Life Animated
He (Jesus) did not say anything to them without using parables. Matthew 13:34)
Can you believe it? August marks the beginning of a new school year!! Back to school we go! What a great time to do this fun and exciting special focus using the films Toy Story, The Lego Movie, Frozen, and Up. This is going to be a blast! It will be like “going to the movies” but even better as we will have a take home gift for you every Sunday! Also, the feel of a movie theater complete with popcorn will add to the fun! Come and check it out! And bring your friends! It just may make “going back to school” a little easier! Oh, and we just may have an “ah-ha” experience or two as we see how these stories reveal things about ourselves and how our stories intersect with the story of God for us in Jesus! Don’t miss out on this fun adventure!
Our lives are made up of stories. Perhaps this is why we are story tellers. Books. Plays. Musicals. Films. Aesop’s Fables. Ancient Greek tragedies. Shakespeare. It seems that humankind has always had a need to tell stories. Stories are meant to explain our existence. They point to a voice within each of us that whispers to us of a “backstory,” a great story behind our stories which somehow intersects with our individual stories to make sense of our lives. Through these stories we almost instinctively try to answer “the big questions” that are part of each of us. Stories are a window into our soul. They can touch our hearts or communicate a point to us in a way that mere words cannot hope to do. They can give us that aha moment of truth like no other medium. Jesus often told stories, called parables, even coming to the point where He only spoke using these stories. In this way, He intersected God’s story with our stories. Embedded in the stories we tell are the longings of our souls…which all, finally, point to the only place these longings can be met; Jesus. In these four Sundays in August, we will use four modern stories to examine our human condition, the longing of our souls, our need for a greater story, and how the greater story of God in the Savior meets us squarely in this place of need. Whatever your age, this series will connect with you in your story with the story of Jesus!
Sunday, August 7th A Story From Toy Story
Ok. Have you seen the movie? What could Buzz Lightyear and Woody possibly teach us about ourselves and our stories….and how God’s story connects with our stories? Come and see!...and maybe, for the fun of it, before this Sunday gather together your family and/or friends and watch the movie one more time!
Sunday, August 14th The Lego Movie
I have this HUGE plastic box of legos at home from my when my kids were young. Whenever I have young (and not so young) children in the house I get it down from up high in the garage and they LOVE it! How about you? Why is it we love to build things and create things? Why were we made this way? And what does this say about our creator? And what does it mean for us right now in the stories we are living out? Come and see!...and maybe, just for the fun of it, before this Sunday gather your family and/or friends to watch the movie one more time!
Sunday, August 21st Frozen
Did you know that this movie borrows its story line, albeit loosely, from a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale first published in 1870? Tell me, why do you think this story is being retold in the movie 150 years after it was written? What does it touch within us? What does it reveal about our stories? And how does God’s story intersect with it? Come and see! …and maybe, just for the fun of it, before this Sunday gather your family and/or friends to watch the movie one more time!
Sunday, August 28th Up
It has happened almost every time I have mentioned the movie “Up” to someone. They have said, “What a great movie! I just love that movie! Don’t you think it’s great?” Tell me, why do you think people respond almost universally, in my experience at least, in this way when I mention the movie “Up?” It seems to me it is because this story really touches something down deep within us that is at the heart of our stories. And just maybe it gives us a hint of how God’s story intersects with ours. How about you? Does this movie touch you? Why do you think that is? And where is God’s story in all of this? Come and see!...and maybe, just for the fun of it, before this Sunday gather your family and/or friends to watch the movie one more time!