Two Handed Warriors

‘Christian Filmmaking’ Captures Hollywood’s Attention as Never Before, but are Christian Filmmakers Up for the Challenge?   As Soul Surfer roars past Fireproof‘s $33M payday, (eventually reaching $45M at the box office) Hollywood’s rush to cash in on adapting Christian stories–such as The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe ($279), and stories about Christians–such as The [...]

Winning Hollywood’s War On Girls There are a number of ways that faith-based filmmaking could make a significant difference in the culture-making impact of Hollywood: perhaps none more than as a movement aligned with Women’s groups against the radical sexualization of women in the media. A recent study by USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and [...]

The down side of grace? Tell Your Students That if They Cheat, God Will Smite Them by Don Troop in The Chronicle of Higher Education Is God: A) punitive, angry, and vengeful? B) warm, loving, and forgiving? OK, folks, pencils down. Now, if you chose B, you probably cheated your way through college. Two psychology researchers [...]

25% of prospective college students decide NOT TO APPLY to a given school simply because of a bad experience on the college’s Website. Is your school, non-profit, business, church, or blog facing the same issues? The Chronicle of Higher Education recently noted Bethel University (where I teach) for our exemplary work in bringing our website into [...]

David Kinnaman‘s upcoming book, You Lost Me, details the thoughts and attitudes of 20-somethings who leave the church (but not necessarily their faith). It is awesome material that has been burning a hole in my computer ever since he shared it with a group of leaders in Florida. I will NOT steal his thunder here, but [...]

Love Wins: The Controversy That Keeps On Giving It’s not every day that a pastor makes the cover story of Time Magazine. Rick Warren did it as recently as 2008, as did T.D. Jakes (2001), and Jerry Falwell (1985). Billy Graham (1954, 1993, 1996, 2007), and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr (1957, 1964, 1965, 2007) are the [...]

. Hollywood’s Premier Faith-Based Entertainment Industry Event The Biola Media Conference has a rich history of advancing the integration of faith and the arts. Born in 1995 out of a desire to expose Biola University film students to working media professionals, it has grown to become a significant professional resource for Christians in the entertainment [...]

NEW SERIES: Soul-Nourishing Practices for a Soul-Deadening World: Finding the Voice of Your Own Gladness in Hollywood and Beyond To help launch our new series on spiritual formation in Hollywood, I thought I would repost the Emmy Magazine article that helped spark my thinking on the subject. At the time of the interview I was [...]

The Netflix Effect: When Software Suggests Students’ Courses By Jeffrey R. Young in the Chronicle of Higher Education When Netflix suggests movies based on how much previous renters liked them, all that’s at stake is a night’s entertainment. Now a handful of colleges have begun using similar recommendation systems to help students pick their courses—a [...]

In honor of Passover Week I thought I would let you in on one of Hollywood’s most moving connections between faith and culture: The Synagogue for the Performing Arts. The Synagogue for the Performing Arts was founded in 1973 by members of the entertainment community–actors, screenwriters and industry professionals who shared a common desire to [...]