The Media Mission Field
TCF Sermon
April 24, 2005
I want to read two passages of scripture this morning, and then ask you some questions.
Mark 16:15 - He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.”
Ephes. 6:12 - For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Now, this morning’s message will be a little bit different than usual. We’re not going to spend a lot of time looking at the nuances of these passages, examining them word by word. What we are going to do is examine some very practical implications of these two verses, in the context of a very specific mission field.
When we think of the phrase in the Mark passage “all the world,” what do we think of? What does that mean? We think of anyplace, right? Anyplace in the world. Any people group. In this church, we’ve seen missionaries, people who’ve sat in these chairs with us on Sunday mornings, go to almost every continent.
We’ve seen missionaries in traditional, as well as non-traditional mission fields. Doing traditional missions work as well as non-traditional missions work. We’ve seen members of this church family, who’ve gone to very hard places, places where God’s light was very dim, places where there was a real risk in sharing their faith.
We’ve seen our missionaries go to nations, to people groups, where very small percentages of the population were Christian. We’ve seen them go to do all different kinds of work, too. Some directly related to preaching the gospel, but many more indirectly related to sharing their faith, much like our work here, in our jobs, in our neighborhoods, in our schools, places we can, and should, see as our mission work, too.
For example, Chris Place, among the other work that he does, serves casino workers with medical services, in Macau, China, and trusts God that in building relationships with those people, and serving them with the love of Christ he’ll have real, genuine opportunities, to share the love of Christ.
Martha (not her real name) teaches Afghan children. She builds relationships through this, and trusts God that in building those relationships, she, too, will have real, genuine opportunities, to introduce people to Jesus. So, all the world means not just all the nations, but all kinds of people, all kinds of cultures, and cultures within cultures, sometimes including those whose behavior we don’t necessarily endorse, like the casino workers Chris Place ministers to.
We’re able to do that partly because of what it says in Ephesians 6. We recognize that these people we’re trying to reach, these people involved in what scripture might clearly condemn as sinful, are not our enemy.
Our enemy is THE enemy – the spiritual forces of darkness, those forces that entice and entrap people into sinful lifestyles. So, we love them, don’t we? We serve them. We reach out to them, knowing that by revealing Christ in our actions, and through our prayers, God can use us to reach them with the gospel.
So, in that way, these two passages of scripture go together. We go into all the world, including those parts of the world that are spiritually dark, perhaps especially those parts of the world that are spiritually dark, realizing that the people living in this darkness, are not our enemy.
Rather, they are loved by God, though they are still in that state of sin, and in need of redemption. If you think about it, it’s the same state we were in...after all, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. There’s not a one of us that does not apply to.
Now, if you think about the phrase all the world, and ponder the hardest, perhaps most important, mission fields these days, several come to mind. But if I had to number them, perhaps by degree of difficulty, I might do it like this:
1. Islam and Arabic nations
2. Asian nations and Asian religions
They’re at least among, if not actually the hardest and most important mission fields for several reasons. The sheer numbers of people involved is a significant reason. Then, too, all you have to do is open a newspaper, or turn on the television news, and it’s easy to understand why Islam is a tremendous missions challenge, why Arab nations, or other largely Muslim nations, are a dangerous place to be.
When we see the repression in a place like North Korea, we recognize it as a very challenging mission field. Many missionaries literally risk their lives in some of these nations. Most Islamic nations are hostile to Christianity, as are many Asian nations.
We have one man among us, hoping to go to North Korea, and he’s waiting on God to make the way for him to go, because he can’t go as a missionary. You cannot get into China as a missionary, either. So there’s some strategic planning involved in missions to these particular fields.
What’s more, let’s consider the worldwide impact of not reaching the Islamic world, for example. It may be the world’s most challenging mission field, but the consequences of not responding to this call are far-reaching.
The consequences, first and foremost, mean that millions of Muslims will die without Jesus. That’s the most tragic consequence of not reaching the Muslim world.
But I think we also have to consider the more temporal consequences of not reaching out to, not targeting these mission fields. Left unchecked, left unchallenged in the spiritual realm, Islam will continue to expand. It’s already making great inroads in western Europe, mostly by immigration. And a whole new generation of terrorists are being developed. No, I don’t mean to say that all Muslims are terrorists --- yet, it’s also clear that a portion of them are.
So, let’s think about the impact of the Islamic worldview on the rest of the world. That, too, should be a reason to try to reach them, because there’s a battle for souls going on in the world, and our role is to cooperate with the Holy Spirit, in praying, sending and going into these mission fields, with the goal of winning this battle for souls.
But, this morning’s message is not really about reaching Islam or Arab nations. I cited these examples for comparison purposes this morning – so remember these thoughts about these mission fields. It’s not really about reaching Asia, and those trapped in the darkness of their Eastern religions. These things should be important to the church today.
But, I want to think about another mission field this morning. This mission field, like Islam, is very challenging to reach. The people in this group are very hostile to true Christian faith. This mission field, like Islam, has the potential to literally change the spiritual landscape of the world. If we don’t reach this mission field, if we make no inroads at all, their already significant negative influence on the world will continue unchecked. This mission field, like North Korea, requires you to go into it with another skill, another trade, anything but going in as a missionary.
Just as you can’t sign up to go to China, and tell the Chinese authorities you’re coming in as a missionary, you cannot go into this mission field without a skill they need. What’s more, as in these most needy mission fields, the Christians who are there need our prayers. They need our spiritual support. As in Asian and Muslim countries, the percentage of Christians is very low in this mission field.
Yet, this mission field is very low on the radar screen of most Christians. Actually, this mission field isn’t even viewed as a mission field by most Christians. In fact, what most Christians think of when they hear the place most often associated with this mission field, is how bad these people are. How much damage they do to our world. And how much we dislike, maybe even hate them, and the results of their work in the world.
We’re not talking about radical Muslims. The place I’m looking at in a new way – perhaps at least new for most of you – is Hollywood. The Media Mission field. The people who create the entertainment we see in movies and on TV. The people who create the music and other entertainment that most people in the Western world, and even in much of the 3rd world, consume in mass quantities, often to their own detriment.
For the sake of this sermon this morning, I want to sensitize us to this Media Mission Field. And for ease of communication, I’ll refer to it as Hollywood, or as the media. But again, relating this back to our opening scriptures, I think we have to be honest and say, Hollywood would be included in “all the world,” wouldn’t it?
And, even as we must remember not to hate the people in the Muslim world, despite the huge negative impact which some of the elements of that world have had on our day to day existence, we must remember, even as the scripture tells us, that our battle is not against the people responsible for things like Desperate Housewives, MTV, CBS, HBO, our battle is not against Ozzy Osbourne, R. Kelly, or 50 Cent, Pulp Fiction, Sex and the City, or any of the thousands of other programs, movies, music or networks that daily serve up evil, debauchery, violence, sex, and very troubling messages to our culture.
But our battle is against the spiritual forces, forces which, if you think about it, I don’t believe any of us will have trouble seeing, are no doubt behind much of what is produced by the media.
So, this morning, if I can get us to think of the media, of Hollywood, in just a little different way, I believe we will have accomplished what God desires this morning. And what’s more, our response, if we can begin to view Hollywood as a mission field of sorts, and a critical mission field at that, in it’s own way right up there with Muslims and Asians, our response should be similar to our response to any other mission field God reveals to us.
That is, we should pray, and we should send, and we should go.
I think it’s very interesting, that, if you’ve noticed, Hollywood is trying these days to turn itself into Holywood. There are two primary reasons for that. One is the red state, blue state divide. Hollywood knows that, without at least some catering to the religious sensitivities of those of us living in the red states, their profits will fall – they’ll make less money.
And Hollywood is, above all else, a business. The other reason is the success of the movie The Passion of the Christ. This success – that is – the amazing amount of money this movie made, really shocked the media business. They have no frame of reference to understand how such a blatantly religious movie could have made so much money.
The one thing you can always count on Hollywood to do, is to be derivative. That is – to attempt to imitate something that’s already proven to work. That’s one reason so many movies, have so many awful sequels. They keep making sequels until the sequels quit making money.
The problem is, when they see a movie like Mel Gibson’s movie about the crucifixion of Jesus, they get together and think, “gee, what is it that made this successful?” More often than not, they take one element of it...in this case, the religious theme, and try to capitalize on it. “Well, Americans want religion,” they think, “so by golly, we’ll give it to them.”
So what do we get? We get TV programs like Revelations on NBC – from what I’ve heard, a very entertaining, but ultimately quite unbibilical, portrayal of events in the last book of the Bible.
We get another NBC program being developed now called The Book of Daniel - let me read a description of this one:
In "Book of Daniel," actor Aidan Quinn plays a pill-popping Episcopal priest who has the ability to talk about his drug addiction with a hip, modern-day Jesus.
From Fox, we’ll see in the next year or so a program they’re calling Briar and Graves.
It is the story of a hard-drinking, gun-toting excommunicated priest who has sworn to battle evil in the name of God. Along the way, he teams up with a neurologist who is in the process of examining her own beliefs.
The producers of this program have described it as The X Files goes to church.
Obviously, something’s missing, huh? It’s not as if these folks looked at the Passion of the Christ and got saved, and began producing things of redemptive value. That movie has had a real impact on what Hollywood produced, at least for a while, even if for purely monetary motives, but it didn’t change their hearts.
Seen in comparison with our analogy of other mission fields, think of it this way: we don’t just want Muslims to quit flying their planes into our buildings, do we?
Yes, of course, we do want that, but that’s not all we want. We want to see hearts changed, lives redeemed, right? The only real, lasting change is heart change.
Karen Covell is a TV producer and the director of the Hollywood Prayer Network. She writes in an article called “Does Hollywood Have a Prayer?”
"Where would Hollywood be today if American Christians actually started praying for the people creating films, music and TV shows?
Washington, D.C., is the global seat of power. Since the beginning of our nation, Christians have faithfully prayed for our political leaders, and today there are hundreds of prayer movements whose focus is to specifically pray for those leaders. The Presidential Prayer Team alone has an e-mail list of over 2.6 million American prayer warriors.
While Washington is the global seat of power, Hollywood is the global seat of influence. And Americans have long been concerned about Hollywood’s offerings. But instead of rallying to pray, as many have done for Washington, Christians often have rallied to rail -against Hollywood. Instead of encouraging entertainment leaders to produce better fare, Christians have organized angry letter-writing campaigns to express their distaste-and even hatred. But "grousing is not a gift of the Spirit," says Steve Douglass, president of Campus Crusade for Christ International. "We need to stop complaining about Hollywood and start praying for it.""
Right now, there are only two organizations trying to mobilize this kind of prayer. One is the Hollywood Prayer Network I just mentioned. Another is called Mastermedia International. They have about 50,000 people on their list of those praying. Hollywood Prayer Network has about 10,000. Assuming there’s no overlap, and I would guess there probably is, that means there are 60,000 people praying for what is perhaps the most influential, culture-shaping people group in America – maybe even the world. Does that sound like enough for such a significant mission field?
Quoting Karen Covell again:
"Why aren’t we praying for Hollywood? We’ve poured our prayers into missionary friends in Nigeria, but we haven’t thought to pray for the producers of CSI or Law and Order.
We have to step back from our stereotyped beliefs about Hollywood and ask the Creator of the Universe-and of the arts-how we should look at people in the entertainment industry. We have to listen to Christians in Hollywood about what they need from the church in order to make an eternal difference.
We can’t be afraid of Hollywood or its people. True, many aren’t Christians, or even churchgoers. And yes, they often create entertainment that’s immoral, violent and inappropriate. So do we hate them for it, or do we pray for them? Do we avoid them like the plague, or do we go as tent-makers to work side by side with them, build relationships, pray for them and love them to Jesus?
Do we try to make them act like Christians? Or do we pray for them to become Christians?"
All good questions, huh? Just as our prayers for missionaries like Martha (not her real name) are twofold: that is, we pray for the people of Afghanistan, that they would be reached with the gospel, but we also pray for Martha herself, that God would protect her, provide for her, and use her effectively in His Kingdom work there, our prayers for Hollywood should be similar. We pray for the unbelievers in positions of power, as well as for those in every area of work in the media, that they’d come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior. And we pray for those Christians already there, already being salt and light, that God would protect them, use them, effectively as tools in His Kingdom work there.
Let me tell you a few stories to illustrate the difference prayers for this mission field make.
The first is from a newsletter I get called The Median, produced by Mastermedia. I debated whether or not to use this, because it’s a rather long story, but I think it will be helpful to illustrate what’s going on in this mission field.
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The Amazing Power of Being Prayed For
by Dr. Larry Poland
"THERE IS A POWERFUL EFFECT on the lives of those who know people are praying for them . . . quite apart from God’s response to the prayers. Let me tell you the story of Sol Lieberman (not his real name), a Jewish man.
Sol Lieberman’s Story
Sol was head of the television division of a legendary Hollywood studio. He was on our “radar screen” because of his powerful position. Sol was tough to reach. Based in New York, his secretaries protected him from unwanted contact with the outside world.
When my associate, Dr. Buster Holmes, contacted Sol’s office for an appointment, the “palace guards” wouldn’t let us in.
Buster thought, “If I call after quitting time, sometimes execs will pick up the phone themselves.” This idea was of the Holy Spirit—that’s exactly what happened! Buster asked for a ten-minute appointment to present demographic data on “an immense and usually invisible market of seventy million media consumers calling themselves evangelical Christians.”
Sol was brusk, not easily persuaded, and made it clear that he didn’t see any benefit in granting the request. Buster—gracious but persistent—made one more approach. “We really want to meet with top leaders in media, and you are one of them.” Sol consented.
We had to earn Sol’s trust.
Sol greeted us with the skepticism we get from those who are suspicious of people from the faith community. They are accustomed to being bashed by Christians, and are reluctant to open themselves up for more of the same. In a few moments, light hearts and a little humor had opened up Sol, and we enjoyed a good laugh.
Two minutes into our presentation about the “Christian community market,” I defined an evangelical: “Evangelical is a word we don’t use much, from two Greek words meaning ‘messenger of good news.’ For us, the best news is that you don’t have to pay for all the things you’ve done wrong. If you place your faith in Jesus Christ, you can have forgiveness now and life after death. Such a deal!”
Sol smiled and said, “Well, hell, that’ll work for anybody!” We all laughed, and from then on, it was old home week!
It was clear that God was giving us wonderful favor.
Over the years, we saw Sol at major trade conventions. At one convention we told Sol, who became chairman of a rising young cable channel, that he was on the Media Leader Prayer Calendar as one of the 365 most powerful people in media. He clearly seemed pleased at “making the cut” and equally pleased that thousands of people were praying for him. Sol commented: “You know I’m Jewish, but I’m an equal opportunity prayee!”
Sol was clearly more grateful for the prayer—and more seriously so—than he had been before. In our New York meetings he was opening up, telling us inside information. We asked if we could pray for him, and, with his consent, we did so. We’d always pray blessing and health and wisdom for him and for God to draw him into a deep and personal relationship with Himself. His heart softened.
The love and care Buster and I were showing Sol was clearly drawing him in!
As our love deepened, his connection to us grew proportionately. His appreciation for the spiritual side of us also deepened. Proof was an interaction we had at a big convention.
“I want you guys to know how sorry I am that we made the decision we did on that programming,” Sol confessed. I didn’t know what he was talking about, but Buster said trade papers had a splash about some “over the edge” program content his channel had aired.
“We really made a bad decision on that one, and I want you to know it won’t happen again. We learned our lesson.”
Buster and I walked away in astonishment. This man owed us nothing. We had never—never—talked to him about the nature of his programming. We had never positioned ourselves as any kind of “judges” or critics of his channel’s program content. He attributed that moral accountability to us on his own. There was no explanation except that God had given us a place of credibility, favor and, perhaps, spiritual authority in his life!
Sol’s company went through some deep waters.
When we called for an appointment with Sol the next time, his secretary was genuinely apologetic. “Mr. Lieberman is so sorry, but he will not be able to meet with you. He has wall-to-wall meetings with some of the company’s top bosses. They’re facing some real challenges.” She offered meetings with two of Sol’s vice presidents, both Jewish women, and we accepted.
After the meeting with the channel’s VP’s, I walked down the hall past the glass wall of the boardroom. Sol saw me coming down the hall and bolted from his seat toward the door. When he extended his hand, I grabbed it and said with a big smile, “Did you want me to come in and lead in prayer?”
“Boy do we need it.” Sol wasn’t smiling. “We’re facing some biggies.”
“You’ve got it, Sol. God can solve your problems, and we’ll pray that He will.”
Then, last week it happened. Sol’s office called saying he was thrilled to be on the prayer calendar again and asked if he could have twenty extra copies! When I called, he thanked me profusely for putting him on the prayer calendar again.
“Your timing is spectacular, Larry. Do you know what day you’re praying? It’s the day I have to present our company’s budget to [his parent company, one of the biggest media conglomerates in the world]. So, at the start of my presentation, I’m going to pass the prayer calendars around the room and have a time of . . . well . . . prayer. Your timing is . . . divine.”
Of course, God’s timing is divine . . . and we are hearing similar stories from other nonChristian media leaders who have “big events” on their “day” for prayer on the Media Leader Prayer Calendar (but that’s another story!).
We met with Sol in New York the week after his meeting and asked what happened. When he passed out the prayer calendars to the directors of this multi-billion-dollar company, he said, “Thousands of people are praying for me and us today. You can approve our budget or not, but keep in mind that, whatever you do, you will be answering to a Higher Power!” Unbelievable!
Sol didn’t know that we had already given copies of the prayer calendar to many of those same board members via contacts in other venues, and that they, too, had expressed how much they appreciated the prayers. Sol is beginning to know that there is something amazing and powerful about prayer . . . and being prayed for."
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Of course, the other aspect to these prayers, and the work of this organization, Mastermedia, is that there’s tremendous support for those Christians working in the media.
Again quoting from The Median
"I can’t tell you how many times we’ve (Mastermedia) heard observations like “you understand us. The people in my church don’t understand my business – and some think I’ve sold out to the devil to work in Hollywood. The people in Hollywood don’t understand my faith – they think I’m nuts or weird. You understand both, and when I come to a Mastermedia meeting, I relax inside. You’re like an oasis in the desert."
Mastermedia has a database of nearly 4000 believers, many in high positions of influence and power in the media. I have a short, about 4 minute video I’d like you to see. This was shown to a group of about 700 at the inaugural National Media Prayer Breakfast held last November in Hollywood. I think it will help us illustrate something important about prayer for this mission field.
show video...Prayer Calendar
intro prayer calendar – available on stage after service – later on the literature table.
I know that some of us are faithful pray-ers for the Persecuted Church. Others pray faithfully for our missionaries, and for the nations our missionaries are trying to reach. This is all good, all appropriate, and I don’t in any way want to encourage anyone to abandon those efforts.
I also know God will not convict all of us to pray for this Media Mission Field, but I hope after this morning, you’ll think of Hollywood in a new way...not just as the purveyors of wrong values, but as people, worthy of God’s love, worthy of our prayers, people in need of redemption.
I want to close with something I found on the Mastermedia web site. It’s from Pray Magazine, called - 21 redemptive prayers for Hollywood (read select prayers from this list). Let me read a short selection of these prayers as we close.. ...Pray
FYI - link to www.mastermediaintl.org, and www.hollywoodprayernetwork.org, for resources to use with this sermon (Bill Sullivan)
