By Way of Introduction

Hi! Thank you for stopping by. This is my first posting on this blog site, so I just want to outline what I hope to do here, in this tiny parking space of the cyber parking lot. As one who has been very involved in the nuts and bolts of planning for both traditional and contemporary worship services, I found that I was frustrated with the lack of resources tying contemporary, secular media to the Christian life. I am a strong believer that there is something sacred in everything—that everything in our world is or can be in some way touched by the divine, by God; it could be something, someone, or a situation that speaks to us, inspires us to be better people, or it could be something that demands a response from us to make a difference through compassion for the world around us.

While I was serving as a minister, I simply didn't have the time and energy to keep up with all of the current movies and television shows, though I tried! Now I have twins and am fortunate to be able to stay home with them for a few years and, during their nap times and in between laundry and keeping up with the house, I can hopefully provide some resources for others about contemporary, secular media.

I watch secular media, a lot of it, through the lens that searches for the sacred in the secular. I'll post my thoughts on movies and television shows, among other things, and how they can relate to the Christian life, the life that is meant to be lived in love and compassion for the world, for all of humanity.

One of my first tasks is to watch a popular Science Fiction show Battlestar Galactica, which will begin its fourth season early next year. This is a show I enjoy and since it has a long hiatus, this will help me to wait out the next seven or so months. I plan to go episode by episode and blog my views of how it takes on theological points—it's a really interesting show that I would recommend you to watch! It has received a lot of good press, won the Peabody in 2006, and several big journals (like Newsweek) have called it the best show on television. I just pretty much stumbled across it this Spring. You can find out more about this show from scifi.com (http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/about/show/) and more background about the show will be posted in this blog. But, don't worry—I'm going to be watching other things, too! So, I'll blog about them.

Hopefully, this little site will provide some inspiration to consider secular media in worship planning, so that parishioners will have a model so that they can see the sacred in the secular.