Big ideas...

Ok, so I normally don't really do 'critiques'. I don't critique movies and I don't critique preaching. I mean, I do A LOT of both in the privacy of my own mind and with my wife and maybe one or two close friends, but because I truly respect the amount of work/talent/perseverance/pain that goes into participating in both forms of communication, and work (in whatever reduced capacity) in both industries, I shudder to place myself in the position of judge.

That said, I had an interesting enough experience with two movies I saw recently that I thought I should share a couple things that occurred to me, as a warning to myself (as I work on constructing effective/redemptive story, and sermons that matter) and perhaps as an encouragement to you as you do your work.

'Chappie' and 'Jupiter Ascending'. Both in the Sci-Fi genre (probably my favourite of all genres) both by writer/director teams I admire and whose previous work I've enjoyed (District 9/Elysium and The Matrix Trilogy) both films whose development I tracked and whose trailer(s) I watched excitedly and repeatedly as their release dates drew near. I saw both opening week.

Of interest is that both films had received less than glowing reviews from online review sites whose opinion I have come to trust over time. That's a problem, right? When you're stoked to see a film and a reviewer you trust slags it? I usually go anyway and sometimes they're wrong; but sometimes they're right.

They were right on both of these.

Here's why.

The thing that jumped out to me about 'Chappie' was how overly 'strange attractor' it was in terms of its story design. The basic idea on 'strange attractor' is that a 'story' is more than an idea, it's an idea PLUS another idea that have never really been joined together until now, but now that you've mixed them, you've discovered storytelling dynamite. Stephen King in 'On Writing' and Steven Pressfield in 'The War of Art' really helped me with this one.

So take 'Carrie' for example. Telekinesis is not a story in and of itself, but a girl who discovers her telekinetic powers as a result of high school bullying and ends up using them to rock prom night; well, there you've got the beginnings of a story. Two previously unconnected ideas; telekinesis and teen angst. Put 'em together and you've got a story.

So, back to 'Chappie'. The idea of someone figuring out how to make AI happen is not a new idea. It's been done a thousand times in popular storytelling. That's often a good thing in film making as the 'industry' loves to do something 'familiar' yet different, fresh, or novel. A new 'take' on tried and tested material. So, I can imagine Neil Blomkamp (writer/director) doing some preliminary brainstorming on 'Chappie', wanting to do something with AI (he certainly seems drawn to telling stories of 'The Other', the fish out of water, the stranger in a strange land) and he's looking for that second idea to bring his AI story germ to life.

Often you can find your second idea by asking 'What if?' questions. Like, "What if a girl had telekinetic powers (part 1)...and used them to get back at her tormentors (part 2)?"  Or, "What if the daughter of a rich merchant was disenfranchised by her stepmother and step sisters (part 1--not a story yet) and ended up falling in love with the crown Prince almost by accident and getting everything she'd ever hoped for ultimately triumphing over her evil family? (part 2)" now it's 'Cinderella'.

Naturally, there's a lot of other 'storytelling stuff' you layer on top of the basic idea to get an actual film worthy story, but it all starts with the basic two ideas.

'Chappie'.

"What if a boy wonder computer genius invented AI (part 1--not a story yet) only to have that AI fall into the hands of (and be 'raised' by) a gang of low-life, jive-talking, Johannesburg criminals (part 2)?" Now it's a story.

Problem is, not a very BIG story.

It's essentially a family drama, contained in a big-buget sci-fi action film.

Even the posters for 'Chappie' sold it as a BIG film, see above...

"Humanity's last hope isn't Human..."

Great slogan, great premise. But the movie didn't deliver on that premise. At no point in the film was 'Humanity' ever in jeopardy. At worst, Johannesburg was gonna suffer some rioting and looting. Not exactly EPIC story stuff.

Now, make Chappie the lynchpin of 'World War Z'; you've got your very sympathetic character (as Chappie clearly was) facing an epic problem in a story with epic scale.

'Chappie' (as executed) was much smaller.

Now, let's be clear, there's nothing wrong with 'smaller' movies. All I've ever done (to be sure) is 'small' stuff. But, if you're going to bill something as BIG, it darn well better BE big, or your audience is going to leave the movie feeling ripped off, and your 'word of mouth' (which is a huge factor in a films' success and longevity) will sour.

'Chappie' had a simple story concept (AI gets raised by thugs) but got pushed as a BIG one and that's why it didn't ever seen to rise to its (promoted) potential.

Okay, on to 'Jupiter Ascending'.

I loved the scale. What an awe-inspiring film visually and in terms of it's GRAND premise. Coming up with BIG ideas, set in BIG worlds with BIG stakes is something the Wachowski's do very well.

So why didn't 'Jupiter Ascending' blow up the box office?

Because it lacked moral significance.

At the root of the film you have a set of all-powerful 'Human' families 'seeding' and then 'slaughtering' entire WORLDS in order to, effectively, put their humans into a big blender to turn their 'essence' into the river of life.

Pretty cool idea, right?

Interestingly, this is almost the same idea as 'The Matrix' except instead of a superior race of machines committing this heinous act, you have Humans doing this to other Humans.

Let's say it up front; this could have been a wicked, awesome, dynamic story.

But it fell short.

Why?

'Cause Jupiter is more interested in making out with her body guard (Channing Tatum) and playing 'Sky Surfer' with him (in the very disappointing final scene of the movie) then she is in saving The World (and every humanoid World in the Universe) from being turned into juice.

That makes her an unworthy 'hero'. That makes her story self-absorbed. That makes us not want to cheer for her and allows us to leave the theatre thinking, "Meh. Nice visuals and big premise, but it didn't really go anywhere..."

What a powerful warning to me, and maybe to you.

'Chappie' reminds us to not over-sell what we do. Make sure you're aware of what you can (or are planning to) do and only promise to deliver that; no more, no less.

'Jupiter Ascending' reminds us to do something noble, something that matters, something selfless with our lives and to tell stories (and preach sermons) that highlight these virtues and inspire then to life in our audience.

Anyway, my 'movie critic' thoughts for the day.

May I listen to my own advice.

T

Groundhog Day...

As a guy who's spent all of his adult life working hard to see the story of Jesus as recorded in the Bible communicated to my post-christian peers in as effective and non-culturally-stupid a way as possible, I have to share a troubling experience I had this past weekend.

I'm honestly not trying to pick a fight with anyone over this, just disturbed enough that I need to 'say something' in a somewhat public forum.

See, twenty (yes, twenty) years ago a friend and I used the entire living room wall of our bachelor pad as a 'white board' of sorts, outlining a strategy we felt (at the time) *might* be somewhat effective in helping to introduce our post-christian peers to life in Christ. At the time, we were very troubled by a trend we saw unfolding; our normal, everyday peers, people who hadn't been raised in Church, were showing zero inclination to engage with Church. Zero interest, zero drive, Church wasn't even on their radar.

It was twenty years ago that I started using the term 'post-christian.'

"My peers are post-christian..." I'd say to anyone who would listen, to anyone who was upset about the way in which we began going about 'doing' Christian ministry. If they felt our drums were too loud (or not needed), if they felt our outreach events (yes, I was a youth pastor at the time) were too 'secular' or not 'spiritual' enough I'd say it.

"Listen, our peers are POST-CHRISTIAN! All the stuff you're talking about, means NOTHING to them! You're arguing with me about stuff that's NOT EVEN ON THEIR RADAR!"

The complaining Christians arguing with me were so out of touch they had no idea they were out of touch.

Fast forward twenty years.

Nothing's changed.

If your hackles are up reading this, just pause for a second and do the math. Look at the picture above (I took it, myself, this past weekend, with my iPhone--it's not some stock photo I found to try and support an argument I just came up with). Count the grey/white haired/old people, then count the rest, then do the division to come up with your percentage.

Got it? Done yet?

THERE'S AN ENTIRE GENERATION MISSING FROM THIS CHURCH!!

An. Entire. Generation.

And I'm not even going to go into how absolutely LAME the worship service was or how absolutely archaic the order of service was or how old fashioned the whole approach was or how 'straight out of the 1950's' the building and its (non)decor was. Heck, you might like those things.

But, dude, lemme tell you, I have A LOT of post-christian friends who NEED to get to know Jesus, who NEED to be introduced to Him in a context where THE HOLY SPIRIT is manifestly working, and where all the 'externals' (like style, vibe, look, feel) don't get in the way and pop them 'out' of the 'the moment' but work seamlessly in a way that isn't even really noticed, to help put them at ease so they can just relax and be available when The Ghost drops into the room with their name in the crosshairs.

And I would NEVER take them to that church.

And I'm not even going to go INTO how lame most preaching is these days, or how saccharine and empty most worship services are (I've been in some worship services in the last five years that were so bad I wanted to either shout them down, run from the room screaming or just repeatedly punch myself in the face until I passed out) or how lame most theology has become ('cause we're afraid to preach the truth or just don't know what we believe the truth to be anymore) or how absolutely stupid (and outright non-Biblical) most of the cultural imperatives many 'Church-ey Churches' (or bleeding heart liberals) are clinging to have become.

I realize there's different strokes for different folks; I'm not talking about guitars vs organs here. I'm talking about CONTENT!

Holy Ghost filled, passionate, imperative, demanding, comforting, inspiring, Biblical, about-Jesus, life-changing preaching.

Where is it?

Holy Ghost filled, blow the roof off the joint, musically amazing, non-performance driven, prophetic, heart-broken, eyes to Heaven, heart-cutting, supernaturally actuated worship.

Where is it?

Honest about their sin (and the fact that they're NEVER going to get 'IT' right), not preoccupied with 'face-saving' morality, unattached to anything but Christ and Him Crucified, culturally aware, secure, wine drinking, pop music loving, vernacular using, quick thinking, hard working, secular-seeming, Jesus following Christians.

Where are they?

Dude, if we don't do something, we might not just lose a generation, we might lose CHRISTIANITY as a vibrant, culture shaping force in North America.

(I have a feeling we're right on the verge)

And my Jesus-needing friends with their broken lives? They can't afford that.

We need to wake up and smell the humous.

We need to get busy livin' 'cause, if the picture above is any kind of accurate portrayal of how things ARE in current Western Popular Culture, the Church of Jesus Christ (the hope of the World) is already busy dyin'.

OMG, we need to get to work.

T

Sunny with a chance of rain...

Loss is funny.

I mean, it's not, but you know what I mean.

Four years ago today we lost Robbie. Worst day ever. Seriously. I remember saying shortly after that terrible day that I don't think we'll every be 'happy' again. What I meant was, I don't think we'll ever have the same kind of unbridled, simple happiness we'd had before the shadow of his death came to live with us. I thought of a book title I may flirt with someday that captures the idea;

"Sunny with a chance of rain..."

The book cover would have a sailboat carving its way across a pristine bay on a sunny day that looks absolutely perfect except for a lone storm cloud hovering in the distance.

Yes, we're happy, yes we still laugh, but the cloud of grief attached to Robbie's death is still with us four years later and I'm pretty sure it'll never leave.

What I've noticed about loss is that its the many little things you miss most. The above picture captures it well. I've got dozens of photos of Rob and with Rob but this one says something unique. There he is at the periphery of the shot, top right, and he's in no way meant to be the focus of the image. The kids are; their joy at having completed an epic Easter Egg hunt the reason for the shot. Here's the thing though...

It was Robbie who always set up the Easter Egg hunt.

It's never happened again since he died.

Sure, we've tried to replicate it but there was something very special to him about setting those Easter Egg hunts up, so he put his unique playfulness and energy into it, and as a result, the hunts were epic.

They will never happen the same way again.

That's loss.

I still dream about him twice a year (dreams in which he visits me and talks with me; usually about The Kingdom). I still think of him every single day. I still curse out loud, in a dark moment of despair because of his loss, at least once a month.

Robbie.

The third Cantelon son, gone.

So where is God in all of this?

On His throne, in charge and glorious. We love Him and serve Him and enjoy and seek to obey Him in everything we do. We bless Him and try to glorify Him with our lives. We're thankful to Him and worship Him and focus on Him as the center of our lives.

And we wonder just what in the heck He was thinking at this hour on this day four years ago.

And we know that He is good.

And we know that Robbie is well.

And we keep smiling and weeping and doing our best to enjoy life day-by-day, sunshine and storm clouds and all.

T

More of the same...

Sad but true, I need TUMS from time to time.

Heartburn.

For me, it's mostly stress-related or after exercise. I always carry around a roll of TUMS, some chap stick and a toothpick in my left side pants pocket. I'm so detailed about this, I have multiple sets of each for the pants I wear most frequently.

A little weird? Maybe.

Anyway, I was breezing through the supermarket yesterday with my boys after a great workout, picking up milk and dishwasher detergent and I made sure to walk down the pharmacy aisle to grab some TUMS as my supply was running short.

Usually I buy the classic 'mint flavoured' TUMS but they were out, so I just grabbed what was available, which happened to be a triple roll of 'fruit flavoured' extra-strength TUMS. I'd never bought 'extra strength' TUMS before (my life's not THAT stressed out) but I figured, no big deal, I'll just take one instead of two.

I couldn't have been more right.

When I opened the package just now I immediately noticed something funny. Can you spot it from the picture above? See, I'd been wondering, 'Just what IS is it about 'extra-strength' TUMS that makes them extra-strength?' Is the formulation more concentrated? Do they put some kind of super-stress-killing 'miracle compound' into it to make it 'better' than your run-of-the-mill mint-flavoured TUMS?

No.

Turns out, all they do is take two TUMS tablets, make 'em into one, and call it 'extra-strength'. Look at the thickness...

More of the same.

As soon as I realized this, I was struck with wondering how often I've been guilty of the same in my professional life as a Pastor/Producer? How often, instead of actually fixing the problem by, you know, coming up with something ground-breaking, Spirit-inspired, and creative, have I just tried to do 'more of the same' and hoped for the best?

Am I really just doubling up my tired, stale efforts, instead of figuring out a way to break new ground?

Something to consider.

Might even cause me enough stress to bring on the heartburn.

T