A Christian Worldview from Silicon Valley

Power of One

Why do 97% of the customers reviewing To Save a Life on movietickets.com give the film a four to five out of five-star rating? While not a perfect film, its rich content makes it easy to forgive minor flaws. I found it so compelling that even after a second viewing, my entire body ached from the white-knuckle dramatic tension.

For starters, this low-budget indie film isn’t an embarrassment of sentimental dreck, as many “Christian” films are. In the words of one reviewer, “The production values are the best and least cheesy since The Passion and the music is great.” Moreover, instead of the usual one-dimensional, perfect Christians, we see characters in a range of commitment levels, including agnostic, seeker, holier-than-thou, and in-name-only, although a few but growing number are genuinely transformed by Jesus. Such sophistication was summarized by a reviewer, who said, “Everyone needed to be rescued from something, not just the loners.”

For me at least, and I suspect for many of us, the core issue of the film resonates: (more…)

I was playing golf a few weeks ago with a new friend who is a long time Christian and, at 83, a man with no small amount of wisdom. He knew that I was the minister at the Palo Alto Church of Christ, and as we walked down the 9th fairway he asked me a question.

“How are you doing with one of your brother ministers being so much in the news and so controversial?”

I hesitated for a few seconds while my mind tried to interpret the question, and then I got it. He was asking me about Jeremiah Wright and the Trinity United Church of Christ. And why shouldn’t he? Both churches use the name Church of Christ, and to anyone who is not familiar with either of these churches, the names would seem to indicate that they hold many things in common.

My friend, being who he is, knew that the likelihood of our churches being affiliated with one another was remote at best, but his question made me wonder if anyone else might have made that link. Do people in the neighborhood of PACC think that we are part of the same movement that defines Trinity United?

I mostly forgot about that possible link until this past week when I received a phone call at the church. The nice lady on the other end of the line wanted directions to our church from Monterey, because she was coming to a memorial service. I did give her directions but then asked if she was certain the service was going to be at our church. She said she got our number from information, and then she read the notice about the service which said it would be held at The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints on Middlefield Road in Palo Alto.

The names are similar, but the churches are not the same.  How much does the world view us by our name, and what’s in a name?