Lost in Culture

Jonathan Acuff is just TOOOO funny. If I could recommend a blog for its combination of humor, wit, wisdom, Christian content and insight "Stuff Christians Like" would be it. In today's blog he writes about the Obligatory "LOST" Sermon. In other words he is addressing the issue of using pop culture to reach the culture. It may be hard to grasp his take on whether this is good or not, but regardless it will get you thinking and laughing--which is what he wants you to do.

Here is the lead, but you'll have to go to his blog (by clicking here) to get the whole skinny:

"There are two things you have to preach on each Spring, Easter and the television show Lost. If you skip the second one, I understand, not every church puts such a high premium on television and the what not. If you skip the first one, I hope you don’t get stuck on a fold out couch bed in hell. You know the one, with that bar in the middle of your back that just angrily jabs at you all night like a three year old with a whiffle ball bat? I promise you, hell is lousy with those things.

"But maybe you were unaware of the need to experience an obligatory Lost sermon. Maybe you didn’t even know that was an option. And with the show in its final season, you’re lost as it were with how to properly judge the quality of a Lost sermon. It’s almost as if you need a Lost sermon scorecard..."

POP goes the CULTURE

Here's another book that looks promising. I read the excerpt from COLLIDE magazine and was impressed. The book was released in early April and was not yet available for purchase at my local Christian bookstore.

Here are a couple brief points from the book as they appeared in COLLIDE (a magazine that I highly recommend):

"Every church makes a choice in hpw to respond to pop culture, and the choice it makes determines how much of an impact it will have on its community."

Author Tim Stevens goes on to point out the five choices that are possible. I will list them here without his commentary. To find out more visit http://www.colidemagazine.com/ or http://www.popgoesthechurch.com/

Here are our choices:

• Condemn the Culture
• Seperate from the Culture
• Embrace the Culture
• Ignore the Culture
• Leverage the Culture

"[Jesus] would read our books, go to our movies, watch our TV shows, look at our magazines, and surf the Internet so that He could better understand our culture."