Henriet's Blog

Eli Stone, A Prophet?

For my "Theology and Pop Culture" class at Fuller our assignment is to review a show, movie, song or celebrity. I chose to review a new TV show called "Eli Stone":

Can God use a lawyer in San Francisco? According to the new show on ABC, God can-even if the lawyer doesn't believe.

I watched the first three episodes of Eli Stone recently (you can watch the shows on line). The show's premise is that God sends a prophet to every generation. In this case, He's chosen a lawyer, named Eli Stone (played by Johnny Lee Miller), to do His bidding. How does God communicate with this young attorney who doesn't believe in Him? Through visions and sounds. Eli's first experience is hearing George Michael sing the line, "you've got to have faith" from the song "Faith."

What Eli sees, hears and experiences things are actually clues from God regarding Eli's next assignment. The clues turn out to be about cases he's supposed to take on-which result in justice for the poor, needy or disadvantaged.

So is Eli a prophet? During one episode, when Eli is standing on a mountain cliff in his vision, but on the railing of his high-rise apartment in real life, we learn that Eli has an inoperable tumor that "accounts" for his "hallucinations." Eli just wants all the sights and sounds to stop.

On the urging of his assistant, he visits a Chinese acupuncturist, Dr. Chen (James Saito). It turns out that the doctor is a full-blooded American with a degree in philosophy who practices acupuncture and chooses to sport the accent to add to the mystique. Eli tells him what's happening and asks him to fix it. However, Dr. Chen believes Eli might be a prophet despite Eli's lack of faith. Dr. Chen assures Eli that he does believe in God, after all, he says, "you believe in right and wrong, justice, fairness and love. That is God." He also points to a sunset and says, "that's God."

Eli isn't convinced. Dr. Chen tells him that everything has two explanations, one scientific, the other divine. It depends on how you look at it.

I enjoyed the show and character development. However whether Eli is a prophet? Well I'd say the jury is still out. I think you've got to have faith in God before He sends you. What do you think?

Re-framing Christianity

Could it be that the only people going to church are those who already know about God? Could it be that everyone else has little or no interest in spending an hour on Sunday morning to participate in a gathering with strangers? Do you think we need to re-frame what we're doing? Hmmm.

I suspect that if I had invited someone at Starbucks last Sunday morning to come to church with me that I might have had various responses:

"What's my value add to attend church?" (A friend of mine actually asked this question once upon a time.)
"I don't know anyone there."
"Church isn't for me." (What's the implication there? Who is it for?)

Recent research indicates that people think Jesus is cool but church and Christianity is not. In general, people like Jesus and think that he is loving and approachable. Christians on the other hand are viewed as judgmental, critical and exclusive.

Maybe Christianity needs a re-branding campaign. I'm in a "Theology and Pop Culture" class at Fuller this quarter. We were given the task of re-branding Christianity. Here's one of our ads (what do you think?):

Sunday at Starbucks

Last Sunday, Fred and I walked to our local Starbucks. We enjoyed our coffee while there...then walked back. Nothing unusual per se except that normally on Sunday mornings we're at church.

Going to church on Sunday makes sense for Christians, right? However, those who do not yet know Jesus aren't there. The place to meet people looking for Jesus is, well, possibly at Starbucks.

Have you ever spent a Sunday morning out and about-at Starbucks, in a restaurant, on the golf course? I hope you have. What did you notice?

When I attended the Off The Map Conference last November, Earl Creps (featured on my blog) talked about starting a church in Berkeley, Calif. He found out, as he walked around on a Sunday morning, that the streets were deserted. People were sleeping--Berkeley happens later in the day or at night.

If we want to hang out with the people who are looking for God-we might want to meet them where they are when they're there. What do you think?