I know what'll be playing in my home this Christmas.
This is the work of my friend M. Dale Prins. For years, I thought his sense of humor was his greatest gift. I was wrong.
Spread the word. And stock up on copies for Christmas gifts: http://www.emmanuelshall.com/
Bill Hybels: What Bono Taught Me About Fighting Poverty
At U.S. News and World Report, Bill Hybels is talking about Bono.
Hybels is the founder of Willow Creek Community Church outside of Chicago, the fourth largest congregation in the country. He says:
Nearly two weeks ago, I stood before 7,000 people—and an additional 60,000 connected via satellite feed—who gathered for the Willow Creek Association's annual two-day conference the Global Leadership Summit to hear from diverse faculty on the subject of how to get better at leading whatever it is that we lead. Part of the assortment this year included Bono, who agreed to a follow-up discussion to our 2006 interview, during which he called out the local church for being inexcusably late to the game of fighting extreme poverty and treatable disease.
The evangelical church has taken a lot of justifiable heat in recent years for being vocal about the things we hate while staying silent about some of the most pressing needs in our world. There are times when I believe the church should be the conscience of our culture, but to Bono's point, a reframing must occur, one where the divisiveness that once defined us as people of faith gets edged out by a unity around great societal causes. And what has to unite us in this day and age is the fight against poverty and disease. Faith leaders the world over expected this day would come. What we didn't expect was that it would take an Irish rock star to demand the dawn.
As leaders, there are so many things we must get better at: casting vision, building teams, solving problems, enforcing values, and building the next generation of leaders. But if we excel in those areas and still neglect to use our leadership octane to address God's clear mandate to serve the poor, what have we really gained?
Dawn-Treading Where They Shouldn't?
Let's just be clear. These Narnia movies aren't supposed to be based on the books. They're supposed to be based on the filmmakers' *memories* of the books, which they might not have read since childhood. Because, you know, those memories will be so much better than the books. And who could expect a busy filmmaker to actually read the novel he's adapting?
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My Pitch for the Next Tarantino movie
I've been told more than once now that because the Scriptures contain stories of violent revenge and conquest, and since Christ is going to come again to unleash bloody justice upon unbelievers, that perhaps I should question my objections to a movie that invites us to find pleasure in the onscreen disfigurement, dismemberment, and destruction of Nazis.
So, here's my pitch for Tarantino's next movie:
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Must-read movie review: Daniel Mendelsohn, "Inglourious Basterds: When Jews Attack"
You must read Daniel Mendelsohn - ‘Inglourious Basterds’: When Jews Attack
I've read a lot of writing about Quentin Tarantino's new film. Some folks seem to be having a lot of fun at the movie. I wish I'd had fun. Mendelsohn sounds like he saw the same movie I saw - the film that made me feel sad and a little sick - and not the joyride that so many other people seem to have enjoyed.
I'd encourage you to read it... read all of it... before you go any farther in this post.
Okay...
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Browser: Still Walking. Unforgivable Blackness. Joe Henry. Inglourious Basterds.
Hi ho, Jeffrey the Recovering Storyteller here.
It's my first real day off since completing Raven's Ladder. I plan to rest. Write reviews. And see movies. 500 Days of Summer and District 9, to be specific. My friend, painter Laura Lasworth, loved the first one, and blogger Mark Shea, who I encountered in the grocery store parking lot yesterday, was very impressed by the second. Can't wait to see them both.
But first, some notes... Read more
Post-"Raven's Ladder" Browser: Catching up. Dawn Treader! Catching up on summer movies. Joe Henry. More.
Having turned in Raven's Ladder, I'm excited, exhausted, and eager to enjoy what little bit of summer remains. I've spent these beautiful months laboring over a hot laptop to finish the third book in The Auralia Thread, and I hope to read some great books and see some great films (not to mention eat great meals and spend time with great people) to re-fuel.
So, here's an assortment of news, links, and highlights from my re-entry into "the real world."
1.
Lo... the Dawn Treader...
Further Thanks to Christianity Today for a Generous Send-Off
Today's unexpected notes from the team at Christianity Today have been a tremendous blessing to me at the end of a trying week. I am deeply grateful.
And thanks to those of you who left comments for me there as well. All I ever did was ramble on, ad nauseum, about an art form that I love. That it has come to anything at all is powerful evidence, to me anyway, that there's a creative, resourceful God in charge of things. I've learned as much from my colleagues and readers on this journey as I have from the filmmakers. And I still have so much more to learn.
[2013 UPDATE: The aforementioned article is now accessible only in web archives.]
Congratulations, IMAGE!
Congratulations to Image journal for twenty years of standard-setting work.
In the territory where art and faith intersect, no publication has produced a more profound body of work, nor boasted such an accomplished roster of writers and artists.
Check out Bearing the Mystery: Twenty Years of Image, the beautiful, "best-of", hardbound anniversary volume. I have a copy already, signed by several great contributors. Read more
Thanks to the Team at Christianity Today
Just an FYI:
Due to my present overload of writing responsibilities and other various pressures and stresses, I've decided to surrender my participation at CT Movies. My latest Through a Screen Darkly column, "Feasting on Films", will be my last contribution there for the foreseeable future (although I certainly won't close the door, as circumstances may change).Read more