Let's Go to the Movies!

Dear Crosswalkers,

This Sunday we will wrap up the series entitled "A New Vision for Crosswalk Church." I hope you have been blessed by the new direction we are taking! Many of you have commented about how pleased you are at this new direction. Life for us will be all about living by EMPOWERED PRAYER. Then it is about going deeper in our Christian life. It is called SPIRITUAL FORMATION, and it's all about Christ being formed in us! Life is truly an adventure when you dedicate yourself to becoming more like Jesus! To move us forward though, we need the next level, which is LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT. Last Sunday we saw that everything rises or falls on leadership, and that God's plan to change the world always involves calling a leader to step up with a burden to meet needs and a passion to glorify God. Leadership is not just for those with titles, it's for those who have a testimony. It is about influencing others by rightly handling the word of truth.

Now we will wrap it up this Sunday with the pinnacle of our Triangle for Tomorrow. It all points to reaching our community (and beyond)! David Bolhorst will be bringing the message this weekend. You won't want to miss the message  as it is the capstone for the series!

There is also a community service event planned for those who are free on Sunday afternoon. 

    Where: Ortega Park in Sunnyvale    When: Sunday, Oct. 16th from 1-4pm    What: Spreading mulch in the park using shovels and wheelbarrows

The parks and recreation department will provide the tools needed but you are welcome to bring gloves and shovels. Please plan to join the happy crew who will serve our city in this way!

There are some new movies out that are of interest.  One is a Christian film entitledCourageous. This is from the makers of Fireproof and Facing the Giants. A secular film website gave is 6.1 stars out of 10.  The plot concerns a tragedy that leads four police officers to struggle with their faith and their roles as husbands and fathers. As a group, they make a choice that will change their lives. I haven't seen it yet, but I'm sure men will be encouraged by the positive message of this film (Rated PG-13).

Another recent film is Machine Gun Preacher.  This is a secular film that has gotten good reviews for telling the true life story of an ex con who get converted to Christianity and ends up on a mission in Sudan. A review in the Minneapolis Star Tribune says this:  "The film intelligently explores the impact of religious conversion on a man of explosive impulses. The story is inspired by the experiences of Pennsylvania ex-con Sam Childers (portrayed by Gerard Butler), a violent biker and drug dealer whose wife, Lynn (Michelle Monaghan), found religion while he was in prison. She drags the reluctant ex-con to services. His baptism introduces Sam to a Christian community of fellowship and affirmation, and a new sort of addictive high... Then Sam visits Sudan and has a revelation. He becomes consumed by the plight of child refugees, Christian southerners pushed out of their villages by northern Muslim raiders. He tells Lynn that God has spoken to him and returns to build a modest orphanage. This puts him in conflict with the murderous local warlords, who abduct young boys and brutally train them to be soldiers."

Again, I cannot genuinely recommend movies I haven't seen, but I am intrigued by a secular take on an essentially spiritual reality. Warning: This movie is rated R for Violent content including disturbing images, language, some drug use, and a scene of sexuality. Clearly, you will want to research further and use discretion if you want to see this film.

One film I did see was Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt. I thought this was a great movie, but then again I like baseball.  The reason I would recommend it is because there is a lesson about God's grace.  The baseball team featured in the movie was the Oakland A's, and I saw them as a parable about the church. Specifically, the story reminded me of how God delights in choosing and blessing unlikely people.  In 2002 the Oakland A's couldn't compete with big market and wealthy baseball giants like the New York Yankees (an annual salary budget of $40 million for the A's compared to $125 million for the Yankees). The film is about A's General Manager Billy Beane (played by Pitt) and Peter Brand (a fictional character who represents Paul Depodesta), an economics major at Harvard.  Together, they went after overlooked players who had skills that most baseball teams didn't value—like on-base percentages. The story is primarily about "innovating to succeed"; but on another level it's also about God's grace and the wonderful way God builds his church by choosing what is weak to shame the strong. It's fun to see spiritual lessons even in very secular films!

I hope to see you in church on Sunday!

Blessings,

Pastor John