Gospel.com Blog

Whether or not you’re a Harry Potter fan, every youth worker knows that this series of books and movies is white-hot in today’s culture. This week, Youth Ministry Exchange is hooking you up with two Christ-centered discussion guides based on the most recent two Potter artifacts to hit bookstores and theaters: one discussion guide based on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (the latest movie) and another based on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (the latest book). Chances are, lots of your students are busy reading the new book and have just seen the latest movie, so don’t miss out on a chance to talk through the stories with your students!

FarsiPraise Ministries is another new member of the Gospelcom Ministry Alliance, with a global mission to share the message of Christ with Farsi-speaking Muslims and Christians around the world. Their website features the web’s largest archive of Farsi Christian worship songs for use by the underground churches of Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. They also provide original worship tools and resources to Iranian churches and believers around the globe.

Among the things you’ll find at their website are audio and video podcasts and a large collection of articles about music and worship that any worship leader will find worth reading. Stop by and get to know this ministry’s exciting evangelistic mission!

Who was Jesus? Why should you pay attention to his teachings, or believe his claim to be the Son of God? Why is his life and death so important for us today? Delve Into Jesus is one of the newest ministries to join the Gospelcom Ministry Alliance, and their ministry is focused on one thing: helping you get to know Jesus! All these questions and more are explored at the ministry’s new website.

There’s a lot of good content tucked away on the site, but if you’re just starting, you might start with what they call their “discovery paths”–an excellent series of essays that will walk you through what we know about Jesus and the basic concepts of the Christian faith. You might then stop by the discussion forums or ask a question about Jesus or Christianity that you haven’t seen answered on the site.

Youth Specialties has completely revamped their website with an all-new look! All of their classic content–youth ministry articles, their job bank, youth group website list, and more–are all still there, of course. If you’re not familiar with YS’ extensive resources for youth workers, this is a good excuse to stop by and get to know their ministry.

What do a spikey-haired street rapper from Cuba, a cranky cactus from Australia, and a Goliath-powered housewife from Japan have in common? They’re all part of an Internet-based comics exhibition showcasing selected entries to COMIX35’s second International Christian Comics Competition. The virtual exhibit, which runs from July 5th to September 5th, currently has approximately 200 pages of selected competition entries from 24 countries on display.

COMIX35’s contest challenges entrants to prove they can produce top-quality work that will reach the world with a Christian message. Two entrants will be selected as prize winners by judges from Japan, Australia, England, France, Malaysia and the US, but all exhibition visitors will be able to participate in designating the “People’s Choice Award.” If you’re an aspiring comics artist or want to see what participants from around the world are coming up with, stop by the Christian Comics Competition site and have a look around!

Here’s this week’s film roundup from Past the Popcorn:

Leading the pack this week is The Simpsons Movie. Now, if you’ve never heard of or watched the TV show on which the movie is based, the MPAA is probably right in warning you about the film’s PG-13 irreverence. But if you’ve watched the show (or are even a fan), you know that most of its irreverence is on the mark, and something to be learned from. Kathy Bledsoe finds this to be true of the film as well, which she calls “a way out-of-the-park home run.”

The other major release is the rather gentle No Reservations, a romantic comedy with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Abigail Breslin. But Jeff Walls finds the film a little too cliched, and recommends Ratoutille for a more satisfying kitchen-rom-com.

For families, there is also the environmentally-themed live-action wildlife fiction film Arctic Tale. But Greg Wright warns parents to check their politics before taking the kids. He says the film “proudly wears its Global Warming certification on its sleeve — which may work very well for you and your kids. Or it may not.” Caveat emptor.

On other screens, Jeff Walls recommends the political documentary No End in Sight, which he finds much more even-handed than a Michael Moore film. Greg Wright finds My Best Friend more satisfying as a drama than as the comedy it bills itself to be, Mike Brunk is disappointed in the closing act of Sunshine, and Mike Smith finds Ten Canoes condescending.

Also, Greg Wright interviews Jeremy Davies, costar of Rescue Dawn, now playing in theatres across the country.

Faced with a seemingly insurmountable problem in your life or relationships? In the latest Nehemiah Notes column, author Blaine Smith talks about “impossible” problems… and suggests that they often do have solutions. But finding those solutions may require looking outside of ourselves to other people that God has placed in our lives:

…we desperately need the influence of optimistic people, and those with strong, contagious faith, in our lives. In my own life there have been so many instances… where a single individual inspired me to think hopefully about a situation which I thought was at a dead end. While that person may not have given me a solution to my problem, he or she inspired enough optimism that I was able to open my eyes and see a solution that in some cases was only too obvious.

Using several events from the Bible as examples, he argues that our friends and acquaintances can help us see our problems from new angles–and sometimes that’s how God helps us through impossible challenges.

Can virtual relationships–cultivated over an internet forum, in an online game, or with an internet community–be “real” relationships? Is there something fundamental about a face-to-face personal relationship or community that isn’t present in its online counterpart? At the Youth Ministry Exchange, David Garrison (who has lots of experience with online communities and games) asks some hard questions about the different between “real” and “virtual” relationships.

Looking to the Bible for a definition of community, he makes some challenging observations:

Real relationships are hard; mostly because they are hard to control due to the reality of other people being involved. Virtual communities provide an opportunity for us to have a greater level of control, or at least perceive a greater level of control, over those relationships and seek to engage people on our own terms rather than risking them engaging us on our terms. I am seeing more and more people trading genuine relationships for virtual ones. With the advent of MySpace, Facebook and other social networking sites, it is becoming easier than ever to abandon reality and seek to fulfill all of our relational needs virtually. And it feels like those needs are being met.
But they aren’t.

Read the full essay for his reasoning and conclusions.

Does the long and complex story arc of the Harry Potter novels–now drawn to a close in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows–present Harry as a Christ-figure? Is JK Rowling tapping into the same Christian ideas and symbols that CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien did? In a speculative essay at Hollywood Jesus, Lisa Baker wonders what the final Harry Potter novel reveals about the spiritual underpinnings of the series. If you’ve not yet read the final Potter novel, stop by and read Baker’s predictions. If you’re a rabid Potter fan who’s already finished reading it, take a look and see if Baker was on target or not!

(Note: the essay features spoilers for the first six Potter novels, so read with caution if you don’t want plot elements revealed to you.)

Imagine a fun, infectious film that champions a repressed minority. Imagine a film that actually seems to respect that minority community and fully integrates it into the storyline, even granting the story’s principal victory to a member of that minority group. Imagine a morality tale that so gently communicates its message that it seems as natural as smiling, as healthy as laughing”–or as liberating as dancing. And imagine a film that makes the case so eloquently that it’s easy to extrapolate the lesson to minorities of all stripes.

That movie is Hairspray, being released this weekend. The minorities celebrated there are blacks, women, and overweight people. I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, on the other hand (and also a new release this week), tries to accomplish all of those things for the minority gay community”–and fails miserably.

Jenn Wright calls the former “great fun to watch,” while Greg Wright finds the latter “execrable.” And it’s funny, because the sentiments in Hairspray can (and were originally intended to) apply to gays as much as they do to blacks and fat people. But Adam Sandler can’t seem to appreciate such an approach, sadly.

This week, Greg also interviews the directors of next week’s Arctic Tale, and Kathy Bledsoe looks at how the screenplay of The Order of the Phoenix went wrong.