An Evangelical Blind Side

Over the holiday weekend I checked out a Yahoo News link for the top 10 box office movies of 2009. Many of the expected films were there such as Transformers 2, New Moon, Avatar, etc. However, sneaking into the number 10 spot was the movie The Blind Side. The Blind Side tells the true story of how a well-to-do white family takes in a homeless African-American teenage boy and helps him to reach his full potential as a student and an athlete.

The movie did downplay the fact that it was a Christian family and it was their love for Christ that motivated their actions. And this fact seemed to motivate an email I recently received explaining more of the religious significance of the movie and urged me to tell the story to as many people as I could so that “just as the young man in the movie reached his full potential, the truth of this gospel tale can succeed in being used as the evangelistic tool it was meant to be.” This email, and the hype surrounding movies like this, is a clear example of a trend in Christianity to overemphasize the use of media in evangelizing.

First of all, let me be clear on two things. I am not against the use and media in Christian efforts such as evangelizing. This is the 21^st Century and I believe that we are called to use the tools of our culture to engage it. I am also not discrediting the movie The Blind Side. From what I have heard it sounds like a great inspirational story of grace — an inspiration to how we should act as Christians.

But that’s exactly my point: I have seen far too many Christians use movies like this as if they were the greatest evangelistic tools known to man. In fact, when the movie The Passion of the Christ came out, I heard several Christian friends say, “We have to buy as many tickets as possible and bring as many non-Christians as we can because this is the greatest witnessing tool our culture has ever had.” While they may not realize the loftiness of that comment it does reveal the faith we have in the power of media in evangelizing over scripture, our personal walks with Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

The Blind Side is an inspirational depiction of the type of mercy and grace Christians should show to the people around them, BUT it is not a substitution for that calling! I feel too many Christians try to live for Christ through this kind of media and they miss our calling to actually live a life that honors, glorifies, and embodies the humility and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Movies, music, television, and books are all incredible media and great tools to use to engage our culture, but they are not the things we should rely on. God has given us people and opportunities to show His grace and humility to those around us, and He has given us the scriptures and the Holy Spirit to encourage and give us strength in this calling.

My New Year’s resolution this year is to seek these opportunities and put my faith in the power of the Holy Spirit to use me to impress the truth of the gospel in the hearts of those around me, and to be eager to respond and be used in that calling. It is my prayer that we at New Life, and Christians around the world, would be eager to respond to this calling as well.

In Him,

Adam