Wild But Alone

In this movie and book based on a true story, Chris McCandless is a recent college graduate who seeks truth and freedom by traveling and hitchhiking his way to Alaska. He donates his $24,000 savings to charity and heads out before anyone in his family knows what he has done. He gives up his earthly possessions in order to find peace, something he believes his parents lack because of their focus on money and exterior things. What sorts of things do you hold important? Does our culture encourage the attaining of possessions and appearances? Jesus tells us that the love of money is the root of all evil, and tells us about money demanding our worship above God. Read Matthew 6 to hear what Jesus says about how we treat our possessions.

Along the way Chris meets many people, holds many jobs, and lives in many different places. At first he drives his old beat-up car until it sustains damage beyond repair. After this, Chris walks and hitchhikes his way across the country. He stays with a hippy couple for a while, then moves on to a farm, lives on his own, and even meets up with an elderly man with completely different beliefs and lifestyle. The man, Ron, is brought out of his life of loneliness by Chris challenging him to try new things and live a little less safe than he is used to. Ron grows to care for Chris and asks if he can adopt him as a grandson. Do you have anyone in your life who gets you to try new things or meet new people? Are those things dangerous, or are they just out of your comfort zone that they seem strange? God calls us to live new lives, different from what the world tells us to live. He says we will even be persecuted for those things.

Chris tells Ron that he will see him when he gets back from Alaska, and with that Ron begrudgingly says goodbye to him. Chris makes his way to a remote place in Alaska with meager supplies and traverses a river to an abandoned bus transformed into a dwelling, where Chris decides to live until spring. He rations the small amount of food he has, hunts and scavenges for food and lasts for quite a long time, until spring when he discovers the river is much larger than when he crossed it in winter, when it was frozen over. Chris eventually starves to death, but in his journal he has kept track of the things he has done and learned along the way. In his last days he discovers that life and adventure are pointless unless they are shared with others. Do you live your life apart from other people? God calls us into communion and community with himself and with others. Read Hebrews 10, especially verses 24-25, where we are called to live and encourage each other to live this new life set apart from the world. This is where the Truth is that Chris was so desperately seeking.

Seeking the Bride

This classic fairy tale comes with many ingredients of a great story. It is filled with sword fighting, giants, romance, Rodents of Unusual Size, betrayal, revenge, and the passion true love. The story begins with a young farmhand Westley and his true love Buttercup. Westley goes off to find a way to support his love, but word comes back to Buttercup that he is dead by the hands of the Dread Pirate Roberts. Buttercup goes into depression and then is betrothed to a prince, set now to become the queen.

On the eve of their wedding, the princess is captured by bandits, but the group of bandits are followed by a masked man. The man in black first fights with one of the bandits known for his skill in sword fighting and bests the swordsman through skill. Then the man in black must fight a giant in a battle of strength, ultimately wearing him down and defeating him. Finally, he must face the last bandit in a battle of wits, easily beating him by forcing him to choose the goblet with poisonous iocane powder. Upon discovering that the man in black is in fact the Dread Pirate Roberts, the man who killed her Westley, she becomes angry, but soon finds out that it is in fact her beloved Westley after all, who was not killed by the pirate but mentored by him. He has come back to rescue her and reclaim her love. Have you ever been loved by someone so much that they were willing to sail across oceans, engage in battle, fight giants, and put themselves to the test in order to be with you? Consider Jesus Christ, who was willing to put himself into a lowly place, face tests and temptations, and come face to face with death itself in order to be with his bride (the church).

We find out that it is the prince himself who has ordered the kidnapping of the princess in order to start a war with his neighbors. Westley and Buttercup are captured, and they willingly go as long as the prince agrees to let Westley go, which he doesn't. He is sent to be tortured and killed. Having been fully tortured and taken for dead, the sword fighter and giant come to find him dead, though he is resurrected and comes again to stop the wedding between Buttercup and the prince and to save her life as well, for the prince plans on killing her that evening. Westley saves Buttercup, marries her, and the rest of them live happier ever after. In our culture we don't have many situations that call us to go to our death for the sake of other people, but Jesus Christ endured the worst of tortures willingly for his bride, went into the "Pit of Despair", and overcoming death he fought his way back through all enemies to the heart of his bride to be with her.

Read Ephesians 3:14-21 to hear of the love of God through the Christ Jesus!

A Fortunate Accident

In most classic love stories the idea of fate taking its course to bring two people together is an aspect of the story which is in the background. In Serendipity, it is the obvious spoken theme, with each character giving their views on fate and signs on how they make decisions. John and Sara meet one Christmas Eve in New York while purchasing a gift for their significant other. The circumstances lead them to an enjoyable evening, where they eventually part, leaving each other desiring to meet again but leaving it in fate's hands to bring them back together. They go through a length of time where they both search for the clues they had put into place, but are unsuccessful in finding each other. Both of them end up staying in the relationships they are in and both end up on the path to getting married.

One day, while preparing for his wedding and packing for the honeymoon, he comes across one of the gloves he and Sara purchased together that memorable evening years ago. In the glove he finds the receipt and goes on one last search to find the woman he met once, but immediately felt attraction for. During this time Sara decides she wants to go with her friend back to New York before she gets married. John follows clues which lead him to more clues to find where Sara may have lived while she was there years ago, leading him back to the coffee shop they met that first evening. Only this time, the shop next to it is a bridal shop, which he sees as a sign that he is supposed to marry the woman he is with currently. Are there times when we believe in fate or signs to lead we to make decisions? Consider when those decisions come from simple circumstances that we interpret as a sign. Is there such a thing as fate?

At John's wedding rehearsal, he is resigned to never find Sara, but as a wedding gift his fiance gives him a book. It just happens to be the book that Sara wrote her phone number in years ago as a clue to lead John back to her. He breaks off the wedding in the hopes that he will now find her. Sara, on the other hand, is on the airplane preparing to take off for home, when she finds the five dollar bill with Johnathan's phone number, causing her to race off to the wedding to stop it. When she arrives, it has already been called off. They both end up in the same place where they left off years ago and live happily ever after. Are there times when we think we are reading signs, or do we go out of our way to misread or misinterpret what we see as a sign or even create those circumstances intentionally in order to make our decision more justified as if it were meant to be. Do our actions follow what we see as fate, or do we make choices which lead us to believe fate is working for us? How much of our own fate do we control?

The Words in the Water

A River Runs Through It is a beautiful story, not about fly-fishing, but of family and acceptance. Norman and Paul Maclean are the two sons of a Presbyterian minister in rural Montana. One son (Norman) is reserved and educated. The other (Paul) is rebellious, and though all he ever wants to do is fish, the boys and their father have this one thing that keeps them together. Reverend Maclean has taught the boys to fly-fish very well, but soon finds out that Paul is rebellious when he notices him straying from his father's form of fishing. Paul invents his own style, and this is reflected in the way he lives his life, as well. Are there times in your life that you have seen yourself in either of the two boys, both following what you have been taught or going against it? Have you found yourself rebelling against your parents, the rules or laws of society, or even the morals and lifestyle you know to be right? Are those morals there because you have been taught them or because they are under the rocks in the water, that they run through everything you know to be true? Consider that they might be set out by God by the Word (the Bible).

Norman follows his father's insruction, from his schoolwork, to the obeying of rules. He ends up going to a prestigious university and offered a teaching job. Paul, on the other hand, is not as scholarly, goes to a local community college and ends up working at a newspaper in the city, with a lifestyle of gambling, drinking (during the prohibition), and women. The one thing he holds on to is his love of fishing. After coming home from university, Norman finds out that Paul hardly ever visits anymore, and goes to the city to see him and to bring him home. Think about how the choices we make effect certain aspects of our life and our future. Can you look back on choices you have made that if you made different ones how it would have impacted your life.

Paul comes home with Norman to find that he is still welcomed by his parents, who know about his lifestyle and accept him anyway, never condoning his lifestyle, but showing him the love of Christ in spite of his mistakes. Even as they grew up, Norman was willing to sometimes go against what he knew to be wrong in order to back up and support his brother when all their other friends show their lack of loyalty. They end up getting in trouble when they steal a neighbor's boat and wreck it in order to fulfill a dare. This loyalty to his brother does have its limits, and ultimately Norman chooses to do what he feels is right, even when it means leaving his brother to his gambling and drinking. It ultimately drives Paul to his death, but reminds Norman the rest of his life of love, loyalty, family, and acceptance. God loves us even in our rebellion, always accepting us for who we are. Remember this whenever you make mistakes, and read this very similar story as it is laid out in the Word. Luke 15:11-32

Who Is Faithful 100%?

This classic Dr. Seuss story has been brought to the screen in animated form. Though it is a story for children, the implications of it apply to all ages. When Horton hears a passing voice seeming to come from something as small as a speck of dust, he sets out on a quest to save what he believes to be an entire community living on that speck. Of course, to everyone else he looks like a fool, since no one else can hear them. The community of Whos also look at their bumbling mayor as a fool who tells them about the giant elephant carrying their village on the end of a flower. When it comes down to it, this is a story of faith and mission.

When Horton hears the Who voice, he holds on to his belief they exist regardless of what everyone else thinks of him, and eventually, facing outright persecution, he holds on to his belief and stands up to those around him telling him to reject the silly notion. The mayor of Whoville, on the other hand, faces a similar situation, but with the town finally joining in his belief to come together in order to save their community. They are both faced with faith during persecution and eventually, because of their faith, they experience faith as a community with those who persecuted them. Have you ever been persecuted for something you believe in, either physically, mentally, or emotionally? What was your response?

Horton makes it his mission to take this tiny community to safety, facing obstacles and the persecution of others. Even his best friend tells him to keep his faith to himself, but Horton's faith leads him on a mission to save the small community regardless of these things. Has your faith led you on a mission that causes conflicts with others? Have others been positively affected even when others persecute you?

When you are faced with sharing your faith and your mission, consider Horton and the story of a simple elephant, who was true to his faith and his mission and in the end was vindicated and faithful 100%.

Small Packages: Unlikely Heroes

Many times it seems that good things come from the least expected places. It may be because good things become even greater when we are not looking for them. Or perhaps it is when we are not focused on ourselves when those good things become obvious. The phrase "good things come in small packages" is pretty well known. Well, this seems to be the theme of Simon Birch. Simon Birch is a physically underdeveloped boy who is a reliable friend who endures ridicule from others and shame from his parents, and also must deal with the death of his best friend's mother, who is like a mother to him. Throughout this story Simon wrestles with his faith openly and causes others to do the same.

In a freak accident, Simon's best friend Joe's mother is killed. While Simon blames himself for the death, Joe struggles with who he is and finding out who his father is. Through the circumstances of his life of physical differences and his coping with Joe's mother's death, he searches for his purpose in life, and comes to several conclusions throughout the movie. He finds God's purpose for his being small, the purpose of his friend's death, and even the purpose of his challenging of authority. Because of Simon, however, everyone around him also find their purpose as well. Have you encountered struggles, life circumstances, or challenges that have made you question your purpose in life? Do you know someone who encourages you to think about these things and their part in the greater aspect of yours and other people's lives?

Simon is born prematurely and is physically much smaller than the other kids his age. Eventually Simon comes to a conclusion that he is small for a reason that will show itself in time, and it eventually does with Simon being a great life-saving hero. He also finds a purpose in the death of Joe's mother, which reveals itself in Joe discovering who his father is. Take a look at the challenges you have faced in your life so far. Consider how you react to those things affects others and the circumstances you are in.

Simon challenges the local minister, asking him difficult questions, but also accepting his lot in life and its greater purpose. During church he speaks our and poses questions to the preacher during his sermon. He is berated by the Sunday school teacher for asking hard questions. He is called into the minister's office to talk about these questions about God. Through all these things it causes people to think more deeply about their faith and to be more genuine with how they approach it. Eventually the person that is shunned by everyone is revealed to be the hero. Do you know someone who challenges you to be more open with your faith, not only in church but with all aspects of your life? If you're not religious, do you know someone who is who challenges you to think about spiritual things in a genuine way?

Read Phillipians 4:8

Finding Friendship

Finding Forrester is the story of Jamal Wallace, a young, talented man growing up in a rough neighborhood, who finds the friendship of a reclusive famous author, William Forrester (played by Sean Connery). Jamal Wallace is influenced by misguided, yet well-intentioned friends and has tough surroundings, but is given a chance to succeed by a prestigious private school, with the unexpected help from William Forrester. This is a story of friendship, rising above life's circumstances, and second chances.

Jamal meets William Forrester by chance through a dare by his friends to break into his apartment, but ends up leaving his backpack after being chased out. William ends up reading his writing and critiques it without Jamal's permission, but intriguing him enough to go back for more critique. They begin with a mentor relationship, but a friendship begins to build. Do you know anyone in your life who has budding talent and could use a mentor to help guide them, or have you been on the receiving end of a mentor who has helped you develop your talents? Consider how Jesus started with disciples rough around the edges and turned them into some of the biggest change-agents and teachers of history. Has there been anyone in your life who has helped you spiritually? If not, would someone like that have made your life different?

When Jamal takes something that he wrote in William's apartment and turns it in for a writing contest, against William's advice and Jamal's promise, he is punished for plagiarism, since it happened to be something that William had published years ago. Instead of revealing his relationship with William, he protects him and chooses to take the punishment instead. William makes up for it in the end by coming out of his seclusion and into public to help Jamal. With this he also realizes the friendship Jamal showed to him. Have you had a friend willing to to protect you and show you love at all costs? Read Phillipians 2:1-11.

Jamal and William's lives are both changed from meeting each other. They discover what true friendship is, and with that are given a chance at redemption from their circumstances, and from their mistakes. Finding a good friend can mean all the difference in a person's life.

Unfortunate Events Happen

In this children's book movie adaptation, the Baudelaire children become orphans and spend the next portion of their lives dealing with a series of unfortunate events, as the title suggests. They are placed with various foster families by what might be considered by us to be a sort of DHS program. The children come from an extremely wealthy family, and after first being placed with their unfit closest relative, the evil Count Olaf (played by Jim Carrey), they jump from one foster parent to another while being pursued by Olaf who is attempting to obtain their fortune.

The underlying mood of this movie is that terrible things happen to everyone, suggesting that sometimes bad people get away with doing bad things, and that good people sometimes have bad things happen to them. Many people find it hard to believe in a God that allows bad things to happen to people. Consider the idea that perhaps circumstances in our lives may or may not necessarily come from God, but how we act in them may be more important. Read the story of Job in the Bible and consider the terrible things that happened to him. He questioned God but came out with an understanding of God's power that he didn't have before.

They are first taken to their "closest relative", who turns out to only be the relative that lives the shortest distance away, and happens to be Count Olaf, who only wants the children for their money. How far removed is this from your local children's services department?

Throughout the story, the children jump from house to house, coming into contact with relatives and family friends, but relying on each other for strength, with the memory of their parents to encourage them. Some of these friends and family they learn to trust, while others they know to be untrustworthy. It takes personal experience to learn who we can trust and who we can't. Sometimes it is our family, our friends, our church, or our neighbors in either of these positions. Many people are distrustful of church because of a bad experience. For those, consider that all churches are probably not the same, and that all people are different. If we have been wronged by one group of people, there may be others out there that have been through some of the same things we have been through, including people who are different from us. From personal experiences, a church community can sometimes be closer than family or friends. Don't be afraid to try something new, or to meet new people. You may have had some unfortunate experiences, but there might be someone you meet who has been through similar events.

Man Creates Dinosaurs...Who Is In Control?

In this fantastic film scientists have discovered how to genetically create dinosaurs using blood drawn from mosquitos encased in fossilized amber. The project is spearheaded by John Hammond (played by Richard Attenborough) and basically turned into a massive, dinosaur-filled theme park. In order to get other perspectives, he brings in a paleontologist (Dr. Grant), a botanist (Dr. Sattler), and a chaos theorist (Dr. Malcom) to take a look at the park. In the process all hell breaks loose and the makings of a great story unfold.

At first, everyone is optimistically skeptical about the potential of the park, but they grow increasingly uneasy as all their fears are confirmed. At one point, Dr. Malcolm (played by Jeff Goldblum) says, "Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." With the discoveries we have in modern science and medicine, does this apply to us today? Think about the medicine ads you see on television where the side effects are worse than the thing they are treating. I actually saw one that claimed to treat bipolar disorder, with side effects of coma or death.

After most of the park has failed miserably, Dr. Sattler (played by Laura Dern) finds Dr. Hammond alone thinking about what has gone wrong and how he can fix it, but she tries to get him to see the failure for what it is. It goes something like this:

Dr. Hammond: "Creation is an act of sheer will. Next time it'll be flawless."
Dr. Sattler: "It's still a flea circus. It's all an illusion."
Dr. Hammond: "When we have control—"
Dr. Sattler: "You never had control — that's the illusion!"

How often do we think that by our own will we can fix our problems, mend our wounds, right our wrongs, and turn around our failures? I like what Jeff Goldblum's character Dr. Malcolm says about what is happening here: "God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs..."

How often do we think we can eliminate God from our lives? Do we really think we are in total control?

Hot Fuzz: a bizarre cocktail of A-Team sensibilities and zombie movie guts

Hot Fuzz is an enjoyable, strange comedy from the cutting edge of the British film industry. The experience of watching this movie is like shoving an A-Team episode into a blender along with Army of Darkness and Faulty Towers. On the one hand, you have a film in which thousands upon thousands of rounds are fired (all in the last 20 minutes of a 2+ hour movie) and not a single person is killed. On the other hand, you have a series of sickeningly gruesome murders on-camera with enough CG blood to make the producers of 300 wince.

Why the two extremes? What is compelling enough about Zombie movie gore (in a comedy no less) to require its juxtaposition with a light-hearted storyline about the preservation of a quiet British village's reputation as peaceful and serene?

And, while I'm at it, the film does an admirable job showing the dangers of being consumed by the need for perfection in your work. Sergeant Angel of the Police Service (Police "force" being deemed vocabulary too aggressive for public sentiment) is by far the most interesting character in a movie with few interesting characters. Even then, he is well drawn in his need to separate good from evil and to preserve the public order. The film's message is clear: Angel's insufferable desire to preserve good and evil overrides the town council's shades of gray in attempting to preserve a more nebulous "common good" while overlooking infractions of the law. Even if Angel turns into a vigilante to accomplish this, the message remains. Interesting for a modern Europe who doesn't seem much interested in discussion of good and evil.

The Best Life Of My Day

What if you had all the time in the world or the chance to relive the same day over and over until you got it right? How would you spend your day? In Groundhog Day we are given a glimpse into such a situation.

Phil Connors (Bill Murray) is a television weatherman who for the past several years has been given the task of reporting the groundhog ceremony in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, which he grows to detest. This year, however, is different. Due to a snowstorm, the reporting team consisting of Phil, Rita (Andie MacDowell) and Larry (Chris Elliott) are stuck in this tiny town. Phil is confronted with an even bigger nightmare, where he wakes up every morning in the same place, repeating the same day in this same quaint town with the same small-town people. Everyone else is unknowing to the effects except Phil, who goes through the torment of how to live this day.

In life we are given choices of how we are to act, treat others, make choices, and how to be a person in general. Phil Connors is given these choices, only he now has certain information as to what events will take place during the day. At first Phil goes through a short time of confusion followed by phase of self-indulgence, where he gorges on fatty foods and smoking and uses his growing information to easily rob an armored truck, gain inside information to meeting women and to obtain possessions. He tries to learn about his producer, Rita, but is unable to come to the conclusion that he desires, which true to his original nature, is to get her to sleep with him. In one line, Rita is on a date with Phil and says, "I could never love someone like you. You only love yourself." Seeing right through him, she rejects him day after day, causing Phil to go into a deep depression where he attemps to kill himself each day in a different way. Unable to end his life permanently and convinced he is "a god, not the God", he finally convinces Rita to stay awake with him to prove that he isn't lying about what he is experiencing. She is gone in the morning, but Phil begins to live the day differently. Is it American culture, or even human nature to live selfishly like Phil does, using people and advantages in situations for personal gain and pleasure? Think about how often you personally do this.

Phil sets upon the tasks of helping others, such as feeding homeless, catching a falling boy from a tree, giving a choking man the Heimlich, changing a flat tire, and by making himself a better person by learning piano and ice carving. The problem is that even these things fail to change the outcome of his day. Have you known people who think that simply being a good person is enough? Read Romans 3.

It is when he is self-sacrificing, honest and loving when his day finally moves on to the next. Rita learns to care for Phil as he learns to put others before himself. What does Jesus say about how we should treat others? Read Luke 6:27-38. How does this apply to how we should live our lives in general? Read what Jesus Christ says about the greatest commands we should live by in Matthew 22:34-40.

As usual, comments, new ideas and questions are welcomed and encouraged.

Confused By Our Own Illusions

So often people spend their time trying to figure out God. We see bad things happening all around us and good things happening to bad people and we wonder how fairness and human logic come into play on while God is in charge of things. In The Illusionist, Paul Giamatti plays an inspector who is fascinated with a magician, played by Edward Norton. Throughout the movie, despite criminal charges against the Great Eisenheim (Norton), Inspector Uhl (Giamatti) continually struggles with trying to figure out how he does his tricks. It begins with an orange tree that seemingly grows before your very eyes, and it progresses to the appearance of Eisenheim seemingly conjuring spirits from the dead. A major plot of the movie is about Uhl furiously trying to learn his secrets, but unwilling to affirm his abilities. How often do we try to figure out God on our terms without giving Him the benefit of the doubt that even if He told us we might not understand?

Eisenheim's love interest is Sophie (Jessica Biel), who happens to be of high social standing and is engaged to the prince. After being forbidden to be together as youths, Eisenheim travels the world, where he learns his tricks, and returns to reclaim his love. Sophie wants to be with Eisenheim and is willing to give up everything, including her status, wealth, and her life. With some unfortunate events, she turns up dead and Eisenheim is blamed. In one of his acts of conjuring the dead, he calls on the spirit of Sophie in front of an audience. When asked why he did this he simply says, "I wanted to be with her." In his last show, he appears before an audience as a spirit himself. I couldn't help but be reminded of how our God came to earth as one of us and suffered, died and rose from the dead because he loves us. He did this because He wanted to be with us. Are we willing to give up everything to be with our God? If not, consider at least seeing Jesus as someone who gave up everything to help us see more clearly a God who loves His creation.

In the end Uhl finally sees Eisenheim for who he is. He sees what Eisenheim's greatest illusion is and to what extent he was willing to go to pull it off. When given the details to the orange tree trick, it pales in comparison to his final performance. If we were told exactly what we thought was important and obsessed over, would we be able to see those things that truly mattered?

Life In The Village

For the next two weeks, we will be taking a look at some presumptions about society and utopia in film. We chose a more recent suspense/thriller to look at for the next two weeks: The Village. This is a film that has to do with some of our assumptions about what our heaven could be. We will explore some of our own assumptions about heaven, and take a look at how this film interacts with many beliefs that people in today’s culture have.

What does The Village say about utopia or heaven and its possible drawbacks of what we think it might be? We chose this film because it uses a sort of closed off look at society. The members of the village have all fled here to get away from bad things that happened to them in the towns. By doing so, they have built what they believe to be a center of utopia for themselves. Now they are surrounded by a dark and scary forest that contains evil beings that want to do them harm. It makes an interesting contrast between how we want our lives to be sometimes, and how they really are.

What can this movie tell us about how we live our lives as we are open to other viewpoints and aspects to society? The people in The Village have closed themselves off trom the rest of society and appear happy. They have to make some sacrifices in their lives in order to do this. What kinds of sacrifices might need to be made for a real utopia?

*****SPOILER BELOW | CLICK AND DRAG TO VIEW*****

Toward the end of The Village, we find that the monsters in the woods are actually creations of the town elders in order to scare people into believing and staying within the utopia. In our lives, what demons are real and which ones do we create ourselves? Which ones are created by others for us? What are the real demons/monsters in this movie and how are they overcome?

Ducking Life's Dodgeballs

Over the next two weeks we will watch the comedy Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story. How can we engage a movie like Dodgeball – without any obvious connections to spirituality – to an important discussion about life and faith?

We chose this film because it uses a bunch of “misfits” to relate some ideas about perception, identity, perspective, vanity, and satisfaction. All of the different characters in this film bring something different to look at and there is a lot of current society outlook in this film. From the perception that one group of people are better than another (even though they play the same game that they make fun of the others for playing), to the vanity that is used to portray the “bad guy.” In this film, the characters are all struggling to overcome personal issues. Some are seemingly content with their lives, and seem to have a smaller expectation for what life owes them. Others are not happy with who they are, even though on the outside they seem to be in control. Consider these questions while watching the movie:

• What defines identity for people? Do we define it by position, title, or by what we do? Where do most people in society find their identity? What about as human beings…what gives identity to humanity?

• How does spirituality shape and define who we are? How does our understanding/view of God shape our identity? What about identity and community…how does our immediate community define and shape our identity?

• How do we define success? How does where we are (perspective) change how we define success?

• What drives us to stand behind the underdog?

• In your life, which character(s) are you most like? How do you feel about that, and would you change it if you could?

We hope you'll join us in the conversation over the next two weeks!

Growing Up With Stand By Me

These next two weeks we are using a film that doesn't have as obvious connctions to faith, but some profound thoughts on life and death, growing up, friendship, and making choices.

Stand By Me offers a view through the eyes of four twelve-year-old boys in 1959 rural America (filmed in Oregon). This movie uses a very literal “Journey” theme, as well as a brotherhood, and coming of age look at life. Throughout this film, the four boys deal with many issues--all of them are spurred by, and surround the idea of sneaking off to look at the body of another boy their age who was killed by a train. The boys set out, following the very same tracks that led to the other boy’s death, and find themselves in a whole new world as they learn much more about each other and themselves than they had ever imagined.

Throughout the movie we see train tracks and trains. What significance, if any, do these things play in the story? How might they be a metaphor for the journey that the four friends are on?

How do the four boys in Stand By Me display their innocence and what kinds of changes do you see them going through as the story goes on? In what ways do they grow up? How do they stay the same?

As the movie progresses, how does the boys perception of death change? Does their ability to face it and cope with it change or develop? How does this experience change their perception of the world and life in general?

Stand By Me has a lots of good stuff about growing up, life and death, innocence, and friendship packed into a relatively short movie. We hope that you'll take a look at some of these things and enjoy some coffee with us at the Blue Pepper. Please feel free to comment or pose more questions here as well!

Batman Begins With God

Summit the last two weeks have had some great conversations about God through the eyes of Batman. Specifically the movie Batman Begins.

In this film, Bruce Wayne constantly struggles with the fact that he has to give up his very identity to be able to serve his fellow man in need. He does this by assuming his alter ego (Batman) and fighting for the innocent people who cannot fight for themselves. He constantly grips at revenge and anger as his motivations for doing what he does, but as he has more experience being Batman and his identity as Bruce Wayne fades, he discovers that his desire for revenge is not what drives him, but something deeper.

How does the theme of temptation function through Batman Begins? What temptations does Bruce Wayne face? How does he defeat tempation and how does he lose?

How does Bruce Wayne/Batman's motivation to stop injustice change through the film? Consider the difference between justice and revenge throughout the movie. What role does compassion play in justice?

There are many more questions that came up during our conversations from this movie, such as Batman being a Christ figure, or even Bruce Wayne's father being the Christ figure, giving up his life for the very people who killed him. Please feel free to comment and leave more questions and have this place be a continuation or starting point for you in this conversation.

Indiana Jones and the Journey of Faith

For Summit tonight we watched the first half of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The discussion was great, and we want to use this blog as a place to continue the conversation, look deeper at the questions, find new questions and more insight into how God interacts with us and the journey we take in order to find and understand Him better.

Throughout the film Indiana struggles with the relationship between him and his father. Always trying to impress and appease him, he only finds his father not paying attention to him, busy with his own life and leaving Indiana with a feeling that his father is never really there (a feeling that most everyone has felt in his or her relationship with God at one time or another). How is Indiana's journey of faith shaped by his quest for his dad, and not trinkets? When Indiana and his father are sitting at the crossroads in the motorcycle debating over where to go, what does Jones Sr.'s urgency to go to Berlin to get his diary tell about what he believes?

Indiana also struggles with his faith. He is in the field of Archaeology, which looks for facts, evidence and historical items. Or in the words of Indiana Jones, "Archaeology is the search for fact... not truth. If it's truth you're looking for, Dr. Tyree's philosophy class is right down the hall." How does Indiana's faith change? What is Archaeology to Indiana and does it change as the film progresses?

Remember, use this as a place to ask more questions about the movie, God, faith or other things you think of. See you next week!

what does the journey of faith look like?

Our apologies to those who have visited the Summit blog recently only to find nothing new under the sun. The past week has included some ironing out of Summit themes as well as figuring out how to generate a larger community of discussion on Wednesday nights.

With those in mind, we're hoping to continue and expand the recent dialogue we've had about approaching life and faith with the imagery of journey as a backdrop. Last week, we got a good laugh from a Will Ferrell SNL clip and enjoyed some action from the movie Shrek. In many ways, we gave everyone there a taste of what Summit was like and kept the spiritual questions pretty light.

This week, we want to look a little more closely at this idea of approaching God in the same way that one would approach a journey or quest. I'm sure that some old SNL scenes may pop up, but our featured art form is a few scenes from Lord of the Rings. What big decisions did Frodo make before starting his journey with the ring? What risks were involved? What big questions might have been at the forefront of his mind? Likewise, if following God is a journey of faith, what big decisions seem important before starting the journey? What risks are involved? What big questions do you have? What questions seem important to address before you begin the journey and which ones might be answered in the journey itself?

Yes, those are a lot of questions, but we've said from the beginning that Summit is a place where asking questions about God and culture is a good thing.

If you're looking for something to do tonight, drop on by Spoons from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. and contribute to the conversation. We can promise a lot of questions and free coffee.