What We Can Learn About Preaching from 'Parks and Recreation'

For the moment, the sitcom seems to have forgotten to be funny. Or to be thoughtful. Or that I might even be watching.

Russell Moore [ posted 10/25/2012 ]

There aren't many television situation comedies left, and one of the last standing is NBC's Parks and Recreation. This show has succeeded so far with its creative and fresh writing, along with a talented ensemble cast of likable characters. I happened to catch a new episode last week though, and clicked it off.

The show was culture-warrior preachy, almost like a throwback to a 1970s Norman Lear sitcom. The more I thought about it, the more I realized there's something we ought to pay attention to about public discourse.

The episode was about an outbreak of sexually transmitted diseases among the elderly in a Pawnee, Indiana, nursing home. The show's lead character, councilwoman Leslie Knope, takes on the mantle of educating the elders about preventing STDs with condoms, and is stymied by a Religious Right activist and her stereotypically and flamboyantly gay husband. It turns out there is a law forbidding anything but abstinence education in Pawnee.

UnCHURCHED

Unplugging from being "churched" for a "Tru REALigion"

To quote 2 Chainz on the Understatement track, “Real recognizes real, and you don’t look familiar!”  Today’s society is looking for authenticity from the “faithful.”  In other words, has there been an expungement of the sermon by our lifestyle?  Have we been guilty letting our sermons outrun our character?  A lack of authentic “faithful”, in my opinion, has contributed to the growing number of disinterested individuals in religion.  I suggest that “REALigion” begets the notion of transparency and the ability to connect with people without the false pretense of having it all together.  It’s heretical to portray a life that is so far removed from our former lives.

God In America: The Black Church

In the fall of 2008, newspapers, talk shows and blogs exploded with news that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the African American minister from Chicago's Trinity Church, had denounced the United States with inflammatory language: "God damn America!" Wright's most famous parishioner was the leading Democratic contender for the presidential nomination, Barack Obama. Trinity was Obama's spiritual home -- the place where he had found religion, where he was married, and where his daughters had been baptized. Rev. Wright, a former Marine with a Ph.D., had served as his spiritual mentor.

While many white voters seemed surprised, puzzled and shocked by Wright's angry rhetoric, African Americans were less so. Obama seized the moment to deliver a profound meditation on race in America, a speech titled "A More Perfect Union." Tracing the deep historical roots of racial inequality and injustice, Obama put Wright's anger into historical context. In very personal terms, he also described his experience at Trinity:

Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.

The Bonds of Freedom

There is paradox in the Christian understanding of what it means to be free.

No single word resonates with Americans and millions of others quite like freedom. A television commercial announces that buying a certain automobile or flying with a certain airline will make you "free." People celebrate their country's independence with songs of "freedom" on their lips and ringing in their ears. Politicians, businesspeople, advertisers, salesmen, military leaders and recruiters—all know how to use "freedom" to attract attention and draw interest. Few words are so common while carrying so much weight.

The word is also found throughout Scripture and Christian tradition. Everyone raised in Sunday school knows "the truth will set you free" (John 8:32) and "[i]t is for freedom that Christ has set us free" (Gal. 5:1). Freedom is not just an American or humanitarian theme; it's also a gospel theme.

'No Religion' Is Increasingly Popular Choice For Americans: Pew Report

Sarah Garrison grew up Catholic, but today she does not consider herself part of any religion. Yet as someone who meditates and prays every day to the "God here in our hearts," she would never call herself an atheist or agnostic and thinks church can play a positive role in society and individual lives.

"Some people need [religion]," said Garrison, 26, who works as a training coordinator for an online news company in Moline, Ill. She mentions her older sister, a Catholic nun, who "couldn't be happier" with structured religious practice.

According to a new report from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Garrison has plenty of company in her spiritual beliefs and practices.

Is Your Church a Cruise Ship or Aircraft Carrier? 10 Ways to Find Out

Recently my friend Emily told me she visited a church so big she needed a map to get around.  Coming from a relatively small church that meets in an elementary school, she was astounded at this sprawling church campus. The facility housed a restaurant, coffee bar, lounge, escalators, and multiple worship spaces, each with high-tech sound equipment. In the lobby massive concrete columns rose up three stories into a glass atrium and sunlight streamed in to illuminate the hip and modern architecture.  But the strangest thing, she said, was that this colossal building, filled with largely affluent congregants, sat in a crowded urban area in a poverty-stricken neighborhood.  As far as she could tell, no one from that neighborhood was present. The church reminded her of a cruise ship docked in a third world country!  The walls even had round, fishbowl windows, driving home the cruise ship effect.

The Preacher and The Emcee….

The emcee is but one element of Hip Hop, but this one element has become the most influential component of Hip Hop. Ironically the emcee began as the sidekick to the DJ. These days that equation has almost been completely flipped it almost appears that the DJ is either a sidekick or completely forgotten about.

LOL (Love Out Loud)

A review of Jean-Paul Heldt's, Revisiting the “Whole Gospel”:  Toward a Biblical Model of Holistic Mission in the 21^st Century.

I wanted to share some thoughts about an article I recently read by Jean-Paul Heldt, Revisiting the “Whole Gospel”:  Toward a Biblical Model of Holistic Mission in the 21^st Century.  Heldt introduces a statement by Robert Speer, “evangelization is nothing less than the good news in action."  

Unconditional Movie

Samantha Crawford's life is a storybook life: she’s happily married, she lives on a ranch where she keeps her beloved horse, and the stories she’s told and illustrated since childhood have become published books. When her husband Billy is killed in a senseless act of violence, Sam loses her faith and her will to live. 

The Climax (Authentic Worship Part 2)

How do we know that we’ve reached the climax?  An aspect of the climax/worship one must consider in this tension is that “Worship…is not only the public acts we do as a gathered community [or private times of worship], but our very way of day-to-day life.”   

The Climax (Authentic Worship Part 1)

The object of people’s worship may be religious, material, ideological, or any number of things.  This is possible since worship, in its general sense, has to do with ascribing worth, and dedicating one’s self and resources, to someone or something.  Christians are not necessarily set apart from those who worship Mohammed, Buddha, or capitalism, etc., because of their acts of worship or their level of devotion.  Instead what sets true Christian worship

THE CHURCH, society's newest attraction?

Has the church confused the mission of the church with themed attractions?  Let me present form parallels between a roller coaster and church.  A person pays their admissions to get onto the roller coaster, raise their hands from the thrills, yell and scream from the emotional excitement, get off the ride, and decide whether or not to get back on ride.  The person may say, “That was a great ride” but may never return due to a lack of commitment.  Analogous to the roller coasters, churches have thrilled

The Church in the Wild

Have we been guilty of Christian passivity?  Are we guilty of preaching Jesus but failed to follow through in what He preached?  Some would argue that there is a great gulf that separates our teaching and our living.  Many in our society that have been marginalized have gone ignored and neglected by those who have been charged with the care of such individuals.  Has the church lost the transformative message of Christ in place of the performative?  Has passivity trumped passion?  To borrow a line from Kanye West and Jay-Z’s song, No Church in the Wild, has the church “…formed a new religion” that excludes the care of the marginalized?  No longer can we operate as if our lack of concern in inconsequential.  We must look within and use whatever strength to accomplish something for Christ’s charge is for us to do and care for the least of his people.  This is Church in the Wild.

Is Anybody Out There?

During the height of the Trayvon Martin case, there were Christians who were offended that this had received so much publicity.  Making comments such as, “this has become a game...” or “If Jesus got this sort of attention, the world would be a different place.”  The question at hand is, “Is anybody out there?”  K’Naan’s song asks, “Am I alone in this fight?”  Have we, the church, left too many people to fight in this world alone?  Is that what Jesus would do?

All you need is love, RIGHT?

Sherri Langton wrote an article, “Breaking out of the Christian Ghetto,” in an effort to relieve that guilt of being stuck in an environment that was solely Christian.  She makes comparisons of the “ghetto” and the subculture known as Christianity.  For those unfamiliar with the term, the Christian Ghetto is a slang term used by many Christians to describe much of popular, mainstream Christianity.  As the word ghetto would imply, Christians have isolated themselves from the world, and have created a distinct Christian culture, with its own language (Christianese), its own music, its own clothing, literature, films, TV, etc.  The Christian Ghetto results from a mentality that sees any exposure to the non-Christian world as defiling. But perhaps most of the Christians stuck in the Christian Ghetto are there unintentionally - they simply spend too much time with Christians, and take in only Christian music, television and media.

Although it may feel comfortable to stay within our Christian "shelter", this mentality has devastating effects on the Church and evangelism particularly in the arena of love.