God @ the Billboard
We just finished our God @ the Billboard series and I'm already looking forward to next year. I thoroughly enjoy the challenge of redeeming songs and movies and juxtaposing Scripture over them. I think it delivers a 1-2 punch.
The key with those series is remembering why we do them. The goal is to incarnate the gospel into a language people can comprehend.
Culture-Shapers
The 18th century Scottish thinker, Andrew Fletcher, said, “Give me the making of the songs of a nation and I care not who writes its laws.”
Our culture is shaped, even more than we know, by the movies we watch and the music we listen to.
Approximately 40% of Americans attend church on any given Sunday which means that 60% of Americans are getting their theology from someplace else. Let me cut to the chase. For better or for worse, whether we like it or not, the musicians who write music and the producers who make movies are the chief theologians of our culture.
There is a message behind the music and the movies—some of them good and some of them not so good. And one way or the other, those messages shape the soul and the psyche of approximately 175 million Americans.
Every winter we do a series titled God @ the Box Office to explore the spiritual themes in popular movies. God @ the Billboards is the counterpart. It explores the spiritual themes in popular music.
Let me give a disclaimer.
This series isn’t an endorsement of any of these bands. Some of these bands live pretty godless lifestyles. They are singing out of the brokenness of their lives. But that is part of the reason we chose these songs. They resonate with real life. They strike a chord (pun intended).
Ravi Zacharias said, “I credit them with a greater degree of honesty and unmasked vulnerability in recognizing the anguish within the human heart than the academician, who often conceals such a struggle behind a façade of self-assurance.”
The key with those series is remembering why we do them. The goal is to incarnate the gospel into a language people can comprehend.
Culture-Shapers
The 18th century Scottish thinker, Andrew Fletcher, said, “Give me the making of the songs of a nation and I care not who writes its laws.”
Our culture is shaped, even more than we know, by the movies we watch and the music we listen to.
Approximately 40% of Americans attend church on any given Sunday which means that 60% of Americans are getting their theology from someplace else. Let me cut to the chase. For better or for worse, whether we like it or not, the musicians who write music and the producers who make movies are the chief theologians of our culture.
There is a message behind the music and the movies—some of them good and some of them not so good. And one way or the other, those messages shape the soul and the psyche of approximately 175 million Americans.
Every winter we do a series titled God @ the Box Office to explore the spiritual themes in popular movies. God @ the Billboards is the counterpart. It explores the spiritual themes in popular music.
Let me give a disclaimer.
This series isn’t an endorsement of any of these bands. Some of these bands live pretty godless lifestyles. They are singing out of the brokenness of their lives. But that is part of the reason we chose these songs. They resonate with real life. They strike a chord (pun intended).
Ravi Zacharias said, “I credit them with a greater degree of honesty and unmasked vulnerability in recognizing the anguish within the human heart than the academician, who often conceals such a struggle behind a façade of self-assurance.”
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