Learning from the Master story teller: engaging the pop culture

by Andrea Nasfell

Don't hide your light under a basket! Instead, put it on a stand and let it shine for all. (Matthew 5:15, NLT)

Every generation has a means of passing down stories. Today it is through the media of popular culture--music, movies, television, literature, the arts. These all work together to create our society's collective story. Unfortunately the church has often rejected these media and spent its time investing in "Christian alternatives" to everything from music and movies to literature and art.

In John 17:15, Jesus prays, "I'm not asking you to take them out of theworldbut to keep them safe from the evil one" (NLT, emphasis added). Let's not encourage gifted artists to separate themselves from the world. Let's not encourage them to be Christian filmmakers or Christian musicians, but rather filmmakers and musicians who love Christ. If they have the gift to create something truthful and beautiful, why should we keep it to ourselves? When musicians like Sixpence None the Richer appear on rock and pop charts, we should be overjoyed. It means they are communicating a message that the world considers relevant.

There are many ways to communicate God's truth to a searching world. The Sacred Heart League financed the award-winning film The Spitfire Grillto depict Christian themes of forgiveness and self-sacrifice. Best-selling author John Grishamwho usually writes "secular" stories about justice and moralitytakes his lead character through the salvation experience in his latest novel The Testament Sometimes communicating God's truth means simply following Jesus' example in a media workplace. After all, how can a television producer correctly portray a Christian on his show if he doesn't know any Christians?

Jesus' parting words were to go into all the world (Matthew 28:19). That means not only India and China, but also New York and Los Angeles. God is calling "pop culture missionaries," as well as people committed to praying for those working in arts and entertainment. The only requirement is love for Christ and a willingness to be real and honest with unchurched people.

I believe that accessibility and "realness" was the essence of Jesus' popularity. While the religious leaders hid themselves away, he interacted with the people they avoided. And Jesus was a master of the arts. He engaged audiences with stories. One particularly interesting thing about Jesus' stories is that they were not overtly religious. The widow didn't pray before she found her coin. An angel didn't appear to the prodigal son to convict him.

In Luke 13, the disciples quiz Jesus about his stories. He explains, "Whenever someone has a ready heart, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That's why I tell stories: to create readiness; to nudge people toward receptive insight" (The Message). He goes on to tell them that because they have eyes that see and ears that hear the truth, it is their responsibility to communicate it to others in an understandable way. Let's encourage a new generation of artists, filmmakers, musicians, and writers to do the same.

In Walking on Water author Madeleine L'Engle writes, "If my stories are incomprehensible to Jews or Muslims or Taoists, then I have failed as a Christian writer. We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting what they believe...but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it."

Andrea Nasfell is a screenwriter and a freelance media designer. She and her husband, Brady, recently completed their first feature film Flying Changes.