Doug Van Pelt

Lord, Save Me From Your Followers

I just finished watching Lord, Save Me From Your Followers.

Wow. It was a three kleenex movie for me. Some tears were simply wiped away, but other times there was just too many or my nose was too runny. Afterwards, I prayed. I thought about asking God to move me with this film, but I said, "Thank You for already moving me with this film." Then I just asked Him to use me. I don't know if my creativity is up to the task of figuring out how God would like to use me. One of the ideas I've had is to help one of my neighbors.

This movie uses the title of a funny bumper sticker that kind of gets under my skin: "Jesus, Save Me From Your Followers." What it says is that "Christians are freaks. They're abusive. They're evil. They're stupid, and they're wrong." Maybe I'm just upset because someone would have the audacity to think I was wrong. ha ha ha

Seriously, the phrase puts the church -- the loose collection of followers known as "the body of Christ" -- in a very bad light. The problem is, we deserve to be put in that bad light. What the creators of this film have done, I believe, is turned the phrase on itself and accepted the criticism to open a door to dialog.

Like the term "Jesus Freak," which was probably first created as a derisive term for non-believers to cast shame and disgust on believers; Christians gladly took the label as a badge of honor. In some degrees of measurement, it was like the early Christians being grateful and honored to be persecuted for their Lord.

I love this movie. I want to see it again. I want others I know to see it. I think it's fantastic. There are so many parts that I appreciated, but one that resonated with me a lot was when they talked about the "confessional booth" chapter in Don Miller's book, Blue Like Jazz. They not only shined a light on this incredible, incredible story; but they took matters into their own hands and placed a booth in a gay pride celebration in the city of Portland (I believe) and filmed the activity. It was very cool.

It also took a serious look at poverty. There's a few clips of Bono talking. In one such clip, Bono says that, "Poverty is mentioned in the Scriptures 2100 times ... that's a lot of airtime." Wow. It sure is a lot of airtime.

World Vision took a secular radio dj from the Northwest to Ethiopia in the hopes of getting 400 children sponsored. After she got back and started talking about it on her show ... In one day they got 800.

One of the biggest points of the movie is getting dialog going. The tale end of the movie follows several examples of this dailog happening. A large group of Christians that come to downtown Portland on the weekends is filmed showing love and compassion to the homeless. It's really touching.

And the reconciliation-like dialog that happened when the movie makers had that confessional booth at the gay pride celebration, that was powerful. I tell ya, I think my prediction of a revival igniting in the gay community by Christians reaching out in love could really, really happen.

One thing that made me fired up was realizing how exciting it is to really feel like God is happy with you, that you're doing His will. This is something that comes easy when you repent. In brokenness and humble repentance, all doubt of "am I in the Lord's will" questions don't have a leg to stand on. You kinda know that you know that you're in His will when you're repenting. I think the same can be said for when you are helping the poor and defenseless.

Wow.

Posted by Doug Van Pelt at June 19, 2008 12:12 PM