © 2002 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere

The official Third Day site has an extended discography, bios of members, and a tour journal.

The band is up for six 2002 Dove Awards to be announced in April.

Articles on Third Day by Christianity Today sister publication Campus Life include:

A Big Hit: The guys from Third Day are hitting home runs with award-winning music. (September/October 2001)

The Heart of Worship: The guys in Third Day work hard to keep God at the center of their music—and their lives. (May/ June 1999)

ChristianityToday.com’s Music channel has a profile of Third Day and a review of the latest album, Come Together (2001).

For more CT Review articles, see our music archive.

The Count of Monte Cristo (Touchstone), according to promotional materials, strives to be “the first major swashbuckling movie of the new millennium.” The film, based on the classic novel by Alexandre Dumas, tells the story of Edmond Dantés (Jim Caviezel), who is framed as a traitor by his duplicitous friend Fernand Mondego (Guy Pearce). Dantés spends 13 torturous years on the island prison of Chateau d’If, learns life lessons from an imprisoned priest, Abbe Faria (Richard Harris), then designs an elaborate scheme to seek revenge on Mondego and others who betrayed him. In his cell, Dantés finds a wall carving that says GOD WILL GIVE ME JUSTICE, and he deepens the carving in his years of imprisonment. Faria, the most engaging character in the film, pleads with DantÉs not to seek revenge, but to no avail. After more than two hours of new-millennium swashbuckling, the film’s resolution is so abrupt that it seems like a non sequitur. The cinematography is rich, the acting is competent all around, but a nagging question remains: Why now?

* * *

The Miracle of the Cards and Waterproof are the two latest films from Cloud Ten, which until now has concentrated more on end-times pictures (Apocalypse, Left Behind, Revelation). Both films are refreshing departures from the exploding cars and other pyrotechnics of the apocalyptic genre.

The Miracle of the Cards is based on the true story of Craig Shergold (Thomas Sangster), a boy who seems doomed to an early death by a brain tumor. Young Craig expresses his wish to win a place in the Guinness Book of World Records by receiving the greatest number of get-well cards. His wish will be familiar to the millions of people who have received dated e-mails suggesting that his challenge remains urgent. Stop sending those cards, everyone: He surpassed the record within a year, receiving 16 million cards by 1990.

Do not be misled by the flat-footed title: The miracle here is not merely that a gravely ill young man received millions of cards from around the world. The film sometimes feels like an extended episode of PAX-TV’s series, It’s a Miracle (complete with a cameo appearance by actor Richard Thomas). But the film is mature enough to include dramatic elements of jealousy, obsession, and religious doubt.

Waterproof will feel familiar to film lovers who were fortunate enough to see Maya Angelou’s Down in the Delta (1998). The plots are similar: An African American woman in crisis returns to her hometown in the South, where she experiences redemption.

Waterproof, directed by Barry Berman (Benny & Joon), throws in some other interesting curve balls, however. Its protagonist, Tyree Battle (April Grace), essentially kidnaps a Jewish shop owner, Eli Zeal (Burt Reynolds), who has been shot by her son. While he mends, Zeal discovers a friendship with Sugar, the family patriarch (Whitman Mayo, in his final film). It’s great fun to see Mayo, who played Grady Wilson on TV’s Sanford and Son, in an entirely different role.

Too often this film strains credulity, especially in suggesting that Zeal would be so longsuffering about being shanghaied from inner-city Washington, D.C., to a small town in Louisiana. Nevertheless, Waterproof explores interracial love, the destructive power of guilt, and the sheer joy of Christian baptism.

If Cloud Ten continues making films like The Miracle of the Cards and Waterproof, it will attract a devoted core audience of people who respect storytelling over propaganda. Both films will have limited theatrical releases, but they are also available on VHS and DVD. And they both offer impressive Web sites (www.miracleofthecards-themovie.com and www.waterproof-themovie.com).

Related Elsewhere

The Count of Monte Cristo’s Web site contains trailers, story information, and a chance to send friends to a “virtual jail.”

Recently, Monte Cristo star Jim Caviezel talked to CCM Magazine about his faith and said his number-one priority is making sure the story in his films has “redeeming value.”

The official sites for Waterproof and The Miracle of the Cards feature story information, images, trailers, and reviews.

In last months’ Coming Soon, Douglas LeBlanc looked at A Walk to Remember, The Magic Never Ends: The Life and Work of C.S. Lewis, and The Good War and Those Who Refused to Fight It.

Christianity Today’sFilm Forum looks at what critics are saying about new films each week. Reviews of The Count of Monte Cristo were featured in January.

Salem Communications

Site:Mycpr.comServices: Uses corporate networks and Internet Service Providers, instead of just one central server, to send radio streams to listeners.Pro: Less traffic to Salem’s servers means fewer costs, more streams (even video).Con: Workplaces may not like to carry Salem’s load for on-the-job listeners.

EMI Christian Music Group

Site: BurnItFirst.com (Coming in March 2002)Services: Subscription service (March 2002) allows downloading and recording songs from nation’s largest Christian music company.Pro: It’s the first such service attempt from any major music label, Christian or otherwise.Con: EMI’s first online effort, jukebox-like HigherWaves.com, hasn’t attracted many users.

Music City

Site:MusicCity.comServices: Napster heir isn’t uniquely Christian (if even ethical), but its ceo founded Christian labels and headed EMI Christian Music Group.Pro: It’s free, much bigger than Napster ever was, and still around.Con: A pending lawsuit will decide if it’s as legal as Napster was.

Copyright © 2002 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere

Last month, Ted Olsen wrote about online music sites that offer Christian tunes you haven’t heard—like Icelandic techno.

Christianity Today’smusic archive and music channel have more coverage of Christian music and more.

Related Elsewhere

Articles referenced above include:

Intercessory prayer and cardiovascular disease progression in a coronary care unit population — Mayo Clinic Proceedings (pdf)

Christianity Today’s past Go Figure columns include:

Changes after September 11 (Nov. 12, 2001)

How many U.S. senior pastors have a gift of evangelism? (Dec. 14, 2001)

More Americans who read the Bible are “at peace” than those who don’t. (Jan. 25, 2002)