Monday, May 01, 2006

DaVinci Code at Willow Creek Community Church

Last week we started the weekend series on The DaVinci Code. Not many series offer such rich inspiration to the various types of artists that put together a program. Gothic arches, faux stained glass windows, renaissance art, classical music... it was like walking into a different church this weekend.

The result was a very cohesive and mesmerizing program. The music, performed by a whole bunch of strings with a couple of electric guitars and some big bad percussion was the perfect blend of lovely and creepy.!
Even the announcement graphics that cycle before the service had the "look" going, with little messages and images hidden in DaVinci paintings. But I think my favorite had to be the bulletin, which featured DaVinci-ied versions of Todd's adorable hoola hoop girl

Then of course there was Lee Strobel's message. It was titled "Do The Winners Write History?" Folks were just riveted. You don't often hear spontaneous applause in the middle of history lectures, which was what this was, most of the time.

At Lee Strobel's website you can see videos covering the subjects we will be discussing at church over the course of this series. Here is one that answers the question "Was Christ just a holy man who was later declared God by the Council of Nicea in the year 325AD in order to increase the authority of the emperor Constantine?"

Strobel has a ton of fascinating video clips discussing just about every religious question you can imagine at his website. (Include some Ben Witherington just for you Friar!)

4 comments:

Kimberly Cangelosi said...

Obviously, Willow has made the choice to engage on this one. Some churches are taking a different approach. Christianity Today features an article by Barbara Nicolosi describing the logic (or whatever) behind the decision NOT to engage.

"The debate is all on hell's terms. I am somebody who reads about exorcisms. I don't know why. I just do. And one of the first rules of exorcism is that you never answer the Devil's questions. You don't debate the Devil. You do not give evil the authority to question God."

But if that little gem is not enough to convince you, listen to this - "some of the sheep would be scandalized away from Jesus by this idiotic story. And they will. The sheep have been bred as teeming little narcissist lambs who stubbornly consider themselves "special," no matter how mediocre their understanding and living out of their life of discipleship. We have a global pasture full of sheep pasturing themselves, with coats shamefully besmirched by loving their sins."

I think CT published this for it's entertainment value, how about you?

Crystal Starr said...

I think that I am pretty proud of the way Willow is handling this D-code stuff. I think they are wise to challenge us to seek the truth, God's TRUTH.

I think that a lot of people would think that if the church ignored this they would have more reason to believe the authors tall tails.

Small group tonight?

Kimberly Cangelosi said...

Hi Crystal, I'm not feeling well today and I'm not sure about small group tonight...I think Steph still wants to go out though...she'll probably call you this evening. Sorry :(

Crystal Starr said...

Kim, no problem, don't even worry or be sorry for a second. Just get better.

(((big hug)))