Thanks to the heads-up from DG we had the chance to hit a preview of Evan Almighty last night. Kelly did a great run-down of it over on her blog, but I just have to make a sad confession: I don't like being in public with large Christian groups.
Last night, the theatre [British spelling] was packed and it was teeming with awkward we're-in-public-but-we're-around-Christian-people-so-it's just-an-extension-of-Sunday-School actions last night.
For instance, in what other setting would you see people in their 40's hurling popcorn at people three rows away [true, Tye?]? Where else would you find a group of people who decided to order a pizza in a theater [American spelling] and ask the person in charge to make sure they would personally seek them out to get it delivered? In what public gathering would you witness people reserving huge blocks of seats? And who else would attend a free screening of a film that won't be released for another few weeks but want to get their $2 parking validated?
And although the movie was rather entertaining, there's no way that it would elicit those kinds of boisterous laughs among a more secular audience. It was all somewhat . . . embarrassing.
After an experience like this you can fully understand those churches that stress relevance and being cool as a number one priority. They too have been in such a setting and want to make sure their friends don't think Christianity is lame [is it still hip to say "lame"?] so they start a church that has a rockin' band, slammin' video, and totally rad relevant sermon.
So are our choices as Christians between hipster shallowness and nerdy insightfulness?
I don't think so, but I really wanted to write that sentence.
Let's just make a deal [or for hardcore Biblical believers, a covenant]: next time you're out in a crowd with a large group of Christians, let's all remember that there's more to a good witness than a KJV Bible, Stryper t-shirt, and WWJD bracelet.
Just play it cool, boy . . . real cool.