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Oh My God Trailer

Film director and photographer Peter Rodger is working with composer Alexander van Bubenheim to shoot Oh My God, a film set in over 22 countries, exploring the different ideas and thoughts people from around the world have on God. Rodger is treating the film as a work in progress and has released a four minute trailer based on filming already done in India, Kenya, Israel, Palestinian territories, Morocco and the United States of America.

Peter explains some of the background to the Oh My God project.

“We are experiencing days of religious turmoil, of fundamentalism, fanaticism and the breakdown of spirituality through technology and reason. After the collapse of the piety that was rooted in myth, cult, occult, ancient myths and religions, I ask the question, “What is God?” It’s not so much “Who is God”, but “What” is God?”

“I want this question to be answered from the mouths of many different people - from religious leaders to a peasant child; from an industrialist to a fisherman off the coast of India; from a Hollywood celebrity to a Maasai Warrior.”

Peter says that many of his subjects were stimulated by the question, “What is God?” to start thinking, in some cases coming back to ask for a second interview to express new insights.

The trailer is available to download in HD Quicktime,

Tags: Movies, multimedia, Theology

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Tony Jones on the Road

Tony Jones, national director of Emergent in the USA, has started up a video series on YouTube, featuring some of the people and thinking found in his book, “The New Christians”. The first features Trucker Frank, a guy who tells it like it is. Frank discovered that Jesus focused on what we do now rather than life after death. Frank got kicked out of the church he was pastoring for talking to the people who had left. The act that tipped the scales was throwing down a fake plant, in its pot, and telling the remnant that they were as fake as that plant…

Being a prophet is an exciting calling but it’s hard to find people who will pay you to live it out.

Tony will be in Australia in October, for Black Stump Festival in Sydney. We’re in conversation about the possibility of a visit to Queensland.

Tags: Emergent, Emerging Church, Tony Jones

Leave a comment | Posted in » Emerging Church, Reading, Theology

Rob Bell Too Sexy For My Church

Rob Bell, pastor at Mars Hill Bible Church, presenter in the Nooma audiovisual series, is taken to town for a ride in Zooma, a spoof performed by Steve Gray of Steve and Kathy Gray Show.

This was the video that got Steve and Kathy banned from GodTube. The senior pastors of World Revival Church of Kansas City (formerly The Smithton Outpouring) have cut out a niche in spoofing the excesses or potential hypocrisies of the Christian churches in the United States. Of course, now that their work is booming on YouTube, the couple themselves are vulnerable to the same ego-related excesses faced by any high profile speakers and writers.

Rob Bell is author of Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith, and Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality And Spirituality. He’s known for his tours of the United States: Everything is Spiritual, and The God’s Aren’t Angry.

Tags: Emerging Church, Nooma, Rob Bell

4 Comments | Posted in » Culture, Emerging Church, Humour, Reading