Reflections of a Hollywood Missionary
Junior high school is a traumatic time for most people. Adolescence is disorienting and difficult. We are tempted constantly to blend in, to be like the “cool” kids on the block. Anything that would make us stand out in the crowd is shunned in favor of compliance. In many ways, the Body of Christ in Hollywood is in adolescence.
A lot of us are still figuring things out. Jesus’ walking on the water declared that He was God. For Peter to know and truly understand the call of God on his life and his role in history, he had to receive that revelation. He couldn’t know who he was, until he understood and saw who God is. I believe this is the state of the Body in Hollywood.
The missing element in our quest is a revelation of God. Until we grasp this revelation we will continue to meander like adolescent school children, forever trying to be like the “cool” kids. Until this revelation takes hold of us “with fear and trembling”, the voice of the People of God in Hollywood will remain unheard.
I say it often in our industry fellowship meetings: “We have a job to do.” If we don’t do it, who will? “How will they hear (or see?) without a preacher?” Or a filmmaker, a storyteller? I believe the Lord has created a void for His creative children to fill. Popular culture, as finicky and fickle as it may be, is craving something it hasn’t yet tasted. We’ve got the goods and it’s time to “get out of the boat”. It’s gotta happen.
Yet, without constant and focused prayer support, this will not happen. Without the emotional and relational encouragement of family and friends across the nation, this will not happen. Without financial bolstering, this will not happen. We live in a media-culture. We need a media gospel—well-told, well-written, well-executed, biblically informed stories that first entertain the audiences of the world and entertain them well.
Secondly, in the immortal words of Norma Desmond of Sunset Boulevard, we need moments with “nothing else—just us and the cameras and those wonderful people out there in the dark) in which to move them and demonstrate for them the love of God and the living presence of Jesus through the power of story.
For years Ted Baehr has supplied the church with understanding and has equipped us with invaluable tools, not least of which for guarding our children to be media wise in this media-culture. Now, there is another front on this battlefield—an infiltration of the Industry that seeks to transform from the inside out, one life at a time.
Artists create from their own experience, from what they know. Change their hearts and you’ll change the content. This is at the heart of the mission of both the Arts, Media, & Entertainment Ministries (ameministries.com) and Ted Baehr’s ministry. These efforts need your support. I invite you to discover the Arts, Media, & Entertainment Ministries. Find out what they are doing. Catch the vision of God for Hollywood and cast it for others. Support the Hollywood missionaries and ministries with prayer, and as often as the opportunity arises, with ticket and DVD sales as I and my comrades here prepare to walk on water. Pray that our gaze remains on the Lord—who He is and who we are.
Film is a collaborative art, just as any work of God. We are not all the head or the tail, an ear or an eye. The entertainment industry is more often the pride and joy of the Enemy. Help us take it for Christ, make it the pride and joy of our heavenly Father.
This article originally appeared on Movieguide.org.
