Gospel.com Blog

The status quo is never ‘”good enough.” And so, once a year, the staff of Hollywood Jesus gathers at Renton, Washington’s Harambee Church, for the Hollywood Jesus Annual Gathering—there to revisit HJ’s foundational goals, build bonds of fellowship, and hone skills in order to bring the best possible cultural insights to the web.

Better yet, the event is also open to readers, pastors, and writers from other publications! On tap for this year’s workshops—December 29 through 31—are writer and critic Jeffrey Overstreet, recently honored at the City of Angels Film Festival; Peter T. Chattaway, film critic for CT Movies and Books and Culture; Mike Gunn, Harambee pastor and co-founder of Seattle’s Mars Hill Church; James Harleman, Mars Hill pastor; author, animation scholar and educator Ken Priebe; Hollywood Jesus founder David Bruce; HJ Managing Editors Greg and Jenn Wright; and HJ Channel Editors Melinda Ledman and Maurice Broaddus.

That’s an impressive lineup of Christians on the cutting edge of faith and culture. If that sounds like something you’d like to participate in, you can read more about the Gathering and get registration info over at Hollywood Jesus.

Hollywood Jesus is a site devoted to pop culture from a spiritual point of view. Every week, they offer reviews and analysis of the latest movies, books, comics, and other pop culture artifacts.

You can keep up with their regular updates at HJ Live!. But in case you missed it, here’s a rundown of some of the new items at HJ this week:

(more…)

Call it a savvy marketing, call it media evangelism—evangelical Christians have a history of using every available medium to get the Gospel message across, whether it’s printed tracts, radio broadcasts, or big-screen films. The Billy Graham Center has a fascinating online exhibit of one of the quirkier niches in evangelical history: classic Christian posters!

There’s a great gallery of vintage posters, from “come to the meeting” posters advertising revival meetings to somewhat quirkier posters. It’s interesting to compare posters from different parts of the world, from a stark London poster to lavishly illustrated Chinese posters.

Be sure to check them all out, and don’t miss this page of classic posters that aren’t a part of the exhibit.

A side note: Several of the posters, you’ll note, advertise Billy Graham crusades around the world. The Christian History Institute has an interesting account of Graham’s monumental 1954 evangelism crusade, if this particular corner of evangelical history interests you.

Break out your drawing tools and your imagination! The Second International Christian Comics Competition, hosted by the Comix35 ministry, is underway? Entrants (who can be from anywhere around the world) have until June 13, 2007 to submit a short, original comic that is either evangelistic in nature or which displays an aspect of Christian discipleship. Winners receive a cash award and will be published in a compilation. See the full contest rules for details.

The Billy Graham Center museum has a new temporary exhibit up and running through January ‘07–a display called Expressing Faith. It explores the many different ways that Christian artists try “to express a spiritual reality, maybe an intangible one, in a visual form that another person can comprehend and respond to.” Although the physical exhibit is located in Chicago, you can read a bit more about it at the BGC website.

What does Jerusalem–the “Holy City” with a central role in the history of more than one religion today–look like? Photographer Lee Cantelon visited Jerusalem last month to capture the true face of Jerusalem through his camera lens. The result is the Wandering in God’s City photo gallery.

The gallery is part of The Words, a ministry that began several years ago when Cantelon published a new translation of Jesus’ word arranged thematically. The ministry makes those words available in a variety of formats, from PDA-specific versions to MP3. The photo gallery is their latest addition, and they’ve got a special music project on the way!