You can find out by answering this simple question…

The Super Bowl is in the books (congrats, Saints).  Does that mean…

a) Football season is over.
b) Only 2 months until draft day.

New movies are usually released to theaters every Friday, but who’s got 10 bucks these days to drop on a movie that may well be a load of crap? Given those odds, on Friday I offer an alternative on DVD that you can rent at your local video store (or in some cases, avoid at all costs). Some will be new releases, others you may have to hunt for, but all of them are available to light up your small screen should it be a lazy Friday night.

Finding Nemo

My little girl is now at that age where she becomes absolutely enthralled by movies.  As in, wants to watch the same movie over and over and over again.  This fact has the very real possibility of driving Heather and I absolutely insane, depending on what movies she attaches herself to.  Thankfully, her favorite as of late has been Pixar’s classic Finding Nemo.  We’ve watched “Meemo” more times over the past couple weeks than I care to count, but seeing the movie for the first time(s) in quite a while has reminded my how great it is and just why I still consider it the greatest animated film ever made.

For the uninitiated, Nemo (voice of Alexander Gould) is a clownfish, and the only son of Marlin (Albert Brooks).  After a tragic beginning to his life left Nemo without his mom and with a gimpy fin, Marlin has become the most overprotective father in the ocean.  Nemo is growing up and ready to start school, which has Marlin absolutely terrified.  Nemo comes to resent his dad’s doting, and one day an act of defiance gets him nabbed by a diver, who whisks him away on a boat right before his dad’s eyes.  While Nemo adjusts to life in a dentist’s fishtank, Marlin , aided by an absent minded fish named Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), frantically crosses the ocean in search of his lost son, meeting countless colorful creatures along the way.

Director Andrew Stanton, who also helmed 2008’s excellent WALL-E and has contributed in some form to just about every Pixar film, balances humor, emotion, and visual magnificence to create a flat-out masterpiece.  Like all of Pixar’s work, this movie is inhabited by real characters, not just cartoon cutouts.  By the end of the movie, I find myself deeply moved by the story of a fish father and son, whether it’s my first viewing or my 50th.  You’ll quickly find yourself seeing past the fins and gills and looking at characters that are endearing because of just how real the seem.  The voice cast deserves major kudos, with DeGeneres turning in a particularly good performance and the cast of characters inhabiting the dentist’s tank – which includes Willem Dafoe, Allison Janney, and Brad Garrett – ensuring that the film doesn’t miss a beat when its focus transitions from Marlin to Nemo.  There are some brilliantly sly and funny moments (the movie’s ending induces a grin every time I see it), but kids will find it just as funny as adults thanks to some great slapstick moments as well.  If you’ve got kids – or heck, even if you don’t – you owe it to your family to see this movie.  If you’ve got to watch a movie over and over and over again, it might as well be this one. – **** (out of 4)

Finding Nemo is rated G.

I’m not asking that question about your theology.  I’m quite sure that most of you reading this who take the Bible seriously would answer a quick yes.  I’m asking about how your theology practically works itself out into your living.  Twice in the course of the past week, I’ve had church-planting mentors impress upon me and the rest of our team the importance of taking seriously the reality of the spiritual stakes in what we’re about to undertake.  As planters, we will be pushing the gospel forward into places where it hasn’t been and into lives that haven’t believed it.  That will put us on the front lines of the battle, spiritually speaking, and it will draw the attention and retribution of the enemy.  Both our mentors recounted personal stories of suffering and opposition that they and their families encountered along their planting journeys that ranged from sobering to downright creepy.

To say the conversations were much-needed for us all, and for me especially, would be an understatement.  Sure, I know that there are demons, that there is a spiritual reality that goes beyond what we see every day.  I’ve got my theology pretty well in order, thank you very much.  The problem, I realized, is that I just didn’t believe much of it.  On a real, practical, gritty level, I didn’t believe these things I said I believed.  There are a couple reasons for this.  For one, in a way I think seminary intellectual-ed it out of me, largely.  After all, when you’re spending time ruminating on the details of old-earth creationism or the intricacies of eschatological systems, the notion of real angels and demons just seems so infantile, so childish.  The even bigger reason, I think, is that I really don’t want to be one of the crazy charlatans on TV running around bashing people on the foreheads to get the demons out and hopefully procure a nice donation to fund their private jets.  I want to be as far away from that guy as I can get, and so, as is human nature, in the reactionary process I’ve ended up running too far in the opposite direction.   Whatever the reasoning, though, the end result was a giant heap of unbelief I’d weakly attempted to intellectually justify.

Christianity, however, isn’t an intellectual exercise.   This isn’t a game.  The same Jesus who I trust rose from the dead and procured my salvation tended to take demons fairly seriously.  The same Holy Spirit who I praise for convicting my heart of sin inspired Peter to describe Satan as a very real person “roaming around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”  What God convicted me about most deeply this week is that when I disbelieve the reality of the spiritual realm, whether mentally or practically, I am really disbelieving him, since his word speaks plainly about not only the reality of this realm, but the absolute necessity of preparing ourselves to survive what we’ll find there.  As my friend Dan encouraged us last night to be on our guard – while maintaining a healthy and wise discernment – my heart was shaken to the core with the seriousness of the mission God is sending us on.  However, it was made even more resolute in the knowledge that our faith is in a very real God who has made very real promises about the very real power that we have received to overcome darkness through Jesus Christ.  It’s refocused me as a husband, father and pastor.  It’s the best wake-up call I could have had, and I’d ask you to consider if it’s one that perhaps, just perhaps, you might need too.

Never really thought about this aspect of it before…

“What will be the effect on soldier-to-soldier relations? What will be the effect on two sailors submerged in the same submarine for a couple of months? Now, when this question is usually asked, it is asked with the assumption that I am raising the quesiton of one soldier or sailor hitting on the other one. Right now, he is not supposed to do that, or be open about his orientation. But that is not where my question lies. I am asking if the serviceman who is evangelical will be permitted to witness to his fellow serviceman, who is now out of the closet. Will he be allowed to believe that homosexuality is a sin that God will judge at the last day? Sure. Don’t ask. Will he be allowed to call his fellow serviceman to repentance? Surely not. Don’t tell.”

- Douglas Wilson

Read the full post here.

Last night, the long-awaited final season of Lost kicked off on ABC.  Heather and I spent the last six months getting all caught up on the show thanks to Xbox Live and ABC.com so that we can watch the final season as it happens (something we’ve never done with Lost before).  Last night’s premiere packed a lot into it’s two-hour running time, and I’ve got a few comments to make on the whole situation.  So, SPOILER ALERT if you haven’t yet watched the episode, and if you have, I’d love to get your take in the comments.  Here’s what I thought…

1.  The big question from the end of season 5 was whether or not Farraday’s H-bomb plan would work.  From last night, it would appear that it did and didn’t.  The episode followed two different realities, offering no explanation for what was happening (other than Juliet’s cryptic postmortem “it worked”).  It would appear that we’re seeing two alternate realities, one in which the survivors are still on the island and one in which they never crashed there at all.  I must confess, this has me feeling a little disappointed.  Is J.J. Abrams really all out of ideas?  His other current TV show Fringe is exploring the whole alternate reality thing, as did his take on Star Trek last summer.  Both have been good, but sooner or later using the same plot device over and over just starts to get a little old, especially when it’s used in an attempt to be thought provoking.  Now granted, the whole setup hasn’t been explained and Abrams and Co. may well do something really cool and fresh with the concept, but for now I’m just not sure it was the best move – and I’ve been onboard with all the time-travel/flashback/flashforward craziness of the first five seasons (which, seeing it all presented together in that hour-long recap special, you realize is completely nuts).  I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt though. 

2.  That CG sequence of the island at the bottom of the ocean was just awful.  Obviously, TV budgets just don’t allow for CGI that matches what we’ve come to expect from movies, but if used wisely it can still blend somewhat seamlessly into the experience (see Firefly for proof).  Plainly put, if you don’t have the resources to do it really well, then don’t try to do a huge, epic shot.  Better small and good than big and bad.  Those fifteen seconds were just a mess.

3.  The best part of the episode?  The Jacob/Man in Black material.  Terry O’Quinn is doing a superb job portraying Bizarro Locke/Smoke Monster/Man in Black.  He’s really taken on a terrifying new persona, and his acting chops really shine when you watch a scene of this new character shortly after a scene of old Locke chatting with Jack in an airport.  He keeps this up, and an Emmy may be in his future.  It’s going be really interesting to see just how this story unfolds.  Heather was talking last night about her hunch that the two of them are a play on the God/Satan motif, and I can definitely see the parallels.  The religious imagery has been pretty blatant for a while, and it was kicked up a notch last night with a giant ankh (an Egyptian symbol for eternal life) being pulled out of Jacob’s guitar case.  I’ll be interested to see the point of it all unfold.

All-in-all, the premiere was just OK for me, but obviously it was just the beginning of the unraveling of the Lost mysteries.  Perhaps I expected a bit too much.  I’m certainly looking forward to seeing where they go from here.  What did you think?

Do not rejoice in this, that you preached a great sermon, or wrote a great blog post, or spoke at a conference.  Do not rejoice in this, that you overcame a long-nagging sin, or prayed for three hours, or racked up a 57-day streak of Bible-reading.  Do not rejoice in this, that you led a friend to Christ, or grew your small group, or attend a healthy church.  Do not rejoice in this, that you have overcome temptation, or acheived spiritual successes, or have climbed the mountain of personal holiness.

Do not rejoice in this, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

“Do you really live on a ball spinning in circles through the stars? Does the heat from the closest star really make trees and grass and moss out of the carbon dioxide in the air? Have our wizards really pulled black ooze up from beneath the earth’s skin, mixed it in their lairs into something that explodes, and made us magical metal boxes than can race around on roads, riding on those explosions? Are you bored with that, yawning in your seat belt? Is lightning real? Tornados? Does the big spinning ball beneath us always suck us down, and are we really talented enough to constantly balance on our feet? What kind of creatures are we?

Sit Moses and Beowulf down, and listen to their stories. Sit Bilbo down and listen to his. Do you disbelieve their tales? Are they made up? Are they fantasy? Now tell them your stories. Have you flown through the sky in a giant metal tube? Do we have boats that can sail to the very bottom of the sea? Have we thrown men all the way to the moon?

A hobbit would laugh at you. To him, your world could not be real. Your stories would be fun to read, beneath a blanket on a rainy day. He might look out of his window and sigh, wishing for a more magical world of his own.

In my stories, this world is a magical place, and not because I wish it was. Because it is.”

- N.D. Wilson

Counselor Ed Welch has written a great article about the guilt that nags at some people over whether or not they’ve committed the unpardonable sin Jesus mentioned in Matthew 12:32.  The old cliche answer you hear from people is some variation on “if you’re worried you’ve committed the unpardonable sin, you probably haven’t.”  Welch does an excellent job of going into textual and contextual detail to show why that trite assertion actually isn’t too far off base.  Here’s one of his conclusions…

“God forgives those who come to him. Whenever there is turning to Christ in repentance, there is always forgiveness. There is no account in Scripture of someone who felt godly sorrow and repented, but was not forgiven. None. Not one.”

If you’ve ever wondered about this passage (and who hasn’t?) or want to be ready to counsel others about it well, the whole article is definitely worth a read.

HT: Justin Taylor

As I prepare to enter the world of church planting, I’m spending my time reading just about everything of use I can get my hands on.  After tackling Ed Stetzer and J.D. Payne at the end of last year, I’ve moved on to Mark Driscoll for the beginning of 2010.  Last week, I finished his book The Radical Reformission, with Confessions of a Reformission Rev. now on the slate.  If the latter is as good as the former, it’ll be a worthwhile read.

In The Radical Reformission, Driscoll seeks to lay out exactly what kind of challenge awaits the modern church.  The culture has moved on without us, seeing the church as an archaic dinosaur from decades gone by with little to no relevance for today’s world.  Much of that, Driscoll argues, is due to the standoffish way we’ve approached our culture over the years.  The temptation, then, is to plunge headfirst into cultural accommodation to try to win back the people we’ve alienated.  Driscoll, however, suggests that will be an empty pursuit, only resulting in winning people back to a worthless and powerless religion.  He argues that we must take the timeless gospel message and change the way we relate it to the world around us.  We must understand the culture in which we live – whether Seattle, Savannah, or Salt Lake City – and contextualize the message with our words and actions so that it can be best communicated to broken people where they’re at.  In his classic raw, witty style, Driscoll offers a way forward to help Christians do exactly that.

From a prospective church planter’s perspective, this was a fantastic “big picture” book.  Driscoll does a great job of spelling out with clarity and precision the cultural picture that we all have to deal with.  He clearly understands modern-day America and he’s got a heart for the people that inhabit it.  Viewing the book through that lens as a “Diagnosing and Reaching Culture 101” text, Driscoll could hardly have done much better.  Older, more tradition-bound Christians should read it as a wake-up call to the realities waiting just outside their church’s door, and younger, boundary-pushing Christians should read it as a strong reminder that the answer to our cultural disconnect isn’t hip ideas and catchy campaigns but rather the timeless message of the Gospel.  The book’s only real weakness stems from the fact that it’s now six years old.  While the culture hasn’t changed that much, Driscoll has, and there were moments in the book where I think 2010 Mark Driscoll might have said things a bit more carefully than 2004 Mark Driscoll.  Nothing glaring, but I can imagine some spots where perhaps someone unfamiliar with the topics could take things the wrong way, seeing Driscoll as more culturally (rather than theologically) driven than he actually is.  All-in-all, though, this is a fantastic read for church planters, pastors, and people who know other people who need Jesus.  Give it a shot.

New movies are usually released to theaters every Friday, but who’s got 10 bucks these days to drop on a movie that may well be a load of crap? Given those odds, on Friday I offer an alternative on DVD that you can rent at your local video store (or in some cases, avoid at all costs). Some will be new releases, others you may have to hunt for, but all of them are available to light up your small screen should it be a lazy Friday night.

Road to Perdition

With 2010 kicking off a brand new decade, everybody and their mother has been putting out a “best of the decade” list for every imaginable category.  IGN, a great entertainment website, is in the midst of making their picks for the best movies and video games of the past ten years, listing a top ten for each individual year before compiling the best of the best.  As I read through their list, it’s been fun to think back about some real gems that I haven’t revisited in a while.  One of those films is Sam Mendes’ superb 2002 drama Road to Perdition, one of my personal favorites.  A great story of fathers and sons rounded out by an absolutely stellar cast, this is a movie that should be required viewing for any film fan.

Set in the Capone mob era of 1930’s Illinois, Road to Perdition tells the story of Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks), an enforcer for Irish-American boss John Rooney (Paul Newman in his final onscreen role).  The orphaned Sullivan was taken in as a boy by Rooney, whose fatherly provision helped Sullivan to establish a life and family of his own, with his seedy work hidden away from his two sons.  One night, his curious older son Michael Jr. stows away in his car on a job, only to witness his dad’s partner, Rooney’s son Connor (Daniel Craig), gun down a man in cold blood.  Worried that the boy will spill the secret, Connor comes after him and forces the two Sullivans to flee for their lives.  With a psychopathic hitman (Jude Law) dispatched by the mob to take them out, the elder Sullivan must find a way to keep his son alive and end the cycle of violence, giving his son a chance at a good life. 

While you could certainly describe Road to Perditionas a mob movie, this certainly isn’t Goodfellas or The Untouchables in tone or subject matter.  The focus here is intensely personal, exploring the nature of the relationship between fathers and sons and the toll that violence takes on the human soul.  Essentially, this this a movie about three sets of fathers and sons – the two Sullivans, the two Rooneys, and the adoptive father-son relationship between Hanks and Newman’s characters.  Each relationship explores a different dynamic, and they all add to an emotional climax that cuts to the core at what it means to be a father.  With such a focus on characters, it goes without saying that the film is only as strong as its cast – and in this case, that’s high praise.  All the heavy-hitters are in top form here, with a supporting cast of character actors like Stanley Tucci and Ciaran Hinds rounding things out and providing a cast of characters that feels truly authentic.  The source material for the movie is taken from a graphic novel, and cinematographer Conrad L. Hall (also his final film) does a beautiful job of lighting and framing each shot to create a visual masterpiece that sets the tone for the film’s action and is a subtle treat for the eyes.  Composer Thomas Newman’s score is beautiful and deeply haunting.  Mendes ties it all together in a pitch-perfect package.  There’s really not anything negative that I can say about this movie.  If I were to compile a ten-best of the decade, Road to Perdition would certainly be on it.  If you haven’t seen it, it should be at the front of your to-watch list.  It’s a masterpiece in every sense of the word. – **** (out of 4)

Road to Perdition is rated R for violence and language.