First Take the Rubber Chicken Out of Your Own Eye
Especially for those raised in the church, our faith and religious life can take on a language all its own. We don’t just have dinner - it’s a time of fellowship. Disappointments and frustrations are trials, that usually have their own season. Not to mention being born again, dying with Christ, and eating His flesh. Ewwww.
It can sound a little crazy. And what may be worse, this secret language can reinforce barriers between those in and outside the faith. When we try to communicate our faith, it’s easy to lapse into Christian-ese or the script we learned years ago at a youth group retreat. When that happens, conversations shut down.
Many of us are aware of this problem but aren’t necessarily the best at self-policing. Kevin Hackenberg, a Philly-based filmmaker and our guest speaker in October, has a solution: take ourselves a little less seriously.
By poking fun at our own hypocrisies and seemingly strange rituals, we can be more alert to where our insular words and habits can be off-putting. Getting outside these patterns can make us more present, humble, and vulnerable in our outreach and relationships.
For Kevin, comedy is the great equalizer we need that can puncture our safe bubbles by communicating in the medium people already know and where the audience already is: popular culture.
Click the Listen Button for more on the role of film, good art, and why Christians should embrace the vulgar (yes, really).
