a familiar pulpit, and Saved!

I was asked by the current pastor of West Bethany Baptist Church to fill the pulpit for him in his absence this coming weekend. I can't say it won't be a little odd being back in the pulpit of the church I pastored for one year. That was overall an extremely odd year of my life. But it will be fun as well. I always love preaching, and it will be good to see old friends.

I watched the movie Saved! this weekend, and while it's a harsh critique of the Christian subculture, a fairly accurate one nonetheless. It was very uncomfortable to watch, and I found myself pretty angry afterwards. Not angry that a moviemaker would pick on Christians, but that he would pick on Christians and be so accurate. We deserve almost everything the movie poked fun at. The "answer" given to the problem of the Christian subculture in the film's resolution ultimately was as shallow as what the movie was picking on. Nevertheless, I think lots of Christians, especially those involved in teen ministry, should sit down and watch this movie. When you don't look in the mirror for a really long time, what you see when you finally do is scary. This is sort of what needs to happen to the American Christian subculture. Hopefully we'd be able to set aside the pride and defensive posture (i.e., persecution complex) and learn what we really look like sometimes.