Video of the Week: "Is She Crazy?! Mary James: The Preacher Lady of Riverdale"

 

I recently ran across the short film Is She Crazy?!  Mary James:  The Preacher Lady of Riverdale, winner of “Best US Documentary Short” at the 2011 San Diego Christian Film Festival. I was telling some of our men about it at our monthly men’s fellowship last Saturday and thought I’d do a post.

The brief film (only c. 20 minutes long) is about Mary James, a woman who for the past five years has stood by highway 85 in Riverdale, Georgia “preaching” to those who pass by.  The title of the film reflects the question of many who have seen Mary James by the roadside.  Is this woman mentally unbalanced?  The film sympathetically shows that Mary James is not “crazy” but pursuing a “ministry” she feels strongly about.  The film also shows how Mary James has become a staple of the Riverdale, Georgia community with nearly everyone who lives there having frequently seen or encountered her on the street (BTW, reminding me of “the waving man” on Rt. 29, near Covesville, VA).  She also receives frequent cash gifts and meals from those who pass, offering their support.

Few will watch this film and not be touched by this single mother’s testimony of becoming a Christian out of a rough background, her devotion to doing what she thinks is her calling, the obvious affection of the community for her, and her simple trust in God to provide for her needs (she is apparently homeless and relies on supporters of her “ministry” to survive).

When we look beyond emotions, however, the film demonstrates some of the problems with revivalism, charismatic theology, easy-believism evangelism, and the uncritical promotion of “street preaching” or “open air evangelism” as a general obligation and calling.

Among the questions raised in my mind by the film were these:

• Should one who is not qualified or called to church office (as Mary James is not on several grounds) be encouraged to engage in this kind of “open air evangelism” and “street preaching”?  Does this help or hinder the cause of Christ?
• Does the sincerity of a person’s motives or the pathos of her personal story exempt that person from Biblical standards for exercising public ministry?
• Does the literal “drive-by evangelism” practiced by Mary James (and those like her) reflect in any way legitimate Biblical evangelism and the call to Christian discipleship?
• How might Mary James’ story have been dramatically different if she had been evangelized and come under the discipleship of a sound pulpit ministry and a sound doctrinal church?
• Is it legitimate even to evaluate (judge) such efforts given that Jesus taught, “he that is not against us is for us” (Luke 9:50—I’ll be expositing this verse Sunday!) Or, are we justified to “test the spirits” (1 John 4:1) and not give approval to any and every minister or ministry (2 John 10)?  

JTR

Video of the Week: How to Write a Worship Song (In 5 Minutes or Less)

 

This is made all the more humorous by the fact that it is so true.  Makes me glad to go to a church that sings psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with little accompaniment to (mostly) old tunes.

JTR

The iBible

Hmmm, I wonder if they have this in the ESV yet....

(Note:  I could do without the "bleeped" part in the opening.  Best line:  "...allowing you to share your verses with friends and ministers....")

Video Review: "Courageous"

My family (well, those of us over age 13) watched “Courageous,” the latest film from the Kendrick brothers and Sherwood Baptist Church, on video the other night.  Just as “Facing the Giants” had a high school football theme, and “Fireproof” had a firefighter theme, “Courageous” has a policeman theme.  Most importantly, it focuses on the topic of fatherhood.  The Kendrick brothers have proven that Christians can make commercially appealing films with fairly high production values on a shoe string budget with mainly amateur actors that put Hollywood to shame.    

Though there were plenty of things in the film to applaud, it seemed to me to be the weakest of the Kendrick brothers’ films thus far (I have not yet seen their first film “Flywheel”).  Maybe that’s what happens when you make a number of these types of productions—it gets formulaic.  “Facing the Giants” has the coach writing down his life principles and sharing them with the team; “Fireproof” has the fireman following a written guideline on how to love his wife; and “Courageous” has the policeman writing down his resolutions on fatherhood and sharing them with his police buddies.  There were some emotionally powerful moments.  If you’ve seen it, then you know it has some sequences involving policemen fighting crime and a gut-wrenching loss that are a bit more intense than in their previous films.  I agree with some other reviews I read, however, which note that the storyline gets a little convoluted with lots of sub-stories spun out but not fully developed.  The main plot is about fatherhood, but it also throws in grieving the death of a child, gang violence, drug abuse, dating, immigrants pursuing the American dream, police corruption, business ethics, marriage, multiculturalism, etc.  Again, so many sub-stories make it come off a bit disjointed and lacking focus.

The main issues I have with the film, however, are with some of the practical theological and spiritual messages (surprise!).  For one thing it seems to me that the Kendrick view on fatherhood has been influenced by the patriarchal outlook of Vision Forum, et al.  I have noticed that the Kendricks have recently been involved in Doug Philip’s annual film festival in San Antonio, Texas, and my guess is that some Vision Forum influence has rubbed off.  Though I agree with the distinct Biblical role of men in the family, the patriarchal outlook sometimes emphasizes the role of the father to the exclusion of other significant Biblical emphases, like the role of the mother and the partnership between both father and mother in parenting, the role of the church and her officers in spiritual formation, and most importantly the subordination of all family relationships to the supremacy of Christ himself.  Fatherhood or the family can become a golden calf just like everything else.

It is in the area of ecclesiology, however, that “Courageous” may come up shortest.  Though the film ends with the main character giving an impassioned (lay) testimony on fatherhood during a special Father’s Day worship service, the role of the church and her officers in evangelism and discipleship are largely lacking in the film.  There is one scene where a pastor offers grief counseling, but spiritual growth for the fictional characters comes primarily through the unofficial men’s “small group” that develops among the officers and their Hispanic friend.  Evangelism happens when an older Christian policeman shares his beliefs privately with a younger non-Christian policeman, rather than through the preaching of the gospel in the gathered church.  All this has a very contemporary broad-evangelical feel to it.

The film also suggests several non-Biblical ceremonies.  A father takes his daughter out to dinner and gives her a ring betokening her promise of purity till given to her father-approved husband in marriage.  This hints at both the influence of Vision Forum and the Southern Baptist “True Love Waits” campaign.  The men also have a special ceremony to read and affirm the fatherhood resolution.  Added to these ceremonies is the not so subtle suggestion that spiritual advancement must be accompanied by emotionalism.  From a Biblically regulated perspective on the Christian life, the main question we must ask is, “Why do we need to add non-biblical ordinances and ceremonies to what Scripture already supplies?”  If a man becomes a Christian he should confess his faith in public baptism.  If he fails and falters in some spiritual aspect of his life (and he will), like fatherhood (or anything else), then he may examine his life and renew his baptismal vows in the regular partaking of the Lord’s Supper.  There is no depiction of the Biblically ordained dramas of baptism and the Lord’s Supper in “Courageous.”

OK, I can hear some of you saying what my family sometimes does, “Jeff (or, Dad), can’t we just enjoy the wholesome entertainment and recreational values of this film, without going all Reformed-regulative principle-theological on it?”  Sure.  This film is so much better than the regular Hollywood fare.  Enjoy it.  But, on the other hand, don’t forget about those subtle and not so subtle spiritual issues.  “Christian” films are no more neutral than are Hollywood ones.

JTR  

Video Review: "KJB: The Book That Changed the World"

My family watched the video KJB:  The Book that Changed the World (Lionsgate, 2011) last evening.  It is an engaging film, lasting about 90 minutes, combining documentary style explanation, dramatic vignettes, and commentary from historians (including a few brief cameos from Dr. Carl Trueman of Westminster Seminary).

The film is carried by the narration of actor John Rhys-Davies, perhaps best known for his role as Gimli the Dwarf in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings films.  His resonate voice and passion for the subject holds the viewer's attention.

In the documentary sections, visits are made to key locations in the formation of the KJB, including the Church of the Holy Rude in Scotland, where James was made king,  and the Jerusalem Chamber at Westminster, where one of the translation teams labored.

In the dramatic portions, King James is given a more positive portrayal than is usual.  His marriage to Anne of Denmark is emphasized, rather than speculations about his sexual depravity.  Some of the best scenes are those of the Hampton Court Conference where he coursely chides both the Bishops and the Puritans, but finally accepts the suggestion of the Puritans to create a new Bible translation.  The thesis of the video is that James did this in an effort to unify these factions within the English church.  The video closes by emphasizing the fact that no ornate monument was left to James in Westminster Abbey, but the KJB is the lasting monument of his reign.

If you get the video (by purchase or Netlflix) , I would especially encourage you to watch the interview with John Rys-Davies in the special features.  We enjoyed this at least as much as the film itself.  Rys-Davies has a real love and passion for the KJV.  He answers questions about whether the KJV is still relevant today and forthrightly declares that Christianity is superior among the world's religions, noting that only among Christians did the move to abolition slavery triumph.  When asked whether he is himself a Christian, he demurs, but it seems obvious he is at least spiritually struggling with the demands of Scripture.  One of his final comments:  "As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD....Damn it! [BTW, this is the only expletive in the film]"

JTR 

Video of the Week: How to be a Biblical Scholar

I got this link from someone on the RB list.  Pretty funny...and true.

Video of the Week: "Messiah" in the Food Court

How to plant a church

Not exactly the plan we are following at CRBC but pretty funny.

Video of the Week: The Text is the Issue

This video is from a conference “The Text is the Issue” (I think in the 1990s) that was held at Pensacola Christian College, a fundamentalist school in Florida, on the text of Scripture. Dell Johnson, a professor at Pensacola, describes his “conversion” to the traditional from the eclectic text. Of note, here is Johnson’s observation that even in fundamentalist circles which continue to use and value the KJV, the eclectic modern critical text of the NT was largely embraced by fundamentalist academics.

More interesting, however, are the remarks by Theodore Letis. Letis was a gadfly to those in the text critical guild. He held a doctoral degree from the University of Edinburgh and was a credentialed textual critic. He nonetheless rejected the eclectic text, criticized modern Bible publishers (whom he often referred to as the “Bible landlords”), and argued for a return to the traditional or ecclesiastical text of Scripture. Letis’ two key works on the topic were The Ecclesiastic Text: Text Criticism, Biblical Authority and the Popular Mind (1997) and a collection of essays he edited, The Majority Text: Essays and Reviews in the Continuing Debate (1987). Letis suffered an untimely death at age 53 on June 24, 2005.

Doctrinally, in the works cited above Letis offered a critique of the evangelical doctrine of the inerrancy of the original autographs of Scripture which he traces to the Princeton giant B. B. Warfield. Letis charged Warfield with departing from the Reformation doctrine of the infallibility of the apographs, as expressed in creeds like the Westminster Confession of Faith. Rather than defend the divine preservation of the text of Scripture, Warfield pursued the restoration of the text of Scripture (meaning the attempt to reconstruct the original autographs through modern text critical study). The results for evangelicalism and the authority of Scripture, Letis said, have been disastrous.

The views presented here are often falsely associated with KJV-Onlyism. The argument, however, is not for the KJV per se but for the traditional text of Scripture (the Masoretic text of the OT and the received text of the NT) as the basis for translation into English or any other language. Many English speakers who hold to the traditional text also prefer the King James Version, in part due to its basis in the traditional original language text. The only other available English translations based on the traditional text are the Geneva Bible and the New King James Version.

JTR

What would you say if you knew you had only a little time to live?

Here's a stirring video made by a man named Zac Smith, several months before he died of colon cancer:


The Story of Zac Smith from NewSpring Media on Vimeo.

Video of the Week: Grace Community Church Ad

A friend sent me this link to a video for Grace Community Church in San Antonio, TX:



JTR