WWJD (Chapter 6)/Entertainment Theology

What would Jesus Deconstruct?

Chapter 6

“But what, then, is the kingdom of God? Where is it found? It is found every time an offense is forgiven, every time a stranger is made welcome, every tie the law Is made to serve justice, every time a prophetic voice is raised against injustice, every time the law and the prophets are summed up by love.”

I believe in this idea of the kingdom of God. Churches may have this vision and goal as a church to bring about justice, to welcome all, and speak prophetically against injustice but practically speaking they are unsuccessful in carry it out. The church speaks that all are welcome, but they do not have opportunities for people to heal, repent, and recover from their past. One way that the church can really accept anyone and have a forgiving nature is to have a recover program. We preach that all are welcome, but the reality is that people have no way of healing or recovering from their past sin within the church, rather they feel stigmatized. Communication of the vision and purposes of the church needs to stay consistent with the practices of ministry.


Entertainment Theology: Barry Taylor


“Magical, Mystical Polish”

The first chapter talks about the emergence of spirituality expressed in arts: Music, film, painting, and literature. Also it mentions the ‘restoration of wonder’ expressed through advanced media technologies. If spirituality includes the arts and technology in today’s culture, I believe the church can adapt and include these things in their ministries. Ministries have done things the same way for generations, expecting to be effective. I believe that a church can keep to their doctrine and theology while being relevant and expressing itself through the arts and technologies. The church can form a ‘creative arts/media’ ministry.

“The implosion of Modernity and the Rise of the Postsecular”

Modernity created a schism between religion and society or civic space vs. sacred space. Churches today, although unintentionally, creates such environments or experiences where sacred time is separated from ‘secular’ life or everyday life. Most of all effort, time, and resources go into creating a sacred experience on Sundays, but what gets neglected is the rest of the week. The church needs to redefine what is scared and what is spiritual. I believe Christians needs to learn how to live in this world as spiritual beings and not dividing themselves. Creating ministries that helps fuse the scared and social lives of individuals can also be helpful in this. Taking ministries out of Sundays and the ‘church’ building can do this.

“Evolution not Revolution”

But the new spiritual expressions that are emerging are increasingly related to the direct experience the practitioners and seekers have in their daily lives. Once again, I believe that the church has a responsibility of teaching Christians how to be Christians in their lives which includes work places, homes, friendship circles, schools, and wherever. Christianity and faith needs to decentralize from Sunday church and the building to everyday life, where an individual can take ownership of their personal faith. This may mean that people will come to church once a week and not three times a week. Having ministries programmed in the church is a lot easier than having one do ministry at their work places. This can be discipleship training. If done creatively I believe that the church can reach beyond its walls and into all arenas of every believer’s lives.

“Emerging Global Culture/the Symbolic Universe of the Media Generation”

This chapter discusses about the emergence of the Global Culture, which can be characterized by acceptance, assimilation, and use of the technological culture primarily emerging out of the West and elements of Western consumerist tendencies. Although these may be characteristics of corporations and other companies, it is unmistakable that they are more successful in many ways in reaching people compared to the church. There is a lot that we can learn from corporations such as Mac, Starbucks, and other products that have reached a wide audience. This would include organization structure, visions/goals, and use of technology to communicate an idea or spark imagination in consumers. Although out intentions isn’t to get people to purchase a product, there are principles and methods that the church utilize to better serve God and people. In order for this to happen, there would have to be conversations and reexamination of practices and methods used by the church.