Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Shannon Recommends

I took a great class in January called “Theology and Popular Culture” and was exposed to some very interesting popular culture items. Imagine a class where watching TV and movies is actually your homework! It was great. So, I thought I’d pass on some movie recommendations.

Next time you’re at the video store, how about renting something that will give you some food for thought, or stimulate your inner theologian? I’m not saying all of these are perfect movies, I’m rather ambivalent about some of them in fact, but try them out and see what you think. And I'll play with some colour too, just for fun!

The Station Agent – this movie is a little slow at times, but well worth it. While watching, think about the idea of salvation through relationship.

The Year of Living Dangerously – good education on a historical situation and a way to think about what is important.

Romero – This movie is a great introduction to the ideas of liberation theology, and an inspiring, though heartbreaking story.

Garden State - one to watch while thinking about the questions of “what do we need to be saved from?” and “what saves us?”

Crash – not only is this thought-provoking, but it also won a number of academy awards and was written by a Canadian!

Jesus of Montreal – perhaps a little too “Catholicky” (pun intended) for some, but definitely a good one for stimulating you to think about what the Jesus story would look like set in today’s context.

What’s Cooking? – from the director of Bend it Like Beckham and Bride and Prejudice (both are also great films) What’s Cooking looks at the Thanksgiving dinners of 4 families in LA who are from different cultures. Maybe this one isn’t heavily theological, but families and food both figure prominently in the Bible, so it kind of fits.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Questioning

I have been doing alot of questioning lately which is half the reason I created this blog. Hopefully in writing some of these out the answers will come.

During a meeting of I don't know if you would call it a cell group or not but we thought about starting what is called a CDG (Covenant Discipleship Group) I thought this sounded like a good idea. My only problem is what do they do. I guess that is what the training is for.

While I was setting up a computer tonight I was surfing around looking for a web site that I had seen about 6 months ago that was all about cell ministry it is called the living room. So I decided to e-mail the owner of the site to see what he has to say and maybe we can get some ideas from there. So anyway one of his posts dated Oct 28th talks about BYO Worship. "Bring your Own Worship is always a meaningful night where each person is invited to bring something to share around a particular theme." I thought what a cool idea. So I had to make sure that I wrote it down and poof here it is on this website. So I figure during one of our next planning meetings I will bring this up to our leaders and see what they think about it perhaps it is something that will have to wait until the CDG's are running.

Aaron

Podcasting

I'm not dead just hiding.

This post is a little lighter than normal for me, everybody needs some levity every now and then.

Are you guys into this? I got an iPod for Christmas and have been hooked on podcasts since. One of my recent favorites is The Bored Again Christian. "Where Christian music gets saved." It has all of the greats from times of yore, like Grammatrain, and Anberlin plus some new stuff that I hadn't heard of yet. If you want to hear some different types of music check it out.

See you soon

Aaron