Mezzamorphis

Right up front I want to say that I’ve been looking forward to this book for quite some time. I’ve honestly never read any of the rest of Joshua Harris’ books, but because of a personal experience with the author last summer specifically related to the title of this book, I was anxious to read it.

That being said, I was not disappointed. In Dug Down Deep, Joshua Harris lays out why theology matters. In his own words:

[Theology] matters not because we want to impress people, but because what we know about God shapes the way we think and live. Theology matters because if we get it wrong then our whole life will be wrong.”

When he puts it that way, the book sounds like it’s going to be some scholarly, heady tome whose readership will be restricted only to those with advanced degrees in theology and apologetics. Let me assure you that this is not the case. One of the best things about this book is the conversational, easily accessible tone that Harris takes throughout the book. It reads more like a conversation at the breakfast table over coffee than a classroom lecture about theology. This doesn’t mean that it lacks depth though, far from it. Harris is open and honest about struggles he has had in his own life, about places where he thinks that he has failed as well. It’s like having a Sherpa guide take you through Systematic Theology.

Dug Down Deep drills into several different topics, including the transcendence of God, the Bible, sin, the person of Christ, sanctification, the Holy Spirit, and living as the church. While some of those topics might seem out of reach to the lay Christian, they are written in such an engaging way that they become easily understandable. I wish that some of the books I have to read for my seminary classes were this informative and easy to read.

There were a few things that struck me deeply about the book. A couple of quotes in particular really hit me hard. In his chapter about the Holy Spirit, Harris says, “(w)e shouldn’t neglect the person and work of the Holy Spirit just because other people have misrepresented him.” That’s such a powerful thought. Coming from a very conservative Methodist upbringing, then attending an Assemblies of God college, followed by attending mostly Baptist churches, I’ve seen this first hand. On the one extreme, next to nothing is said about the Holy Spirit, treating him like the ugly stepchild of the Trinity. The other end of the spectrum treats the Holy Spirit as the life of the party. I’ve long felt that the best understanding of the Holy Spirit is somewhere in the middle (related thoughts here). I love the passion and the zeal of the charismatic churches, but I also love the ritual and logic of the more formal churches. The truth lies somewhere in between.

Another great thought was in the chapter about making the kingdom of God visible through what we do. He uses the analogy of the church as a gas station. Every week people show up at a convenient time and location to get their fill up, check in, then take off to our own destinations. How many of us are guilty of this, even those of us who serve in ministry roles? We treat church as something to check off our list for the weekend, just like mowing the yard or washing the dog.

Dug Down Deep makes you think throughout the book. Harris deftly handles difficult topics and asks tough questions. This is an excellent book. I’m reading it at a time in my life where I’m in seminary, I’m a volunteer staff member at our church, and I’m working a full time job. Every once in a while a book comes along that seems like it was put into your path by God specifically to encourage you. What Joshua Harris has done with Dug Down Deep feels that way to me.

(This was written back in December 2009 for my friend Amy’s website. However, like the terrible person I sometimes am, I didn’t get it finished in time for her to publish it when the album was released. I could blame it on the hospital stay and the appendectomy, but that’s just an excuse.)

What can be said about a band which has had so many words written about them? With a sound that revolutionized worship in the modern church and a lyrical gift that praised our God and prodded us to go deeper, History Makers is the culmination of 17 years of Delirious?.

Delirious? has released eight studio albums in the United States and History Makers picks out pieces of each one of them, combining the varying sounds of different eras into a perfect capstone on their career. From their introduction with Cutting Edge in 1994 to this year’s release of Kingdom of Comfort, Delirious? has always brought powerful music laced with their own special blend of ear-catching lyrics.

The 31 tracks on the Limited Edition of History Makers leans heavily on their first two releases, the double CD Cutting Edge and King of Fools, using 13 songs from those albums. The remaining 18 tracks blend their lesser heralded recordings (Mezzamorphis, Touch) with their recent successes (The Mission Bell, World Service, Kingdom of Comfort). Included is the mellow song Promise, which was released in the UK on Audio Lessonover but didn’t make the cut when that album became Touch in the US.

If you’re wanting the worship music that brought Delirious? to everyone’s attention, then you’ll enjoy the first CD of the two disc set. This disc includes I Could Sing of Your Love Forever and Shout To The North, two perennial members of the CCLI Top 100, the music most sung in churches. Also on the first disc is the namesake of the collection, History Maker, one of their best live songs and a staple of their concerts. The second disc features songs that gave Delirious? crossover appeal internationally, including Deeper, Inside Outside, and Every Little Thing.

One more bonus to the Limited Edition is the DVD which features all the videos Delirious? has produced over the years. These videos provide a fun look back at styles over the years. Their first video, Deeper, is obviously shot with little budget as compared to their last for Inside Outside.

If I had to pick things to not like about this collection, it would first be the lack of live music. While the studio recordings of their songs are great, they have an added dimension when performed live. Some of the best versions of songs like Rain Down and Solid Rock are the live ones. It’s a small thing, but something that stood out to me. Also, it would have been nice to have a new song or two thrown in with the collection, just as a nod to the longtime fans.

So, after 17 years of music and ministry, Delirious? is folding up their tent and moving on. For those of us who are fans of their music this is a bittersweet day, as no more Delirious? albums will be made. Unlike many secular bands, Delirious? isn’t stopping because of arguments or conflict, they are passing on to their next stage of life, raising children, and using the platform provided by their success to promote more charitable works.

Martin, Stu, Tim, Jon, Stew, and Paul: thanks for the memories, the music, and most of all, thanks for showing us all that church music doesn’t have to be stodgy and traditional. God bless in all your future endeavors. Oh, and understand we won’t complain if you decide to get back together every once in a while.

(This was a book critique I wrote for my Systematic Theology class at LBTS. Got a 98 on it. Needless to say, I’m happy about it.)

Introduction

In God In The Wasteland, David F. Wells argues that we have transitioned “from a world in which God and his truth were accorded a central and often public place to one in which they have neither.”[1] He puts forth the idea that as society has progressed from a community-oriented, close knit culture to a more separated, technological culture that we have lost our grasp on truth. While the church has tried to change to be less offensive and more relevant to the culture, we have lost our way, wandering the wasteland searching for meaning and truth.

Wells has done a great deal of work in the area of Christ and culture, having published several books with similar themes. He is a Distinguished Senior Research Professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

Summary

Wells begins his book with an analysis of the “world” and how modernity has changed the way that faith is viewed. He makes the point that worldliness is not simply a matter of breaking rules established by the church, but an actual religious matter. The love of the world offers an alternative to the love of God, a different allegiance than what we are called to as Christians.

He follows this discussion with a look at the application of various world-oriented ideas and strategies that have been used in the church that appear to be successful on the surface, but have undermined the spiritual core of the church. Wells touches on the idea that we can market the church, the products, and the services offered by the church, but we cannot market Christ.

He devotes a chapter to a concept he calls the weightlessness of God, which means that the things of God are taken too lightly, to make them almost unimportant. This concept applies not only to the world in general, but also to the church in particular.

Wells covers a brief theology of God, pointing to the importance that we don’t lose the central tenets of the doctrine of God to the ideas that dominate modernity. He mentions that “despite all of the abundance into which evangelicalism has dipped, and despite a proliferation of ministries to suit every need…there is a hollowness within it all, an emptiness.”[2] The focus is the shifted to the doctrines of providence and the cross, to see if these doctrines have been lost in today’s evangelical culture.

The book moves to a brief look at the next generation of leaders in evangelicalism and how those leaders believe. He ends this section with three positive findings about the future leaders. First, that they take Scripture seriously; second, that they affirm theology should be central to the life of the church; and thirdly, they are dissatisfied with the state of the church, wanting more than what they are currently receiving.[3]

Wells ends the book with a chapter that lays out his solutions for the issues discussed throughout the book. He believes that two major projects need to be accomplished in the church. We must first learn to “detect worldliness and make a clear decision to be weaned from it.”[4] This is followed by the need for the church to become more serious about itself, expressing a countercultural spirituality.[5]

Critical Interaction

David Wells describes this book as the second half of a picture started in another of his books, No Place for Truth; or, Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology?[6] Wells has done a great deal of research and has written several publications centered on this topic.[7] It is obviously an area where he holds great interest and concern over. Because of Wells’ book No Place for Truth, a movement was started which declared that various things were wrong with the modern church and that only be returning God to the center of the church life would these things be repaired. [8]

The writer’s goal in this work is to return Evangelicalism to its historical context, to remove some of the changes brought about by the modern and post-modern movements. Wells does make a very convincing argument for this. When Christ is removed as the central figure in Christianity, what is left but a movement of people trying to do good things? When the theology and doctrine that has been established through the years is thrown aside in favor of more pragmatic methodologies, the church has ceased to share the Gospel and is merely serving the felt needs of a population.

Possibly one of the most damning points that Wells makes in this book is that churches have succumbed to modern and post-modern thought, but don’t even know it. Many Christians, including Christian leaders, are so entrenched in the culture that they are not aware of the effects that it might be having on them and their view of God. Wells states that there are two traits most evident to baby boomers, but this could apply to anyone born after that period as well. He says, “First, there is a hunger for religious experience…but a disenchantment with dogma or doctrine. Their characteristic abandonment of boundaries…typically results in a smorgasbord of spirituality for which the only accepted criterion of truth is the pragmatic one of what seems to work personally.”[9] The second trait is that these people are “inveterate shoppers…who have learned the needed skills of commerce – principal among which is an ability to identify the products that will satisfy their inner needs.”[10] With the current generation of Christian leaders raised in this same culture, is it any wonder that problems have arisen.

When searching for other reviews of this book, I found that the vast majority of them were positive. In fact, searching several different sites yielded almost no negative reviews. However, the positive reviews did state that some material covered in this volume was also covered in other books written by Wells, which made it a bit redundant for those who have read more than one of his books.

This book is easier to read than some other books pertaining to Christ and culture. For instance, the seminal book by H. Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture, is a very difficult read because of the scholarly language used. Lay leaders, amateur theologians, and even some pastors would have a difficult time working through Niebuhr’s book. However, God in the Wasteland is not written that way. While some scholarly language is used, overall it is a very easily understandable book.

One of the weaknesses of the book is probably the timing of when it was written and released. Though 1994 doesn’t seem that long ago, the resultant 15 years have seen a dramatic shift in the culture through the common use of computers and of the booming growth of the Internet. The last two or three years have seen the rise of social media, further changing the landscape of how people can be reached. This book would be well served to be updated with material that more directly reflects the changes that have happened since the original release. It is possible that this material is covered in other books written by Wells though.

While reading this, I sometimes felt that the author was falling into “good old days syndrome”, where just because things had changed, they were bad, and that it was better in previous times. However, after reading the rest of the book I feel that his perspective is classical, but measured. He has solid, Biblical reasons for the points that he makes.

Conclusion

David Wells has written a well-crafted book that takes on many of the practices of the modern church and inspires one to really understand why they do what they do. As a worship leader, it has given me the desire to research and discover more about what true worship is and how to bring that to a congregation. If something is being done wrong, God is not glorified. This book really challenges those who read it to examine themselves and their practices and see if it lines up with the Bible.

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[1] David F. Wells, God in the Wasteland (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1994), 14

[2] Ibid. 152-153

[3] Ibid. 212-213

[4] Ibid. 215

[5] Ibid. 215

[6] Ibid. ix

[7] Wikipedia, David F. Wells, 7 August 2009, available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_F._Wells; Internet, accessed 3 October 2009

[8] Wikipedia, The Cambridge Declaration, 24 July 2009, available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cambridge_Declaration; Internet, accessed 3 October 2009

[9] Wells, 99-100

[10] Ibid. 100

Going undercover at the nation’s largest Evangelical Christian university is no small accomplishment. For a person who was born and raised a liberal, sometime Quaker, it must be nearly impossible. Kevin Roose managed it, spending a semester as an undergraduate student at Liberty University. He just happened to be writing a book about his experiences, and The Unlikely Disciple is the result.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. I had my hesitations going in, as many liberal interpretations of conservative, fundamentalist Christianity are heavy-handed and disdainful. Roose manages to be neither, making this book a rather interesting read. The best thing about The Unlikely Disciple is that Roose maintains his objectivity throughout the book. While he maintains that he doesn’t understand everything about what goes on spiritually inside the school he appears to make a determined effort to find out . While at Liberty, Roose becomes part of the Thomas Road Baptist Church choir, attends prayer groups, and even goes on an evangelistic Spring Break trip with students from the school.

Another thing that I thought came out of this book was the author’s realization that conservative evangelicals aren’t really all that different than their liberal counterparts. Not everyone lives at the extremes of belief. His submersion in the culture seemed to have an impact on him.

On the other side, this is something that also bothers me about the book. While I understand that many of the people portrayed in the book are late teens/early 20s, I often find it a little disheartening that they seem to take lightly the very thing that likely drew them to Liberty to begin with. The “rebels” on the author’s dormitory hall spend time sifting through Facebook pictures staring at the girls, commenting on various parts of their anatomy. Many of them brag about bending or breaking the rules on campus.

Maybe my experience was different, but when I attended an ultra-conservative Bible college, these weren’t things that students did out in the open with other students. I may have been even more insulated from the outside world than others though.

Another habit that Roose exposes to the outside world through this book is the tendency of young evangelicals to use homosexual references as insults to their peers. I remember that those slurs were common place when I was in high school, but I don’t remember them being used all that much at my various colleges. That it happens on a Christian college campus is unfortunate and downright disappointing. We should be different than those who don’t have Christ, different in the respect and love that we show to others, regardless of their belief or orientation.

I first read a review of this book a couple weeks ago at my friend Amy’s website, Backseat Writer. Her review piqued my interest, in no small way because I’m going to be a Liberty student in a few weeks. Granted, my Liberty experience will be much different than Kevin Roose’s, mostly because I’m going to be an online seminary student. However, I was an undergraduate student at Southwestern Assemblies of God University several years ago. I understand from first hand experience that the rules can sometimes be bothersome. My response to that is tough. People who attend Christian colleges that have these rules in place can either live with it, or move on. You choose to attend, you choose to follow the rules. Don’t get upset when you get caught breaking those rules intentionally, and don’t get angry that you get punished for it.

Overall, I thought that book was excellent. Kevin Roose aced a difficult assignment, and in doing so, exposed some of the soft underbelly of Christianity.

The Noticer tells the story of a man named Jones who helps people change their perspective and notice small details around them. While written as fiction, the book leans more toward the self-help genre.

Honestly, I didn’t like this book all that much. It seems that the main character, known only as Jones, is just another play on the wizened old sage who knows everything about everything. He goes from situation to situation offering advice to young and old, willing and unwilling.

One thing that really bothered me was that in the second chapter of the book, Andrews writes about Jones helping a couple who are thinking about getting a divorce. During the course of his conversation, Jones presents four ways that couples relate to each other. The problem is that those four are a concise presentation of Gary Smalley’s concepts from The Five Love Languages, almost word for word.

The Noticer Project, which Andrews is starting to coincide with the release of the book, is actually a good idea. Andrews asks that each person “notices” the five people who are most influential in their life. You can read more about this at the project web site or on the Noticer Project Facebook  group.

This review was written by a Thomas Nelson Book Review Blogger.

Back in 1995, sitting in my dorm room at college, one of my friends came in and said “You’ve gotta hear this band! They’re awesome!” He yanks out whatever was in my CD player at the time, tosses it aside, and sticks in a disc by a group of guys I’d never heard of. They had a distinctive sound, at least compared to what was on the Christian scene at the time. While so many bands have come and gone in the subsequent years, Third Day has continued to grow musically, spiritually, and in popularity. Three Grammy awards, 23 Dove awards, 10 studio albums, and 13 years later the Georgia-based band release their 11th album, Revelation.

The first half of this album rocks. “This Is Who I Am” is a raucous kick-start to the album, relying on hard-strumming acoustic guitar, heavy drums, and the electric sound so many are used to hearing. The next track, “Slow Down”, brings the Revelation train back a gear, but not by much. This song, which also features Chris Daughtry, is a well-crafted plea that all of us could heed, to slow down and let God take over.

“Call My Name”, released back in April as a single, is mellow and melodic, while maintaining a solid guitar backbone. It plays out like a love song from Jesus to us. Hard-driving drums introduce “Run To You”, steadily keeping time to this discordant and quite beautiful song. The title track, “Revelation”, begins with a piano solo, but is quickly joined by the rest of the band. “Give me a revelation/I’ve got nothing without you” is the central theme of the song, asking God for a fresh view of His grace. Closing out the first half of the album is “Otherside”, a bluesy, Clapton-esqe tune that reminds me a great deal of the song “Blackbird” from their 1995 major label debut.

The second half of Revelation eases up off the throttle, retaining the classic Third Day sound, but with a lighter quality. “Let Me Love You” is a breezy, radio-ready love song, which would probably get heavy airplay on mainstream radio. The catchy “I Will Always Be True” has the same basic qualities as the previous song, with just a little harder edge. Not that it’s a bad song, it’s just odd that two songs with such similarities would be back-to-back on the album. “Born Again”, a duet with Flyleaf’s Lacey Mosely, describes a journey from the realization by the singer that he isn’t a good as he thought he was, to the feeling of being born again.

Bluegrass makes an appearance in “Give Love”, which gives way to “Caught Up In Yourself”, a steady, almost James Bond sounding cautionary tale to those of us who have a hard time surrendering ourselves to God. “Ready” returns Third Day to their rock roots, driving the album steadily to its final song, “Take It All”. Nearly a praise chorus, the lyrics are a plea to God to “Take it all/Cause I can’t take it any longer/With all I have/I can’t make it on my own/Take the first, take the last/Take the good and take the rest/Here I am, all I have/Take it all”.

Overall, Revelation is a good album. The music is a maturation of the classic Southern rock Third Day is known for to something more modern, all while maintaining their identity. Topped with Mac Powell’s inimitable voice, Third Day has the ingredients for another hugely popular and artistic album. The only complaint that I have is that it seemed to get down into a rut in the middle of the disc. Revelation is a worthy addition to your music collection whether you are a old Third Day fan or not.

(Originally posted at www.backseatwriter.com)

Since the events of Batman Begins, Gotham has experienced a resurgence. Crime has become less rampant, the mob is losing power, and citizens are treating Batman as a hero, even to the point of attempting to emulate his methods. On the horizon lies a new threat to the city, one that will touch every citizen of Gotham, from those in the highest halls of power to the powerless children. The Dark Knight tells the story of a group of men fighting to either keep the city together or to cause it to fly apart. Gazillionaire Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), who moonlights as the hooded vigilante Batman, is hoping to set up newly elected district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) as the heir to Batman’s “hero of the people” throne. Those plans are put in jeopardy by a maniacal villian, the Joker (Heath Ledger), who terrorizes all of Gotham, even the mobsters and jailed criminals. Dent is aided by his paramour and assistant D.A. Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a former flame of Wayne’s. Lt. James Gordon (Gary Oldman), Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine), and Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) all lend a hand to Batman.

This movie is dark. The lighting is dark. The tone is dark. The humor is dark. The Knight is Dark. Directed by Christopher Nolan, who also directed Batman Begins, The Dark Knight continues down the path so many recent comic book and science fiction movies have taken over the last few years. It is a gritty, no-hold-barred attack on your senses, your ears, and sometimes your stomach. Where Iron Man was sometimes comical and light-hearted, The Dark Knight is equally heavy and serious. Each of the actors eat up the screen, giving almost no downtime to the viewer. There are surprising twists and turns, including the death of a major character. The dichotomy of good versus evil and the gray areas that must sometimes be breached to defeat evil are well portrayed in this film.

Heath Ledger proves that someone can do a better Joker than Jack Nicholson. As the Clown Prince of Crime, Ledger descends into the lowest circle of hell to bring out one of the most evil, sadistic, and brilliant characters put into a superhero movie. The Joker has no rules, no sense of self-preservation, no fear of the Batman. He is anarchy in it’s purest human form, and he hands out passes to view that anarchy to everyone he comes into contact with. Ledger plays the Joker as one who enjoys making everyone (including the audience) squirm. For me, one of the most uncomfortable things about Ledger’s performance is his constant need to lick his lower lip and the sometimes watery quality of his voice. Those touches bring out more of the manic psychotic in the Joker. Ledger is far and away the star of this film, his penultimate role due to his death in January 2008. Heath Ledger has been receiving some Oscar buzz for his role, and deservedly so.

In playing the dual role of Bruce Wayne and Batman, Christian Bale offers a well-rounded performance. He is engagingly witty and smooth while playing the millionaire playboy, but gruff and course when dressed as Batman, including a low, gravelly voice. Micheal Caine and Morgan Freeman bring playfulness and presence to their roles as butler and CEO, respectively. Aaron Eckhart portrays Harvey Dent as the upright, noble D.A., willing to take on the worst of criminals to clean up the city, something that backfires on him dramatically. Gary Oldman, given much more screen time as compared to the near cameo role he had in Batman Begins, brings a mix of strength and insecurity to the police lieutenant. In the part of Rachel Dawes, Maggie Gyllenhaal has more presence and poise than Katie Holmes, who portrayed Dawes in the previous Batman film. She effectively demonstrates the tug from both her current love and her former, and her character remains relevant throughout the story. She’s not just the damsel in distress, she is one of the turning points of the film.

Though the environment is understandably dark, there are times when it is too dark. Action scenes are shot so close to the actors and with such sparse lighting, that it is sometimes difficult to make out what is going on. Granted, all you are really missing is somebody getting another butt-whooping, but it would be nice to see the moves Batman uses to administer said butt-whooping. The music is quite over the top, occasionally venturing into a long, drawn out screech that slowly crescendos upwards during scenes of intense drama. It’s a long film, and does leave some things unresolved, most likely setting up the next film in the Batman series.

The Dark Knight is rated a heavy PG-13 for a great deal of violence and threatening situations. This is not a kids movie, and may not even be a tweens movie. There are times when it seems close to stepping into R territory, but it was probably given a pass due to the nearly complete lack of swearing and sexual situations. It is also showing in IMAX theaters nationwide, which could be an interesting show with the plethora of tall buildings and swooping flight scenes. Overall though, it is an excellent film and well worth seeing.

With the summer movie season in full roar, Transformers steps onto the scene louder, bigger, and more explosively than its fellow summer films. In this film, Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf) holds the key to a war that has been fought over centuries by beings from the planet called Cybertron. The Autobots, led by Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen), fight to protect earth from Megatron (Hugo Weaving) and the Decepticons, who plan to use the device to enslave Earth and build more of their mechanical brethren. The action begins when Sam purchases his first car, a beat-up, old Camaro which just happens to be the Autobot Bumblebee (Mark Ryan). Sam is joined by his high school crush Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox), who is hopelessly out of his league, but needs a ride home after ditching her boyfriend. When Sam and Mikaela discover that Bumblebee is not from Earth, they go on a ride which can only end by saving the world.

This movie is as subtle as any film directed by Michael Bay (Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Texas Chainsaw Massacre) can be; which is to say, it hammers you from the beginning, lets up for a few minutes, then hammers you until the end. Transformers is loud, long, and in your face. The action scenes are over the top, the characters are somewhat shallow, and the explosions are massive. Normally, this would mean that a film is not well done. However, when the movie in question is about huge robots from outer space, then all these negatives become positives. While Bay won’t win an Oscar for Transformers, he deserves credit for creating a fun ride.

The special effects in Transformers are first rate. The robots looked like they belonged in the environment–nothing seemed to be obviously fake about them. Some long-time fans of the Transformers toys (like me) will be disappointed in small details about the movie, such as the fact that Bumblebee is a Chevrolet Camaro instead of a Volkswagen Beetle. Few of the characters in this film transform into the same devices as their originals, though most are very close. Only a few from the expansive Transformers line make it into the film, which is actually good as the peripheral human characters grow quite extensively.

Shia LeBeouf does a fine job of carrying this film. The 21 year-old actor is very comfortable with the camera and his lines are delivered much the same as he delivers them in all his movies. His smooth-talking, slightly neurotic persona fits well with the story. All the actors who are given much screen time find a way to at least make their presence known, though outside of Sam and Mikaela, none of the characters are very well developed. However, the movie is called Transformers, and not People, so this can be understood. It’s a long (2 hours, 24 minutes) ride which will hold most of its appeal for teen boys and boys over 30 who grew up with the original.

For all the good things said about the film, it is rated PG-13 for a reason. There is a lot of violence, though most all of that is violence against robots which are obviously fantastical in nature. There is a fair amount of swearing, along with some fairly strong sexual overtones, an old woman giving a man the finger, and some intense scenes. A brief discussion of masturbation takes place which is played for laughs. Depending on the maturity of your youth, they should be fine with it. Also, the introduction to the movie states that all life was brought about by a cube called the Allspark, which contradicts the Christian belief of God’s creation. The core message of the film is that sacrifice is sometimes necessary, which could make for good discussion afterwards.

I went into this film not expecting a great deal from it. I still have my collection of Transformers at home (which my four year-old has since determined to be his) and I own a DVD of the original Transformers movie. Seeing some of Michael Bay’s previous films, I expected this to be no different. This film is different from his previous blockbusters because of the source material. Since the story requires you to already suspend disbelief, the largeness and volume of it really don’t detract from the film. The human element is still there though, because when everything is stripped away it is a boy-meets-girl, boy-falls-for-girl, boy-finds-his-car-is-a-giant-robot, girl-falls-for-boy, they-all-save-the-world kind of story. Typical summer movie fare though. Transformers is a decent film that is somewhat faithful to the source material. If you’re just wanting something fun that you don’t have to think about this summer, then give it a shot. Who knows, you might find more than meets the eye.

(Originally posted at Youth Ministry Exchange)

Pixar’s latest offering, Ratatouille,
tells the story of a rat who wishes for something more and a young man
who pretends to be something he’s not. Together, they resurrect a
once-popular restaurant that has fallen from its perch atop French
cuisine since the death of its founder. Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt)
is a rat who aspires to be a chef, much to the chagrin of his father,

(Originally published at the Youth Ministry Exchange)

In Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) combine forces with their former adversary, Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) in order to find Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and rescue him from Davy Jones’ Locker. In the meantime, Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) has conscripted Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) and the crew of the Flying Dutchman into service of the East India Trading Company in order to control the seas. This leads to a final battle between the Pirate Lords from around the world and Lord Cutler’s armada.

At World’s End is another summer blockbuster from Gore Verbinski and Walt Disney Pictures. With each subsequent Pirates movie, Verbinski has added larger setpieces and more elaborate CGI work, culminating in a beautifully made movie with no shortage of action and breathtaking visuals.

All the characters from the first two movies are back in this installment, even a couple of relatively minor side characters from Curse of the Black Pearl. Each of the actors step easily