Last summer, Pathfinder Church in Ellisville, MO put on a “Shrek” themed church service as part of their Reel Gospel series.
Preached by Pastor AJ Mastic, the promo material for the four-week series reveals that because “all of our best human stories contain echoes of this divine truth,” the church will “see how some popular movies contain an unexpected facet of the Gospel, and how these fictional stories can reveal important truths about the love of God.”
You'd be shocked at how many Shrek-themed church services there are, shocked I say!
Apparently, the non-fictional stories in the scriptures are insufficient to reveal these important truths, and so they need the hijinks of an animated green ogre with a Scottish accent to prop it up.
When the bible isn’t enough, nothing is ever enough.
Clay Church in a United Methodist Church in South Bend, Indiana. Led by Pastor Brian Durand, each Sunday they offer a Traditional Service, which features hymns sung by the choir and accompanied by a church organ and some spoken responses, as well as a Contemporary Service, which features music from the Clay Church band in a more “modern and relaxed environment.”
During their July 23 service, halfway through their ‘Gospel in Animation’ sermon series where they’re teaching on popular movies to dig out little bibley nuggets of truth, the church takes the offering while the praise band sings ‘We don’t talk about Bruno’, a song from the pixar film ‘Encanto’ about how the animated Madrigal family has ostracized their uncle Bruno on account that they associate bad luck with his visions and magical power to see into the future.
Just the sort of song you want to sing in church.
Some of the lyrics include:
Hey! Grew to live in fear of Bruno stuttering or stumbling I could always hear him sort of muttering and mumbling I associate him with the sound of falling sand, ch-ch-ch It’s a heavy lift, with a gift so humbling Always left Abuela and the family fumbling Grappling with prophecies they couldn’t understand Do you understand?
A seven-foot frame Rats along his back When he calls your name It all fades to black Yeah, he sees your dreams And feasts on your screams (hey!)
Church takes offering while the worship band sings ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno’, because a song about ostracizing uncle Bruno and associating bad luck with his pagan visions & magical power is just the type of song to sing in church https://t.co/aHKWKk7nSNpic.twitter.com/2P0OkaCVn6
Later, following the song, pastor Durand recaps Encanto and then preaches on the film, asking the congregation questions like, “Who has something in their family that is hard to talk about?”
Summertime is ‘Church at the movies’ time for many seeker-sensitive and biblically illiterate churches, and the usual blockbuster films are prime pickings: Mission Impossible, Transformers, Super Mario, and even the newest ‘Barbie’ film. These PG and PG-13 films are all ripe for industrious pastors to pluck ‘life lessons’ out of and to uncover the ‘spiritual truths’ out of Bowser singing ‘Peaches’ or Optimus Prime ‘transforming’ into a new creation.
This is where churches decorate the entire building (or at least the lobby and sanctuary) with movie-themed accouterments, hand out popcorn and drinks, and in the case of Barbie week, ask congregants to come to church dressed in pink, where if they wish, they can do a Barbie-themed photoshoot.
It’s all so pink.
And of course, the requisite sermons. Unfortunately many of the churches will not stream them as they use so much copyright material with the video clips they show, but inevitably some get through.
This church's Barbie sermon is particularily cringy, especially when she busts out the dolls. The only thing worse than a male pastor preaching on Barbie is when a pastrix does it. pic.twitter.com/OnDcBRsgel
Here's another church doing the Barbie sermon, relating Barbie's existential crisis to our own, where we ask ourselves "I know there's got to be more than…having diamonds and having brand name bags" pic.twitter.com/dhVuFQoWj8
Summertime is ‘Church at the movies’ time for many seeker-sensitive and biblically illiterate churches, and the usual blockbuster films are prime pickings: Mission Impossible, Transformers, Super Mario, and even the newest ‘Barbie’ film. These PG and PG-13 films are all ripe for industrious pastors to pluck ‘life lessons’ out of and to uncover the ‘spiritual truths’ out of Bowser singing ‘Peaches’ or Optimus Prime ‘transforming’ into a new creation.
One church has upped the ante, however. Blessed Hope Community Church is a contemporary, non-denominational Christian church in Webster, NY. They make a point of saying they meet Sunday morning in a movie theater with comfy reclining chairs and advertise that if you attend their church, you’ll experience “authentic caring people, exciting, upbeat music, messages that are relevant to your life, and even movie clips on the big screen!”
Led by John R. Wurzbacher, they’ve done sermons on The Flash, Transformers, Gran Turismo, and the R-rated Oppenheimer, which, according to reviewing sites, has “several sex scenes with partial nudity, including long sequences with bare breasts.”
They’re not the first time to do a sermon series on R-rated films and Tv shows. Perry Noble and his new megachurch ‘SecondChance Church’ did one on Game of Thrones a few years back.
They also won’t be the last to do one on Oppenheimer, as Liquid Church is likewise planning to preach on it in August, where they’ll explore ‘faith in film’
For the church service, Wurzbacher has his congregants watch the trailer for the film and then asks them whether or not they experienced regret, relating Oppenheimer’s regret at building the atomic bomb to people’s regrets at saying unkind words or eating food that gave them food poisoning. Curiously, when he preached this sermon, the film didn’t even come out yet, and he cautions them, “Now I’m not suggesting that you necessarily go watch this film, especially for the fact that it’s rated R.’
Then why not just preach from your bible?
Church does sermon series on R-rated 'Oppenheimer' film, relating Oppenheimer's regret at building the atomic bomb and killing 200,000 people to people's regrets at saying unkind words or taking out bad car loans. See story at https://t.co/Nrtz2sQ1oopic.twitter.com/m3gsK7jPm2
