Two exciting things have happened recently 1) we’ve launched this site as a way to explore a new church community in North County, and 2) our group is planning a unique gathering later this summer related to film (details coming soon). In honor of both I’ve decided to revisit a small series of posts from my old blog that came out of my trip last January to the Sundance Film Festival.

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The most powerful presentation of the gospel I’ve ever seen was through the eyes of an African slave, as depicted by an American Jew.

In Steven Spielberg’s movie Amistad (based on true story) the enslaved African named Cinque wrestles with the rage and helplessness feuding inside, and the shock of a foreign culture outside. Christianity is an enigmatic resident of this world, and doesn’t make much sense to Cinque, until he reaches a point of exhausted frustration and begins leafing through a huge, pictorial bible in the local church.

Unable to read english, Cinque stubles across the gospel in illustrative form. Frame-by-frame Jesus is first righteous, then accused, then enslaved, brutally beaten, and climactically crucified. At first Cinque sees his own story in the detailed depictions, but then discovers far more – something he can’t yet identify with, but realizes he desperately needs: the new life of resurrection. In that brief cinematic moment Cinque is instantly, powerfully, and wordlessly saved.

The next day the whole world has changed. Being led along the docks with his cohorts-in-chains Cinque sees the gospel everywhere. In a moment of transformational artistic power, a slowly passing ship is depicted slipping behind a foreground of dockside structures - the three imposing masts floating for a moment transcendently – instantly conveying the iconic crosses of calvary. Cinque stares in awe.

Sitting in the theatre, I quietly cried, wondering how many people sitting there in the dark were entering the Kingdom at that moment. I, for one, felt I was entering it again for the first time. I’m grateful to Steven Spielberg for following the Spirit and opening that door for me and others.

In his book, Into the Dark, Craig Detweiller says cinema is the prophetic poetry of our culture, a potent medium of general revelation just begging for leaders who are willing exegete art in order to partner with God’s mission among us:

The same God who spoke through dreams and visions in the Bible is still communicating through our celluloid dreams – the movies.

Amistad deliciously depicts the dynamic of special revelation while participating as an actor in general revelation – and art becomes the handmaiden of both.

This week I’ll be in Park City, Utah, participating in a unique gathering of students from Fuller Theological Seminary, Biola University, Taylor University, and Point Loma Nazarene University called The Windrider Forum. For a week we’ll immerse ourselves in The Sundance Film Festival, viewing a dozen or so independent films and exploring the intersections of faith and culture with professors, filmmakers, actors and each other.

Attending Windrider is an extra-special treat for me because Mountain Vineyard, the host church for Windrider here in Park City, is where I spent twelve years rediscovering my faith and developing as a ministry leader. Six years ago I was still on staff at MVCF when the opportunity to host Windrider dropped into our laps. It was exactly the sort of cultural exegesis I longed to explore.

Then, in a transition that was bittersweet, I moved on to a different role at a different church in a different state before the first Windrider Forum was held in January of 2005. So the opportunity to attend this year is not only exciting as a seminary student, it’s sentimental. I’ll be visiting good friends and family, and personally enjoying the outcome of lots of planning and effort I was privileged to participate in for a very brief time.