Sarah has left a new comment on your post "Oh great. Just great.":
So, I take it Hal is not a regular reader of your blog, based on his announcement this morning. I just recently started reading your blog and I had to chuckle a little when he whipped out that little brochure. He-he!
Ah, contraire. In fact, Hal does read the blog on occassion. In a world as small as ours has become, I sort of assume people read it. In other words, if I wrote it, I probably really meant it. :)
I have no problem with Hal's use of the brochure this morning to clarify facts and engage people in a discussion about apologetics. What I was referring to in my earlier post was the wholesale co-branding of sermon series' with the movie...churches who ordered the banner, the web splash, the invite cards, and back drop, the mailout postcard and the commemorative bumper stickers. These are folks who have tens of thousands into branding a series.
Sunday mornings are an odd duck. Pastors have 52 of them. Back out two for Christmas and New Year, two for Mothers and Fathers Day, and three other stinker weekends for Labor Day, Memorial Day and the 4th of July, and you have 45 Sundays. Figure two bad weather weekends, one back to school weekend, another for Thanksgiving and one for Easter. you're down to 41. Subtract at least one for a bad speaker you invited in unaware, and you have 40 Sundays. That's 40 shots in front of your main crowd, most who attend 3 of 4 Sundays at most. That means you have about 30 tries per year with people...and you dedicate four of them in reaction to a movie.
That puts these folks in a precarious position of having dedicated a large chunk of their people's time (and their own opportunity) to that series being successful. If the movie bombs, you have flushed 10% of your 'good sundays' down the pooper. You end up rooting for the movie in some perverse way, so that your series comes off as brilliant.
I thought Hal's treatment of it was fantastic....reflect on it for ten minutes and move along. In relation to the book I quoted a few days ago, I say "More John Piper, Less Pied Piper."
3 comments:
Thanks for the incredible reply referencing my comment. Mea culpa if I implied that you had any contention with Hal's announcement. I guess I just thought it was funny that it came up here right after your initial posts on the topic. You’re right – there’s a big difference between providing resources for people to engage on the topic vs. devoting vast resources to contradicting one movie.
Sarah - you were right. It was funny. And I knew someone would mention it. You just beat most of them to the punch. :)
Randy I went to see the movie and was so blown away, and it was so good I bought the book to really "dig in" and do some research. I cannot wait to talk with you about it when I get to KC. I think it will really open your mind. You and Kelsey are so smart at that kind of thing, and my ADD kicks in and I cannot understand a lot of those words and biblical history stuff...
Did you know it is possible Jesus was MARRIED? WOW. And it sure explains a LOT of stuff that I thought was probably happenning that the church is hiding from us for CENTURIES.
It might be a great idea for a thread on your blog where you can read it all and help us really grab a hold of the stuff, rather than having to waste time going to churches on Sundays. YOU could be our central "point of contact", and because you are such a good teacher you could help us understand what Mr. Brown was really getting at.
Im thinking that way we could continue to use Sundays and buildings for more interesting things like sitting around listening to people tell me what they think God wanted to tell me (but couldnt seem to tell me directly), and what they think the bible says, and ask me for money, and explain to me the finer points of their doctrine and position on all sorts of things, and provide me with music and multimedia. Also you mentioned how important it is for them to help me balance my checkbook, save my marriage, and "reach out to others". Since they only get 40 shots a year to do their thing, we should do everything we can to help them do their thing more often.
I think I am on to something here. We could free up a lot of resources by using the internet so we could perpetuate more activities.
disclaimer: Because email and this tuff is so detatched it is not implied that Pastor Randy or Pastor Kelsey will truly help us meander throguh the book of DaVinci. The above statements are made purely toungue in cheek, and meant as an outlet for my cynicism and outright "rage against the machine". Randy and/or Kelsey will certainly discipline me upon first contact.
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