Life Is Hard, but God Is Good

In the past two months, I have buried my father and walked my daughter through open-heart surgery. The “windsock in her heart,” as her surgeon described it, that had blood flowing the wrong way, was apparently congenital, but we didn’t discover it till this past July. She is still in the hospital, but she made it great through surgery on Tuesday. So now, in my great relief, I have some time to reflect on the whirlwind that has been my life for the past two months.My overwhelming sense is that I’ve been covered in the love of God. The Almighty works with precise timing that may not always thrill us in the moment (surgery the day before my first day of classes!?), but in retrospect is always perfect, and designed for our greatest good. That my father died during the summer meant Oregon was beautiful (such beauty heals me), and I could stay as long as Mom needed me and work remotely. As for Alex’s surgery, I wanted it on Thursday instead of Tuesday, but now I’m thankful she will be stronger going into the holiday weekend, when hospital staff may not be the A Team.My second observation is that I’ve been covered in the love of Christ’s people. I spent a long time last night writing thank-you notes, and I’m sure I’ve failed to remember some folks who have helped us out. . . . And some of the people who have helped don’t even know me or that they helped. They are writers whose books have encouraged me. Three authors of two books especially come to mind.First is Dave Furman and his new work, Being There: How to Love Those Who Are Hurting (Crossway). Dave, a DTS grad, serves as the senior pastor of Redeemer Church of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. His wife, Gloria, is a former student of mine.In 2006, Dave developed a nerve disorder in his arms that renders both of them nearly disabled—to the point where he can count on one hand the number of times he has held his four kids. In fact, they have to button his shirts for him. So he speaks with serious credibility about what does and doesn’t help. His chapter on what not to do is worth the price of the book. Our family has just come out of a season of care-giving for my Dad, and then we have been on the receiving end with our daughter. And I heartily agree with all his advice. Plus, he has a great perspective on suffering.The other two authors wrote a work that is actually not coming out till October 4 (I received an advance review copy). It’s a B&H release by Raechel Myers and Amanda Bible [yes, that's really her name] Williams titled She Reads Truth: Holding Tight to Permanent in a World That’s Passing Away. “She Reads Truth” was a community before it became a book. Four years ago, some strangers started reading Scripture daily, staying connected through the hashtag #SheReadsTruth. That gave way to a web site that led to an app. And today thousands open their Bibles and find Jesus in its pages every day.In the book by the same title, the founders share their stories about everyday life living in light of God’s permanence as the world passes away. Fathers die. Miscarriages happen. (Two stories with which I totally identify.) But God is with us, and he never changes. Nor does his love fade.What are you going through today? Christ promises, “I will be with you.” And if he is for you, who and what can prevail against you?

Learn to Learn

I'm now a regular blogger for Geek Embassy. Here's my latest post, Learn to Learn: Not the "I love you" song but this most often got stuck in my head.

“I love you, you love me….” These lyrics played in my head for years as I worked with one of my clients, the then music producer for Barney and Friends. (Please don’t hold this against me.) I served both as his publicist and as the “studio mom” who booked kid singers for rehearsals and entertained them during breaks. And if I discovered one thing during that gig, it was this: I needed to revise my stereotypical view of home-schooled kids. Maybe some youngsters end up socially inept due to lack of interpersonal contact from learning at home, but I sure didn’t meet any of them. No, I met kids who could commit to acting and singing and creating because they had flexible class schedules and spent zero time lining up and waiting their turn for bathroom trips. These kids knew storylines from Gulliver’s Travels to Robin Hood (they even knew there was a version of the latter before the one with tights). And the biggest surprise: they had serious social skills like saying “please” and “thank you” to each other and looking grown-ups in the eye while conversing about how Maid Marian roamed through the woods dressed as a page.As part of my job, I also met the brilliant home educators behind the kids, parents deeply committed to teaching their children about botany by taking them to real forests and history by actual walking tours of Boston and panning for gold in California. Before long, I developed radar for super-geek home educators; I always loved asking what they were learning.Although I’ve long since changed careers, I’ve continued to pick the brains of home educators. And one of my favorites is Erin Teske. If I could have attended any schools in the world, I would have gone to Erin Teske Elementary, Erin Teske Middle School, and Erin Teske High School. Her kids did the. coolest. stuff.A few years ago, Rhonda, Erin (mother of Ellie), and I embarked on an Art-geek trip through Italy. From our base in Vicenza, we explored Florence, Padua/Milan, and Venice—with each of us responsible for one city. Rhonda took Milan, I took Venice, and Erin took Florence. And holy cow! Erin found us a hotel on the river’s edge near the city center with a terrace on the roof. (When Rhonda discovered the terrace and announced it with some exuberance, we thought she was saying there was a terrorist on the roof—but that’s another story.) In that city, thanks to Erin’s lesson plan, we “learned by seeing” about the transition from medieval to Renaissance art by observing our way through Giotto in the Brancucci Chapel, the Uffizi, and the Pitti Palace.I give you all this background to say this: when Erin recommends a book about self-education, I listen. And recently she give two thumbs up to one: Teaching How to Learn in a What-to-Learn Culture, by Kathleen Ricards Hopkins. Hopkins draws on up-to-date research about how people learn and provides how-tos for helping students develop as readers, writers, and mathematicians. But it’s not just for people seeking to educate geeklet spawns. Geeks themselves can benefit from learning how to help themselves learn.

The Next Supper

Check out what this painter did with DaVinci's masterpiece. Love it.

Sampling of Book Titles Inspired by Bible Verses

My dissertation supervisor told me that the Bible and Shakespeare were the two most-used sources for book titles. How many of these biblical phrases do you recognize?

Absalom, Absalom!

William Faulkner

2 Samuel 19:4

An Acceptable Time              

Madeleine L'Engle     

Psalms 66:13

A Time to Kill                        

John Grisham            

Ecclesiastes 3:3

Behold the Man                     

Michael Moorcock      

John 19:5

Butter In a Lordly Dish           

Agatha Christie        

Judges 5:25

I Sat Down and Wept            

Elizabeth Smart         

Psalm 137:1

Clouds of Witness                  

Dorothy L. Sayers       

Hebrews 12:1

Consider the Lilies                 

Iain Crichton Smith    

Matthew 6:28

East of Eden                           

John Steinbeck           

Genesis 4:16

Fear and Trembling             

Søren Kierkegaard    

Philippians 2:12

The Golden Bowl                   

Henry James                

Ecclesiastes 12:6

The House of Mirth                

Edith Wharton            

Ecclesiastes 7:4

I Will Fear No Evil                  

Robert A. Heinlein     

Psalms 23:4

If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem   

William Faulkner       

Psalms 137:5

In a Glass Darkly                    

Sheridan Le Fanu       

I Corinthians 13:12

Jacob Have I Loved                 

Katherine Paterson    

Romans 9:13

The Last Enemy                     

Richard Hillary            

I Corinthians 15:26

Lilies of the Field                   

William E.  Barrett    

Matthew 6:28

The Little Foxes                     

Lillian Hellman            

Song of Songs 2:15

Many Waters                         

Madeleine L'Engle     

Song of Songs 8:7

The Millstone                         

Margaret Drabble      

Matthew 18:6

Moab Is My Washpot            

Stephen Fry                

Psalms 60:8

The Moon by Night                

Madeleine L'Engle     

Psalms 121:6

The Needle's Eye                   

Margaret Drabble      

Matthew 19:24

Noli Me Tangere                    

José Rizal                   

John 20:17

Number the Stars                  

Lois Lowry                  

Psalms 147:4

Quo Vadis                             

Henryk Sienkiewicz    

John 13:36 (Vulgate translation)

A Scanner Darkly                    

Philip K. Dick              

I Corinthians 13:12

Stranger in a Strange Land    

Robert A. Heinlein     

Exodus 2:22

The Sun Also Rises                

Ernest Hemingway    

Ecclesiastes 1:5

The Violent Bear It Away      

Flannery O'Connor     

Matthew 11:12 (Douay translation)

The Way of All Flesh             

Samuel Butler            

Joshua 23:14 (Wesley's notes translation)

The Wealth of Nations          

Adam Smith               

Isaiah 61:6

The Wings of the Dove          

Henry James              

Psalms 55:6

See Noah's Flood in Dallas

You can read the story in Genesis 6:1–9:17.

Tonight the energetic Karina Canellakis, winner of the 2016 Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award, led a young cast of musicians, singers, and dancers, as well as an ensemble of professional musicians in a community-wide staging of the one-act opera, "Noye's Fludde" (Noah's Flood), by Benjamin Britten (1913–1976). And they plan to do so again tomorrow (Wednesday).Performers retell the story of Noah and the flood by mixing a little Dallas Symphony Orchestra with the First United Methodist Church Handbell Choir, the Dallas Recorder Society (yup, those instruments you learned to play in elementary school), various recorder clubs and church choirs, some Texas A & M Commerce buglers, and a cast  of professional musicians and singers.The sets were clever, the "water" ingenious, the dancing magical, and the kids dressed up like animals for the ark-y ark-y, adorbs. An added delight was when one, staying true to character, ran away and had to be caught. And I loved the dancers who played the birds looking for dry land. Audience participation added to the fun, which lasted just under an hour. I drove and ran through epic rain to see it. Fitting.Beneath the surface of kids, recorders, and handbells is some serious depth. If you go, pay attention to the lyrics. Also, notice the repeated phrase, kyrieeleison ("Lord, have mercy"). As it turns out, he did.One performance left: Wednesday, June 1, 7 PM at 2215 Ross Ave. Dallas, TX 75201 (Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe). Acoustics in this venue are fantastic, though I did find it difficult to catch many of the words. Attendance is free, but parking beneath the church is ten bucks.

Bono + Eugene Peterson on the Psalms

My introduction to the rock star Bono came when I was working in downtown Dallas in the 1980s for a financial services company with offices that shared space with a large hotel chain. My friend's hubby, Jim, was a huge Bono fan, and he spotted the singer and his cap-wearing friend entering through the hotel's revolving doors. I was in the lobby talking with Jim and his wife when this happened, and he ran over to meet them. Finding them to be quite friendly, Jim came back and asked if I wanted him to introduce me. I said, "Naw." Never heard of the guy. Seriously. I did that.My next encounter happened at the Grammy Awards ceremony in 1994. I was a publicist for the music producer for Barney and Friends, who was nominated for an award for an album that had gone double platinum. Bono, who accompanied Frank Sinatra that night, dropped so many f-bombs that my client had to go to a pay phone to call the babysitter to tell her he didn't want his kids watching any more of the broadcast.But in the past ten years I've actually paid attention to U2's lyrics, attended a concert, and become a fan.Meanwhile, I've been a huge Eugene Peterson fan since I first heard about him. My introduction to his work happened when I read his book Under the Unpredictable Plant at a time when I was grieving a bunch of pregnancy losses. Although it was a book about Jonah, it introduced me to biblical lament. Plus, Peterson's a poet. If you do a search on this blog for his name, you'll find numerous posts. I interviewed Peterson around 1996, and that conversation yielded great info that I turned into articles on three topics—lament, gender, and Sabbath. What he told me about rest changed my life.Imagine my delight, then, when I heard that Fuller Theological Seminary had created a video with Bono and Peterson in the same room talking on psalms and lament. Get ready for 25 minutes of time well spent.

Restore My Soul: A Coloring Book Devotional Journey

Meditate using this new coloring book by Ann-Margret Hovsepian.

A couple years ago, my employer sent me to the Frankfurt Book Fair to spot trends. We want to prepare our students for what's coming, not what's been. Frankfurt is the largest book fair in the world, so I spent hours walking the aisles, talking to venders, and scoping out products. And I came home with a couple of coloring books for adults. I had never heard of such a thing! It was like paint by number only using colored pencils instead of paint—and without the numbers. I got to choose what colors I liked best.And sure enough, now they're everywhere, these books. And my friend Ann-Margret Hovsepian has created a nice one especially for helping us think about what matters. She includes a devotional thought with a verse opposite each coloring page. And the pages are thick enough that I could use a small magic marker without having it bleed through. Even non-artists can pull away from the screen and create within boundaries. Check out Restore My Soul.

Win a free copy of Risen

Clavius (Joseph Fiennes) and Lucius (Tom Felton) at the Roman barracks consider new information from the bystander about the apostles in Columbia Pictures’ RISEN.

RISEN is the epic biblical story of the resurrection, as told through the eyes of Clavius (Joseph Fiennes), a powerful Roman military tribune, and his aide, Lucius (Tom Felton). Rome has tasked them with solving the mystery about what happened to Jesus (Cliff Curtis) in the weeks following the crucifixion. Their mission: To disprove the rumors of Jesus' rising from the dead and to prevent an uprising in Jerusalem.RISEN was reviewed on this blog at the time of its release. Now it's out on DVD and in book form. I have two books and a Blu-ray DVD (includes deleted scenes) to give away freeto people in the US. Either subscribe to this blog or leave a comment to be eligible for the drawings to be held next Friday, May 27, 2016. Or tweet this blog post and tag @sandraglahn to be added twice.

Art Saves Lives

I just finished reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. The student who brought me the book to read also told me I must listen to an interview in Brainpickings with Gaiman. In it the author tells this story of his 97-year-old cousin, Helen, a Polish Holocaust survivor: “She started telling me this story of how, in the ghetto, they were not allowed books. If you had a book … the Nazis could put a gun to your head and pull the trigger—books were forbidden. And she used to teach under the pretense of having a sewing class… a class of about twenty little girls, and they would come in for about an hour a day, and she would teach them maths, she’d teach them Polish, she’d teach them grammar….“One day, somebody slipped her a Polish translation of Margaret Mitchell’s novel Gone with the Wind. And Helen stayed up—she blacked out her window so she could stay up an extra hour. She read a chapter of Gone with the Wind. And when the girls came in the next day, instead of teaching them, she told them what happened in the book.“And each night, she’d stay up; and each day, she’d tell them the story.“And I said, ‘Why? Why would you risk death—for a story?’“And she said, ‘Because for an hour every day, those girls weren’t in the ghetto—they were in the American South; they were having adventures; they got away.’“I think four out of those twenty girls survived the war. And she told me how, when she was an old woman, she found one of them, who was also an old woman. And they got together and called each other by names from Gone with the Wind…”Gaiman concluded, “We [writers] decry too easily what we do, as being kind of trivial—the creation of stories as being a trivial thing. But the magic of escapist fiction … is that it can actually offer you a genuine escape from a bad place and, in the process of escaping, it can furnish you with armor, with knowledge, with weapons, with tools you can take back into your life to help make it better… It’s a real escape—and when you come back, you come back better-armed than when you left.”Nelson Mandela once described Chinua Achebe, the most widely read African writer and author of Things Fall Apart, as “the writer in whose presence prison walls fell down.” Achebe’s words sustained him in prison. I once heard Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie say, “Fiction does matter. It can make literal prison walls fall down, but it can also sustain prisoners where they are.”While people in our world tend to think of the art as the painted fingernails instead of the marrow in our bones, ISIS gets what a threat the arts can be to freedom. Consider that CNN ran an article in March titled, “Why ISIS destroys antiquities.” It tells of the numerous historic sites that ISIS has smashed. One of these was the Museum of Islamic Art in Egypt, which contained more than 100,000 pieces. The museum, having recently undergone an eight-year, multi-million dollar renovation, had to close again after its reopening because ISIS planted a car bomb that caused catastrophic damage. The writer of the CNN piece concluded, “The smashed artifacts of the Mosul Museum and the destruction at Nineveh and Nimrud . . .  are the material record of humanity. They are not just for scholars, they are for everyone. They are the text of the past that helps define our future.T. Anderson, the YA author of Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad told a group at Calvin College last week, “We think of the arts as dessert, but they change the way we live.”His historical-fiction novel demonstrates this truth vividly as he recounts in it the story of how Leningrad (i.e., St. Petersburg, Russia) was surrounded by Hitler’s troops during WWII and held under siege for three years. Did you catch that? The beautiful city starved out for three years. Hitler’s experts had predicted that everyone would be dead after the first winter. Yet the people lived on and on.Two great factors in Leningrad's survival were the arts and community. Logically speaking, those who survived should have been the ones who stayed in their beds to conserve energy. But those who did so actually tended to die first. In actuality survivors were more likely to be the librarians who held reading groups in twenty-below-zero rooms or the teachers who searched out flats to find orphaned children. In the midst of it all, the famous composer Dmitri Shastakovich created a symphony that retold the story of what the Nazis had done, and the spirit of defiance in that music gave the Russian people hope. The score was smuggled out to the US, where people heard it and came to the aid of Leningrad. Art saved lives.

Review: Risen Movie: Through the Eyes of a Soldier

Today I have a guest post from my friend, Chrissy Segulin, who lives in Vicenza, Italy. She and her husband, Dave, attended the European premiere of Risen.  Like CSI, the film “Risen”—a Sony/TriStar production that opens today—starts after “the main event” has happened and follows the main character as he seeks to piece together evidence. Set in Jerusalem at the time of Christ, the story begins with the Crucifixion rather than ending with it. It follows the fictional hero, Clavius (Joseph Fiennes, Shakespeare in Love), an ambitious, high-ranking Roman tribune, and his aide, Lucius (Tom Felton, Harry Potter), as they sort rumor from reality.Clavius has already seen enough of death; he wants only to retire in peace. But Pontius Pilate tasks him with maintaining order in the city before a visit from the Emperor. Pilate is specifically concerned with the followers of a rabbi who has been crucified. The governor wants everyone to forget about this man, so he orders the body guarded.Once the corpse is removed from the cross, it is released to Joseph of Arimethia and the tomb sealed with wax. Soldiers also secure the site with ropes so that the rabbi’s followers can’t steal the body. When it comes up missing anyway, jeopardizing Clavius’s future, Pilate charges him with finding it. What follows is the “greatest manhunt in history.”Like Ben-Hur, the historical-fiction approach provides a vehicle for a fresh telling of the Passion and Resurrection. Yet unlike some of the great classics, this film does add scenes with Jesus using words the Gospels do not record him as saying. Some audience members have found such scenes quite moving. But biblical purists will probably find more compelling the testimony of the story’s “eyewitnesses.”The skeptic Clavius is totally believable as a soldier doing his duty as he hunts for Jesus. He examines the tomb, burial cloths, and the stone at the grave. He also interrogates guards, witnesses on the streets, and Jesus’s friends and disciples. Because Clavius is a soldier, those who live in service of country as well as those who have seen too much of death—such as military, police and EMT personnel—will especially appreciate seeing the events from his unique point of view.The Crucifixion is gory, and death is ugly. This film shows such realities as they are. The first fifteen minutes include an intense, violent battle scene. Jesus and two others are seen nailed to crosses. Christ’s side is pierced. And soldiers break the legs of those flanking him. Consequently, the film has a PG-13 (USA) rating "for biblical violence, including some disturbing images." Parents and youth leaders will need to consider whether such scenes are age-appropriate for younger audiences.Having attended the Rome premier, I recommend the film both for the committed Christian and the non-devout. There is no altar call at the end—just maybe a call to examine the evidence for yourself.

Coming this Friday, Feb 19: "Risen"

My friends, who saw the premiere in Rome, are giving it two thumbs up. Check back Friday for their review.

"Many Beautiful Things" Film Explores One of Greatest Unknown Female Artists

Lilias Trotter self-portrait

Many Beautiful Things premiers in Dallas in February 11.

(Washington DC, Dan Wooding, Assist News Service—Jan. 24, 2016) — Has the world missed one of the greatest female Christian artists of all time? Michelle Dockery (Lady Mary, Downton Abbey) and John Rhys-Davies (Lord of the Rings) lend their voices to help explore this question in a new documentary film, "Many Beautiful Things," about the nearly unknown Lilias Trotter.The film takes viewers to Victorian England to tell the true story of a daring young woman who defied cultural norms after winning the favor of England’s top art critic of the day, John Ruskin. The artist was a prodigious, self-taught young woman who found herself torn between two desires—to strengthen her flourishing artistic talents or pursue a higher calling as a missionary serving marginalized women and children in North Africa.Through dazzling animation and cinematography featuring original works by Trotter, the film challenges viewers to question how much they are willing to sacrifice to serve God. Trotter’s history is shared through the eyes of Miriam Rockness, a self-made scholar in her early 70s who has become the world's leading expert on the artist-turned-missionary after nearly 30 years of research.The film debuts on Feb. 6 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, with theatrical screenings taking place around the country Feb. 7–14. Its Dallas premier is scheduled for February 11 at 7:30 at Valley View. "Many Beautiful Things" will be available to download and on DVD on International Women’s Day: March 8.   

Check out the War and Peace Mini-Series

Have you been watching the "War and Peace" four-part miniseries?Simulcasting on Lifetime, A&E and HISTORY, the miniseries began on Monday, January 18, at 9pm ET/PT. The epic story features scoundrels and heroes presented by an award-winning cast. These include SAG Award® and Film Independent Spirit Award winner Paul Dano (Love and Mercy), Lily James (Rose on Downton Abbey), James Norton (Happy Valley), Oscar®, Golden Globe and BAFTA winner Jim Broadbent (Iris), Golden Globe® winner Gillian Anderson (The X-Files) and others. The four-week event airs Mondays, 9pm - 11pm ET/PT.A thrilling tale of love, war, and family, War and Peace is widely considered the greatest novel ever written. Set against the backdrop of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, War & Peace is the ultimate story of passion and romance, scandal and deceit. It follows the rise and fall of five aristocratic families, all jockeying for top position in the waning days of imperial Russia. Pierre Bezukhov (Dano) suddenly finds himself in possession of great wealth at the mercy of fortune-hunters eager to take advantage of his naiveté. His friend, the dashing Andrei Bolkonsky (Norton), yearns for war-glory, but finds only heartbreak and disillusionment, which may be cured by the lovely young Natasha Rostov (James). She needs to marry well to save her family from financial ruin. This version (thankfully) omits the hundreds of pages of Tolstoy's battle scenes, and it goes "light" on the obsession Pierre's character has with reversing the poverty of the peasants on his land.Produced by BBC Cymru Wales Drama, in partnership with others, War & Peace was filmed in Russia, Lithuania, and Latvia. This production remains true to the faith themes that Tolstoy made central to his characters' development. The costumes are superb. The cinematography, fabulous. Enjoy!

Opening Today at the Dallas Museum of Art

Jackson Pollock: Blind SpotsAbstract expressionist Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) achieved fame in the late 1940s with his distinctive “drip paintings.” At the Dallas Museum of Art, "Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots" explores what came next: Pollock’s “black paintings,” a series of black enamel and oil paintings on untreated canvas created from 1951 to 1953. In its only United States showing, the exhibit includes 31 black paintings; works on paper made with enamel, ink, and watercolor; and five sculptures. The works immerse audiences in “Pollock’s complete oeuvre and shed new light on the experimentation and ingenuity that has become synonymous with his practice,” the museum explains. November 20–March 20."Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots" is only the third major U.S. museum exhibition to focus solely on the artist hailed as “the greatest painter this country has ever produced.” Experts have deemed the show a “once in a lifetime” exhibition, organized by the DMA’s Hoffman Family Senior Curator of Contemporary Art Gavin Delahunty: the largest survey of Jackson Pollock’s black paintings ever assembled. This exceptional presentation, which critics hailed as “sensational," "exhilarating," "genius," “revelatory,” and “revolutionary” on its UK premier at Tate Liverpool, will receive its sole US presentation in Dallas and include many works that have not been exhibited for more than 50 years.Jackson Pollock: Blind Spots will require a $16.00 special exhibition ticket. 

Missing the Martyr: "A.D." on the Death of Stephen

The 12-part mini-series A.D.: The Bible Continues releases tomorrow on DVD. Today's guest Sarah Frase considers some of the strengths and weaknesses of the series. Sarah loves words, action figures, artists, teenagers, and Jesus. After teaching high school English and Theatre for eight years, Sarah is currently pursuing a master's in Media Arts and Worship at Dallas Theological Seminary.When a new adaptation of the Bible is dramatized either for television or film, Christians commonly evaluate it by four criteria: 1) Is the adaptation theologically or doctrinally sound? 2) Is it close to scripture, leaving room for varying interpretations? 3) Is the adaptation historically accurate in light of additional texts outside of scripture? And finally 4) Is the quality of the production (such as the writing, acting, sets, costumes, camera shots) high?As Christians we are called to be critical, not passive, consumers of media, not in the spirit of culture wars but rather in the spirit of the Bereans, who saw wisdom in testing all ideas against God’s truth.What’s interesting is that typically the above-mentioned four criteria create a spectrum on which most thinking believers fall in terms of what they value most highly:Theologically                         Scripturally                                               Historically                              High Production                  Sound                                       Accurate                                                      Accurate                                    QualityThis spectrum is not meant to imply that theological soundness and high production quality are mutually exclusive values, only to illustrate a trend that Christian consumers tend to treat them like mutually exclusive values. A Christian who typically privileges doctrinal soundness above all else won’t object if the quality of the production is poor, observing, “Well at least the theology’s right.” This is how terribly written and poorly acted productions such as “God’s Not Dead” garner viewership.On the other end of the spectrum, a Christian who privileges filmmaking techniques, a well-developed story, and acting will express great admiration for productions like Darren Aronofsky’s “Noah,” observing, “We as Christians know what correct doctrine is, so it’s not going to harm us to enjoy this as a good piece of art.”Those Christians who value scriptural or historical accuracy typically also hold these values in combination with one of the other two—either doctrine or production quality. The bad news is that somewhere in our history, Christians have bought into the lie that these four criteria are somehow mutually exclusive values—that we can expect a movie to have some of them, maybe even three of them, but never all four. Until we cease accepting this lie, all films made which are adaptations of scripture are going to fall closer to one end or the other of this spectrum—especially as Christian and secular producers continue to see Christians as a viable market for newly created content.Unfortunately, the television mini-series, “A.D. The Bible Continues,” is no exception. A sequel to the NBC mini-series “The Bible, A.D.” begins with the resurrection of Jesus and covers the events of the first ten chapters of the Book of Acts. Under some misapprehension that this text does not have enough controversial action to keep the attention of current audience, producers Roma Downey and Mark Burnett have added political conflict and intrigue plotlines, mostly centering on the power struggles between Rome, the Sanhedrin, the Zealots, and the new Church.The costumes, acting, and even dialogue are for the large part well executed, and the casting director ought to be applauded for casting early Christians, including the apostles themselves, with actors of varying ethnicities (even if they all still speak in Shakespearean as opposed to Semitic cadences). The additional plotlines don’t harm the adaptation, but they do derail it, and reveal another misconception: that you can’t wring drama out of an ancient text that a contemporary audience will connect to. This is why we need our screen writers to be good Bible expositors—so that they will see the drama already inherent in the text and how it parallels present-day conflicts the audience faces.Best MomentOne of the best moments of the series occurs in the episode, “The First Martyr,” because writers took a less-shown Semitic cultural practice and shared it with the audience. When looking on the dead body of a zealot, whom the Romans slaughtered graphically as an example, Peter begins singing a psalm of lament, and Caiaphas joins in with him. This simple moment proves powerful to the audience, because two leaders on opposite ends of the Gospel are both grieving the violence their people are experiencing. That they both know the words and the tune by heart establishes the shared culture between the Jews and Christians in a way that is illustrative and beautiful rather than preachy. And that ephemeral unity between these typically opposing figures plays right into the dramatic tension of the following moment when Peter can’t resist following the song with a call to the Gospel, and Caiaphas has him instantly arrested.Missed OpportunityUnfortunately, this same episode that gives the audience a moment of good writing, fails to repeat this feat for the main act, offering a highly disappointing adaptation of the death of Stephen, Christianity’s first martyr. Part of this is because what A.D. tapped into with their multiracial casting—the need for a more inclusive rendering of the early church—they failed to see in the actual text of the New Testament. Stephen was most likely a Hellenist, and ethnic tension played a decisive role in his trial and death. Stephen’s death is a missed opportunity to dialogue about racial tensions and racial reconciliation, chief issues that the church is wading through today.In the television series, Stephen is introduced to the audience at his baptism instead of during his appointment as a deacon. He travels with Peter’s daughter back to Jerusalem and yells out from the crowd demanding the release of Peter and John from the Sanhedrin. He witnesses the raising of Tabitha, and tries to convince Peter to take the news of this miracle to the Temple. Additionally, he initiates a confrontation with Cornelius, standing in his way as he is escorting some arrested Jewish boys, leading to his being beaten by the Roman in the street. Rather than depict the Stephen actually described in Acts, selected for his reputation of a mature and godly character, he is written as a replacement for Peter—impulsive, emotional, and quick to provoke trouble with his words.Besides inheriting the character traits Peter showed in the gospels, in A. D. Stephen might also be nicknamed “the impatient evangelist.” When Peter tries to appoint him over the camp of Christians outside of the city (the show’s only minor nod to placing Stephen in a leadership role), he insists that since he has studied Torah since he was a child, he should be in Jerusalem preaching.Later on in the same episode, when the apostles have been arrested and badly beaten for their testimony, Peter tells Stephen that they all knew from Jesus’s words that they would have to make sacrifices, and Stephen responds with adolescent delivery: “not like this.”The following day he goes to the Temple, confronts the Sanhedrin, accusing them of the unjust punishment of righteous men, calling them those who received the Law from angels but did not keep it and the descendants of their ancestors who murdered the prophets (Acts 7:51–53). Stephen also challenges them that God doesn’t dwell in a house made by human hands (vv. 48-49), and brings up Jesus’ words about the coming destruction of the temple. His claim to see Christ at the right hand of God (v. 56) is what at last provokes them to take him outside the city and stone him to death.While the establishment of Stephen’s character in the show as impulsive and confrontational, and his professed knowledge of Torah makes this final confrontation plausible for the audience, building this dramatic tension would not have been necessary if the writers had instead depicted his character and heritage as it appears in the book of Acts. If the screen writers of A.D. had also known how to exegete the Bible, they would have seen the ripe context for drama in the fact that Stephen was likely a Hellenist.The Real Stephen One of the earliest conflicts within the Church that was a test of its leadership in the complaint that the Hellenist widows were being neglected in the daily food distribution (6:1). The Hellenists were foreign Jews from places such as Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, or Asia (v. 9). This means not only were they a minority group within the church, but also that they did not have the shared cultural commonalities with one another that the Jews did. As proselytes and descendants of Hebrew families who had lived outside of Israel for a generation or generations, the only thing the Hellenists had in common with each other was that they were worshipers of Yahweh and outsiders. The complaint that their widows are being treated as second-class citizens within the Church was taken so seriously by the existing leadership that an entirely new office—that of a deacon—was created just to minister to the needs of this people group and others like them. Additionally, the men appointed to this new office all had Greek names, including Stephen. This suggests that they were foreign Jews and Hellenists themselves. So not only did Church leadership demonstrate that they took the complaints of the Hellenists seriously, they further proved that these people were equal to the Jews in importance within the church by building a leadership team out of that minority.In the Book of Acts, the drama created by the marginalizing of a people group within the Church is handled in a way that is beautiful and should be a model for churches experiencing the same protests from their own congregants. Placing confidence in people by placing them in leadership speaks volumes more than just making reparations, but no changes.Stephen is one of the men in whom the confidence of the early Church was placed. He is described as “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit” and also “full of grace and power” even performing wonders and signs among the people so that even priests came to faith in Christ (6:5–8). So not only was Stephen recognized as faithful and meant for leadership by men, but by God, as the power of his ministry showed. His presence in leadership unified the Church where it might have become divided. These factors in the story naturally compel the audience to like Stephen and to find his death devastating, since it affects the Church so greatly.In the biblical text there is also a plethora of dramatic tension already present in Stephen’s arrest and trial. It was bad enough to have Jesus and Peter, Jews from Israel, doing irrefutable signs and wonders in the sight of the people. But then Steven as a Hellenist performed them! As if this were not complex enough, the people who brought him to the Jewish leadership for judgment were local synagogue members from different nations than the Jews (6:9). The Hellenists even supplied false witnesses to slander Stephen, because they couldn’t out-argue him as a Spirit-filled apologist (vv. 10–14).Ironically, instead of taking note of his witness and considering joining the Church where they may be recognized as equals, Hellenist Jews took Stephen to the Sanhedrin, perhaps leveraging his arrest to build their credibility and unity with the Jewish religious leadership.When Stephen testified in his own defense before the Sanhedrin (Acts 7), Stephen showed a deep knowledge and understanding of Torah, which would have been a slap in the face to the Council of Jews judging him. His eloquence directly challenged and refuted any stereotyping about foreign Jews that they might have held.Moreover, Stephen’s conduct is repeatedly described in terms of constraint, such as “his face like the face of an angel” (6:15). Nothing rebukes a charge that a person is inciting conflict quite like their conducting themselves with self-control and appealing with reason. Stephen’s submissive conduct and choice arguments calmly but boldly delivered were echoed by leaders such a Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi, both of whom endured arrest and spoke out for human rights.Finally, the majority of Stephen’s address involved Moses, the bringing of the Law, David the beloved ruler, and the sacred place of the Temple itself (Acts 7). Before the most learned Jewish men in Israel, Stephen dared to discuss these subjects. Not only that, he connected them to Jesus of Nazareth (of whom they had forbidden the apostles to speak). And Stephen claimed to behold Jesus standing at God’s right hand (7:56). This claim, along with the stinging indictment of Deuteronomy 10:16 in calling them “stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears” (Acts 7:51) were even more unbearable coming from the mouth of a Hellenist. Stephen’s words provoked the leaders to protest, “Who are you to rebuke us?”Yet in all his actions, including the surrender of his spirit to God and forgiving his murderers (vv. 59–60) Stephen modeled Christ.Pseudo-StephenIn A.D., the replacement of this powerful existing biblical narrative with that of an impulsive and misguided young believer is a poor choice at best, and a downright irresponsible one at worst. Failing to tell Stephen’s story as it appears in Acts is a missed opportunity for a contemporary audience to identify with first-century believers. The grievous loss of Stephen could even be paralleled to the grievous loss the Church experienced earlier this year with the shooting of Africa-American church leaders in Charleston.In Stephen’s story we also see a beautiful model in the honoring of the Hellenists as equal church members. This serves as an example of how the Church today can hear and honor the voices of minorities and the marginalized within the Church.And this is why it is essential that writers, especially those who write for television, receive a brief education in Bible exposition. Even a rudimentary expositor of the Scriptures will have the tools to discover the drama inherit in the real human conflicts the Bible records and see how relevant they can be for viewers today.Find more  from Sarah:On FraseologyBlind Corner FictionTwitter: @SarahEFrase

Arts Week!

Next week is Arts Week at DTS. Here's the announcement and schedule.

The Beauty of Books

Why does our society still value books so highly? Why do we love and respect them so? We know why. Tweets and Vines have their place, but a book is a slower and deeper thing. Every book is an invitation to spend meaningful time alone with the person behind it—a storyteller you love, a mind you admire, a member of your family. Once you pick up that book, you have that person’s full attention, for as long as you choose to spend in his or her company. In our distracted world, that’s worth a great deal. —Joel Segel, Publishers Weekly, “Enduring Value,” Jan 30, 2015

Great Summer Read: All the Light We Cannot See

Need a great read to take with you poolside this summer? Check out Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See, winner of the Pulitzer Prize.While in Italy, I overheard a number of friends with great taste in fiction raving about this beautifully crafted story. It's about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France during World War II.The narrative with interwoven lives intrigued me; and Doerr’s gorgeous metaphors and descriptions  captivated me. At times I said “wow” out loud.The book took Doerr ten years to write, and it bears the marks of careful craft in contrast with the hurried prose of authors cranking out their next crowd-pleasers. This one landed on the list of National Book Award finalists for good reason.The LA Times described Doerr as a writer “whose sentences never fail to thrill.” I completely agree.

Medieval Art and Spirituality

I leave today for Italy to teach a two-week course in medieval art and spirituality. We start in Rome and train up to Orvieto, home base for a week—with day trips to Assisi and Siena. After that...stay tuned to find out.One of the shifts in art I discovered in my preparations was that the church has not always allowed images of God the Father (such as we see in the Sistine Chapel). The introduction of the human male image of the Father in addition to the Protestant removal of Mary has left us not only with human images of the invisible God(!),  but a view of Christianity that makes us think even our Deity is predominately male. If you have about an hour for an interesting history lesson on the subject, check out this lecture on "Visual Heresy: Imagine God the Father in the History of Art" by Wheaton's associate professor of Art History.

Hit Pause: An author interview

Recently Chris Maxwell answered some questions for my readers. Chris is the director of Spiritual Life and Campus Pastor at Emmanuel College in Franklin Springs, Georgia. He served as a lead pastor in Orlando, Florida, for twenty years, is an epilepsy advocate, and has authored six books. His most recent work is Pause for Pastors: Finding Still Waters in the Storm of Ministry. This is part one of two:Your schedule looks crazy—working with college students, writing and editing books, speaking around the world. How do you do all that?I work hard to balance my own busy schedule as I seek to encourage others to find balance. Many of us can easily become obsessed with outcomes. I try to emphasize to myself what I say to others: seek to enjoy the moment. I do not want to miss the reality of the now. Keeping that mindset helps me “pause” in the middle of the hurry.It can’t be easy to live out your theme of “pause.” How can we learn to pause in our rapidly racing world?Most of us choose to embrace the pace of our times. We multi-task in our hi-tech world. We set our goals. We establish our plans. We hurry our way there to achieve such plans with perfection. Those aren’t all wrong but they can become damaging as we dash from one accomplishment to another. We must learn to hit “pause.” Doing so is a choice we must make. Rather than letting our schedules, our insecurities, our need to prove worth, and our culture’s drive control us, we should reject that pressure. How? Slow the pace. By choice, slow the pace.I tell people to notice all the beauty beside us—the stillness of God, the wonder of his world and his people. We can marvel at words and faces, clouds and stars, songs and stories, Scripture and conversations. We can rest more and be controlled less by stress. We can sit and eat—slowly. We can read—slowly. We can pray—slowly. A word, a sentence, a face, a life—these can all be more important experientially instead of just in theory if we choose to breath in the moment. Maybe we can grow in this as we learn to see value in stillness, silence, nothingness. Letting Psalm 23 be a poetic prayer of life. Finding our own still waters even amid our hurried tempo and crammed schedules.The first book in your “pause” series is geared toward all of us. The second, for busy moms. And your latest, for busy pastors. Speak to mothers and pastors and all leaders who seem to feel guilty if they rest and pursue times of solitude.There are so many times I have let what I do for God take the place of being with God.When I first started serving as a lead pastor, I set aside time for personal spiritual formation. But over the years, things changed. I needed to do more and accomplish more. People needed me—or, maybe I needed to be needed. We live in a driven, obsessed world, even in church business. Fortunately, I learned the importance of returning to “pause.” These three books aren’t just a series. They offer an invitation to open eyes and see that beauty nearby, to open ears and hear the sounds.I had a few advantages in my nineteen years of pastoring. Our congregation allowed me space. My family was a priority. But I also had a team of accountability partners who didn’t care about my sermons or books or attendance. They focused on soul care, on my priorities, on my health, on my motives. They asked me difficult questions. So many pastors live without that.It is important for pastors to choose to be intentional. Plan unplanned time. Schedule unhurried Sabbath moments. Eat a meal and refuse to discuss church talk. Self-care comes from remembering our importance to God and people. Prayer time, study time, walks, music, artwork, healthy conversations, and service projects are not to impress God or improve our status. They are steps in a walk with our Father. They engage in healthy relational dialogue with our Lover. We choose to just sit with Him. We read his words not just to prepare a sermon but to “be transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Romans 12:2).Each book in the Pause series is intended to guide readers toward an awareness that the opportunities are there. We just miss them too often.(Part 2 tomorrow.)