WEBVTT 1 00:00:23.400 --> 00:00:27.100 Hello and welcome to Word and Work an Intersection. 2 00:00:27.100 --> 00:00:30.600 I'm your host Dale Mayer joining us are Dr. 3 00:00:30.600 --> 00:00:33.100 Tim Saleska and Professor David Lewis. 4 00:00:33.100 --> 00:00:34.000 Dr. 5 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:34.500 Saleska. 6 00:00:34.500 --> 00:00:38.400 is a professor of exegetical Theology and Dean of ministerial 7 00:00:38.400 --> 00:00:44.300 formation and our basketball coach and Professor Lewis has an 8 00:00:44.300 --> 00:00:46.400 assistant professor of exegetical theology. 9 00:00:46.400 --> 00:00:51.200 Both gentleman were moderators at Concordia Seminary is recent Faith 10 00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:56.800 and Film Festival. Welcome gentlemen, and thanks for being here with 11 00:00:56.800 --> 00:00:57.100 us. 12 00:00:57.100 --> 00:01:02.700 I know I'm interested in hearing your analysis of what happened at the 13 00:01:02.700 --> 00:01:06.700 Faith and Film Festival and so is our audience. What were the 14 00:01:06.700 --> 00:01:09.900 initial reactions to this first-ever event. 15 00:01:09.900 --> 00:01:11.900 We had 75 16 00:01:11.900 --> 00:01:16.600 people register to attend and after talking to Erica Bennett the 17 00:01:16.600 --> 00:01:18.700 director of a continuing education. 18 00:01:18.700 --> 00:01:22.700 She says all the feedback that she's gotten has been overwhelmingly 19 00:01:22.700 --> 00:01:22.900 positive. 20 00:01:22.900 --> 00:01:27.100 And I know that was the reaction I got to the people who were there a 21 00:01:27.100 --> 00:01:30.800 lot of former students from all around the country came. And 22 00:01:30.800 --> 00:01:31.500 everything 23 00:01:31.500 --> 00:01:33.300 I heard was that it was a wonderful event. 24 00:01:33.300 --> 00:01:39.700 I understand that you've envisioned this event for some time David, 25 00:01:39.700 --> 00:01:43.200 would you talk about the background talk about what you hope to 26 00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:46.900 accomplish? Well, I don't think it's any secret that I'm a film 27 00:01:46.900 --> 00:01:47.100 buff. 28 00:01:47.100 --> 00:01:51.500 And since I was called to the Seminary, I began to host what we call 29 00:01:51.500 --> 00:01:55.600 Concordia movie night where some students and I would gather around 30 00:01:55.600 --> 00:02:00.000 a film we would watch it and discuss it. And so number in the 31 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:02.700 number of those students have come back and came back for the Faith 32 00:02:02.700 --> 00:02:03.200 and Film Festival. 33 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:07.300 And so I was always hoping that there might be like a theological 34 00:02:07.300 --> 00:02:11.100 Symposium that we might devote not just a film but the Christ and 35 00:02:11.100 --> 00:02:11.700 culture where film 36 00:02:11.900 --> 00:02:16.400 would be one important aspect of that Symposium and I've 37 00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:21.300 mentioned that from time to time and Jacob Wampfler a graduate of 38 00:02:21.300 --> 00:02:25.900 Concordia Seminary former student from hermeneutics. 39 00:02:25.900 --> 00:02:28.000 Hermeneutics, what is that? 40 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:32.500 The study of the art of the interpretation of scripture. Okay. Okay. 41 00:02:32.500 --> 00:02:40.500 In that class we talk a lot about language and I always share with students my love for film and my desire that 42 00:02:40.500 --> 00:02:41.600 we might have something like this. 43 00:02:41.600 --> 00:02:46.300 Like a film festival on campus and Jacob was sort of the guy 44 00:02:46.300 --> 00:02:49.100 who then got the ball rolling on this but this is something that I've 45 00:02:49.100 --> 00:02:49.200 always. 46 00:02:49.200 --> 00:02:54.400 I think it's good for Christians and for Christian pastors to 47 00:02:56.200 --> 00:03:00.200 interact with culture that we should know the people to whom were 48 00:03:00.200 --> 00:03:01.200 bringing the gospel. 49 00:03:01.200 --> 00:03:02.700 Some of these people are in our church. 50 00:03:02.700 --> 00:03:07.000 Some of them are outside of our church and rather than holding culture 51 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:10.200 sort of at arm's length and not interacting with it. 52 00:03:10.200 --> 00:03:11.600 I don't think it is helpful. 53 00:03:11.600 --> 00:03:15.600 I think we got engage culture as a little better enable us to 54 00:03:15.600 --> 00:03:17.300 communicate the gospel to these people. 55 00:03:17.300 --> 00:03:20.600 I get letters of complaint every once in a while and then sometimes 56 00:03:20.600 --> 00:03:22.100 it's not about this, 57 00:03:22.100 --> 00:03:24.900 not about this relax. And they'll say 58 00:03:24.900 --> 00:03:29.900 well, you know your, accommodating culture you're you're giving into culture 59 00:03:29.900 --> 00:03:31.900 and that's that's not it's not an either-or. 60 00:03:31.900 --> 00:03:35.400 You can engage your culture on behalf of the Gospel. 61 00:03:35.400 --> 00:03:36.100 Right? 62 00:03:36.100 --> 00:03:38.700 Right Tim, are you a movie buff? 63 00:03:38.700 --> 00:03:40.500 So I love watching movies. 64 00:03:40.500 --> 00:03:43.600 I'm not above percent that I just watch a quantity movies. 65 00:03:43.600 --> 00:03:47.800 I'm actually looking for certain kinds of movies movies that 66 00:03:47.800 --> 00:03:51.800 challenge the way I think about the world give me different 67 00:03:51.800 --> 00:03:55.800 perspectives. And movies and engage kind of bigger questions that 68 00:03:56.200 --> 00:03:59.900 I as a Christian and people outside of the Christian faith are 69 00:03:59.900 --> 00:04:02.100 interested in like what does it mean to be a human being? 70 00:04:02.100 --> 00:04:11.000 How do we think about our God and our relationship with him questions 71 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:13.400 about how we treat each other's how we live in this world. 72 00:04:13.400 --> 00:04:19.800 So I'm after films that can change my thinking challenge my thinking 73 00:04:19.800 --> 00:04:25.800 form or shape me to maybe develop empathy with people that I didn't 74 00:04:25.800 --> 00:04:27.400 realize were in certain situations. 75 00:04:27.400 --> 00:04:31.800 I didn't realize certain things that are happening in the world that I 76 00:04:31.800 --> 00:04:36.100 may or may not be aware of. And so a lot of the films we saw at the 77 00:04:36.100 --> 00:04:40.700 festival wear that kind of challenging film that you can engage with 78 00:04:40.700 --> 00:04:46.400 as Christians and think and begin to think theologically about our world. 79 00:04:46.400 --> 00:04:48.000 Talk about the agenda 80 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:52.700 you said a lot of the films that we saw you watched films. 81 00:04:53.300 --> 00:05:06.000 Have I want I want to know is in the agenda the conference. 82 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:09.600 We had a movie that everybody watched and then that was followed by 83 00:05:09.600 --> 00:05:11.000 about an hour of the discussion. 84 00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:18.300 And then on the Friday session, you could pick two of five movies of 85 00:05:18.300 --> 00:05:23.500 five movies, I believe and go to those two and after every movie there 86 00:05:23.500 --> 00:05:27.900 was a moderator that let a discussion of that movie. Saturday morning 87 00:05:27.900 --> 00:05:32.800 was the big wrap up in which you had one movie and everybody together 88 00:05:32.800 --> 00:05:37.300 doing a discussion and that was kind of the big send-off. 89 00:05:37.300 --> 00:05:39.200 I have to confess 90 00:05:39.200 --> 00:05:43.200 I don't know if I have the patience to sit anymore and watch a whole 91 00:05:43.200 --> 00:05:46.100 movie, but but y'all did and then you followed it up with a 92 00:05:46.100 --> 00:05:46.500 discussion. 93 00:05:46.500 --> 00:05:48.700 How are the movie selected? 94 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:55.500 I'm not for sure cuz Heather and and Jake who are the people that that 95 00:05:55.500 --> 00:05:58.800 helped us with this selected them. 96 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:04.200 We had a whole list of them and I think they selected them thinking 97 00:06:04.200 --> 00:06:07.800 about the needs of the community the challenge that they offered; ones 98 00:06:07.800 --> 00:06:12.800 that they liked it were particularly thought-provoking things that 99 00:06:12.800 --> 00:06:16.100 raise theological questions those kinds of movies. 100 00:06:16.100 --> 00:06:20.100 So they're both some of them or more major releases. 101 00:06:20.100 --> 00:06:26.600 A lot of them were more what you would call Indies and lesser-known 102 00:06:26.600 --> 00:06:28.400 but very powerful stories. 103 00:06:28.400 --> 00:06:39.600 Could you tell us about the panel you moderated? Sure, me and Travis Scholl moderated First Preformed which was the Saturday morning one. 104 00:06:39.600 --> 00:06:41.000 And that blew the circuits off people. 105 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:43.800 So people coming out of that after the discussion 106 00:06:43.800 --> 00:06:45.500 we had a little rest period 107 00:06:45.500 --> 00:06:49.500 between the discussion the movie and and a couple guys go (kaplew) 108 00:06:50.100 --> 00:06:51.100 I don't know what to think 109 00:06:51.100 --> 00:06:51.900 we got to process it. 110 00:06:51.900 --> 00:06:54.600 It was a good way 111 00:06:54.600 --> 00:06:55.900 I think to end the festival. 112 00:06:56.800 --> 00:07:01.300 What was the movie about? So the First Performed is it was written and 113 00:07:01.300 --> 00:07:02.500 directed produced 114 00:07:02.500 --> 00:07:07.200 I think two by Paul Schrader who you may know from like Raging Bull 115 00:07:07.200 --> 00:07:15.000 American Gigolo, Taxi Driver. And it was about a pastor Protestant 116 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:20.600 Pastor in a church in New England and some of the things that he went 117 00:07:20.600 --> 00:07:24.700 through. The interesting thing about the movie is that it's the first 118 00:07:24.700 --> 00:07:28.300 one that Paul Schrader shot in what's called a transcendental style. 119 00:07:28.300 --> 00:07:33.300 Which is a style about which he wrote the book 120 00:07:33.300 --> 00:07:36.900 so to speak when he was 24 years old. None of his other movies 121 00:07:36.900 --> 00:07:40.900 followed the style like this one did and it's kind of quite noticeable 122 00:07:40.900 --> 00:07:47.400 in the way and how the film is shot and edited and what it's leading 123 00:07:47.400 --> 00:07:52.000 up to that gives it its kind of power uniqueness, I think. 124 00:07:53.100 --> 00:07:58.300 David tells about your movie and then the discussion is followed? Well I 125 00:07:58.300 --> 00:08:05.600 moderated two films. I moderated the Children of Men and then the science fiction film, Arrival one 126 00:08:05.600 --> 00:08:10.600 right after the other. Children of Men was one of the breakout sessions 127 00:08:10.600 --> 00:08:16.700 and Children of Men tells the story of a dystopian future. A dystopian 128 00:08:16.700 --> 00:08:24.000 future? Will you explain that one? Dystopia,utopia is that is a future everything works. 129 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:27.800 Everything is great technology gets us to a point where we have 130 00:08:27.800 --> 00:08:32.299 already has a full and meaningful life and there's no trouble in the 131 00:08:32.299 --> 00:08:33.799 world peace has broken out everywhere. 132 00:08:33.799 --> 00:08:37.500 I'd say utopian future is would be that envisioned by the Star Trek 133 00:08:37.500 --> 00:08:37.700 franchise. 134 00:08:37.700 --> 00:08:42.400 Yeah, we're going to unite this planet we can go off into the universe 135 00:08:42.400 --> 00:08:46.100 and everything is going to be great. Dystopia would be the opposite of 136 00:08:46.100 --> 00:08:47.900 that where everything is not working 137 00:08:47.900 --> 00:08:51.700 everything is broken. And so is the world and vision by The Children of 138 00:08:51.700 --> 00:08:51.800 Men 139 00:08:53.100 --> 00:08:57.600 women have stopped having children. And the film begins were the 140 00:08:57.600 --> 00:09:01.600 youngest human alive and 18 year old in Argentina's assassinated by a 141 00:09:01.600 --> 00:09:06.700 fan who he spits upon. And what happens what this envisions is because 142 00:09:06.700 --> 00:09:10.600 women stop having children all there's no more hope and basically 143 00:09:10.600 --> 00:09:14.100 societies around the world of broken down. And so the film is set in 144 00:09:14.100 --> 00:09:18.600 the UK where now got a sort of a military government that's 145 00:09:18.600 --> 00:09:23.000 keeping order and a lot of immigrants are trying to get to the UK and 146 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:26.300 they're all being detained in camps. And the main character 147 00:09:26.300 --> 00:09:33.000 whose name is Theo Theo Theo it should make you think of God, right? 148 00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:39.000 Yeah it does but but tell our audience why? Theo because theos 149 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:42.900 the is the Greek word for god. So his name is Theo may be short for 150 00:09:42.900 --> 00:09:43.300 Theodore 151 00:09:43.300 --> 00:09:46.700 but he's only referred to as Theo. He gets into contact with his 152 00:09:46.700 --> 00:09:50.300 ex-wife they ask him to he's got a government job. 153 00:09:50.300 --> 00:09:52.900 They want him to give papers of transit 154 00:09:53.100 --> 00:09:57.900 to a certain person who he that finds out is the first woman to ever 155 00:09:57.900 --> 00:10:00.200 get pregnant in the last 18 or so years. 156 00:10:00.200 --> 00:10:06.400 And what does film is is I would call it a Christ figure film that I would 157 00:10:06.400 --> 00:10:10.500 put that it's sort of a nativity story. Where this child 158 00:10:10.500 --> 00:10:14.500 that this woman bears is the child it's going to bring hope to this 159 00:10:14.500 --> 00:10:19.200 broken world. And that is one great scene of this film has long 160 00:10:19.200 --> 00:10:21.900 tracking shot wear after she gives birth 161 00:10:21.900 --> 00:10:25.800 you've got hell breaking out on Earth all this fighting but as you see 162 00:10:25.800 --> 00:10:31.200 this woman carrying her child, everybody just stops in awe. And even 163 00:10:31.200 --> 00:10:36.000 the soldiers who have come to fight a bunch of revolutionaries stop you see 164 00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:40.400 men making the sign of the cross. And this film has child of course 165 00:10:40.400 --> 00:10:43.900 is not Jesus, but they sort of borrow from our nativity story. 166 00:10:43.900 --> 00:10:46.300 This is sort of what Jesus represents is 167 00:10:46.300 --> 00:10:49.700 he is the match of the Prince of Peace has come into this broken world 168 00:10:49.700 --> 00:10:52.900 to give hope. And so the movie is very much about 169 00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:58.100 how this one sort of promised child brings hope to a world that's 170 00:10:58.100 --> 00:11:01.500 broken and has no hope. 171 00:11:01.500 --> 00:11:05.200 So what was the discussion like afterwards? 172 00:11:05.200 --> 00:11:08.400 Well, we what one problem 173 00:11:08.400 --> 00:11:12.800 I think I made his I see this movie is it's a British movie and likely 174 00:11:12.800 --> 00:11:16.400 we should have had the the subtitles on so people can understand 175 00:11:16.400 --> 00:11:17.300 and so. I 176 00:11:17.300 --> 00:11:20.700 actually retell the story so that the people who couldn't quite 177 00:11:20.700 --> 00:11:24.800 understand the British accents knew what was going on and in the 178 00:11:24.800 --> 00:11:27.100 discussion that followed we talked about this film. 179 00:11:27.100 --> 00:11:31.900 I actually have to type up my view of Science Fiction science fiction 180 00:11:31.900 --> 00:11:36.800 some science fiction films envision an utopian future some envision an 181 00:11:36.800 --> 00:11:41.500 dystopian future most science fictions are no longer fiction films 182 00:11:41.500 --> 00:11:45.700 are no longer Christian. And what I mean by that is they don't envision 183 00:11:45.700 --> 00:11:50.900 the Christian God in charge anymore and so is very interesting is is 184 00:11:50.900 --> 00:11:52.800 that those films that are dystopian 185 00:11:53.000 --> 00:11:58.300 often borrow from our Christian Gospel to give hope. In other words 186 00:11:58.300 --> 00:12:04.000 if our future is going to be a bleak bleak future where everything is 187 00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:08.300 broken and Technology either doesn't work or enslaves us that such a 188 00:12:08.300 --> 00:12:12.900 rotten future that we need a savior to save us from that future. And 189 00:12:12.900 --> 00:12:18.900 very often what these films will do as well borrow from the gospel and 190 00:12:18.900 --> 00:12:22.900 drag in a sort of Messianic figure that looks like Jesus. And so the 191 00:12:22.900 --> 00:12:26.900 the child born to this woman and Children of Men the character Neo in 192 00:12:26.900 --> 00:12:30.500 The Matrix as they promised Messianic figure in the Terminator 193 00:12:30.500 --> 00:12:30.900 franchise. 194 00:12:30.900 --> 00:12:36.500 It's John Connor, JC, Jesus Christ he also is a promised figure. 195 00:12:36.500 --> 00:12:39.900 The first Terminator movie is basically a nativity story about the 196 00:12:39.900 --> 00:12:45.100 origin of the Jesus character who's going to save humanity and so it 197 00:12:45.100 --> 00:12:47.800 took that even though there's no God of this universe, 198 00:12:47.800 --> 00:12:50.200 everybody still wants a Jesus. 199 00:12:50.200 --> 00:12:52.200 There's nothing about that movie. 200 00:12:53.000 --> 00:12:59.000 It's it's powerfully pro-life movie and it but it's subtle if you're not 201 00:12:59.000 --> 00:13:03.200 thinking about it, but you see it's because it's almost as causal 202 00:13:03.200 --> 00:13:07.900 relationship because people stop having children is when societies 203 00:13:07.900 --> 00:13:08.600 fall apart. 204 00:13:08.600 --> 00:13:12.500 So in that movie every society falling apart in the world except for 205 00:13:12.500 --> 00:13:15.600 Britain and they were they were starting to fall apart 206 00:13:15.600 --> 00:13:20.000 so they're trying to keep people out. But the underlying message 207 00:13:20.000 --> 00:13:23.500 is in the birth of new children that you actually have this 208 00:13:23.500 --> 00:13:28.000 forward-looking hope for the future without that people really do 209 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:32.300 sense meaninglessness in such a deep sense that you can't even hold 210 00:13:32.300 --> 00:13:32.900 society together. 211 00:13:32.900 --> 00:13:36.300 And that's one of the messages I took it was the first time I'd seen that the 212 00:13:36.300 --> 00:13:44.500 film. Let me ask if someone's watching someone's listening and they say 213 00:13:44.500 --> 00:13:46.200 what is all this have to do 214 00:13:47.800 --> 00:13:49.700 with producing pastors? 215 00:13:49.700 --> 00:13:50.400 Now, 216 00:13:50.400 --> 00:13:55.700 this is a very loaded question and you already hinted at it earlier in 217 00:13:55.700 --> 00:13:56.500 the discussion. 218 00:13:56.500 --> 00:14:03.500 But you know, who is somebody in Illinois, Iowa, Texas saying 219 00:14:03.500 --> 00:14:13.700 but what does this have to do with producing pastors? I'll answer first of all the festival was during Winterim when the student 220 00:14:13.700 --> 00:14:20.300 population here is lower than usual. Part so people from 16 different 221 00:14:20.300 --> 00:14:27.200 states came in. 16 different states. And what I am 222 00:14:27.200 --> 00:14:32.700 hoping to is it people from army to community from other churches or 223 00:14:32.700 --> 00:14:35.900 even from non-Christian people are interested in very thoughtful 224 00:14:35.900 --> 00:14:38.000 movies and good discussions about them will come. 225 00:14:38.800 --> 00:14:43.000 And so just having discussions with people that have different 226 00:14:43.000 --> 00:14:47.300 perspectives then you and different views than you are something we 227 00:14:47.300 --> 00:14:52.200 wanted is something definitely we want to form our pastors to do to 228 00:14:52.200 --> 00:14:54.900 engage people where they are at. 229 00:14:54.900 --> 00:14:56.100 Hey, what did you see in this film? 230 00:14:56.100 --> 00:14:56.900 Here's what I saw. 231 00:14:56.900 --> 00:15:03.100 So the pro-life thing. Here is what I see is a very pro-life and from there 232 00:15:03.100 --> 00:15:05.900 we can begin to speak about our hope in the gospel. 233 00:15:05.900 --> 00:15:10.800 So I think there is a definite formation aspect when you have 234 00:15:10.800 --> 00:15:14.900 discussions for all of us conversations like this. 235 00:15:14.900 --> 00:15:16.600 To develop a perspective 236 00:15:16.600 --> 00:15:19.000 looking at the world from other people's eyes. 237 00:15:19.000 --> 00:15:25.000 And how do we engage that world in an authentic way that actually can 238 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:29.400 open people's minds and hearts to the glorious message that we have to 239 00:15:29.400 --> 00:15:34.300 give. And I think that's one of the reasons we would want to continue 240 00:15:34.300 --> 00:15:38.300 to have that we don't want pastors who are entrenched who don't 241 00:15:38.300 --> 00:15:38.700 engage, 242 00:15:38.800 --> 00:15:41.000 people around them. 243 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:45.900 I mean the whole reason we're here is to bring the light of the Gospel 244 00:15:45.900 --> 00:15:50.100 to people while people need experiences and doing that and a film 245 00:15:50.100 --> 00:15:50.300 festival 246 00:15:50.300 --> 00:15:51.900 like this gives them one way to do that. 247 00:15:51.900 --> 00:15:52.800 That's was a great answer. 248 00:15:52.800 --> 00:15:57.600 You both been on Word and Work before I'm into it 249 00:15:57.600 --> 00:16:00.600 we're still answering the fan letters that are coming in because of 250 00:16:00.600 --> 00:16:04.600 both of your appearances. I've been signing autographs right and 251 00:16:04.600 --> 00:16:04.900 left. 252 00:16:04.900 --> 00:16:07.300 One of the things 253 00:16:07.300 --> 00:16:13.200 you said Tim was that if you if you graduated just within 10 years up 254 00:16:13.200 --> 00:16:14.000 from the Seminary 255 00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:17.700 this is not the same Seminary anymore. And so the Faith and Film Festival 256 00:16:17.700 --> 00:16:19.200 to my mind 257 00:16:19.200 --> 00:16:24.800 it shows shows the the spirit of engagement that our students receive 258 00:16:24.800 --> 00:16:30.100 now, it's not an entrenched curriculum and an inward-looking 259 00:16:30.100 --> 00:16:35.500 institution were looking out, but another thing is continuing 260 00:16:35.500 --> 00:16:36.200 education. 261 00:16:36.800 --> 00:16:40.100 So I set up a question kind of in a wrong way by saying it was this 262 00:16:40.100 --> 00:16:43.600 have to do with the formation pastors and you answer that very well. 263 00:16:43.600 --> 00:16:47.000 But but the Seminary is about far more than formation of pastors. 264 00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:58.900 This is continuing education for people 16 states or wherever. Yeah, you can get CPE credit as well 265 00:16:58.900 --> 00:16:59.300 so there is ways to follow up and deepen that conversation. 266 00:16:59.300 --> 00:17:04.400 And hopefully we will build and develop that in festivals in years to come. 267 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:07.700 We're going to continue it definitely because it going to grow. That's that's great. 268 00:17:07.700 --> 00:17:10.900 We're going to take a little break now when we come back we'll get 269 00:17:10.900 --> 00:17:16.900 into more the specifics of our first of many Faith and Film Festivals 270 00:17:16.900 --> 00:17:17.700 stay with us. 271 00:17:18.400 --> 00:17:22.800 Make a difference in the world become a church worker or encourage 272 00:17:22.800 --> 00:17:26.900 someone you know who has these skills call Concordia Seminary admissions 273 00:17:26.900 --> 00:17:34.800 at 800-822-9545 or email admission at CSL. 274 00:17:34.800 --> 00:17:35.500 Edu. 275 00:17:35.500 --> 00:17:42.700 That's 800-822-9545 Concordia Seminary can make a difference in your 276 00:17:42.700 --> 00:17:43.300 world. 277 00:17:44.300 --> 00:17:47.400 Welcome back to Word and Work an Intersection. 278 00:17:47.400 --> 00:17:49.800 I'm your host Dale Meyer. Today 279 00:17:49.800 --> 00:17:53.900 our guests are Dr. Tim Saleska and Professor David Lewis. 280 00:17:53.900 --> 00:17:58.000 We've been discussing the Faith and Film Festival recently held on the 281 00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:01.500 campus of Concordia Seminary. Guys during the break 282 00:18:01.500 --> 00:18:06.800 we were talking about the logistics to put this on and talk about 283 00:18:06.800 --> 00:18:07.200 that. 284 00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:10.800 This whole thing 285 00:18:10.800 --> 00:18:15.700 actually began last June when Jacob Wampfler former graduate was 286 00:18:15.700 --> 00:18:16.400 visiting the campus. 287 00:18:16.400 --> 00:18:20.000 Jacob asked me to meet him at Panera's for coffee and 288 00:18:21.200 --> 00:18:36.700 and, they have very good coffee at Panera's (inside joke here), but Jacob shared with me his idea of having the Seminary host a Faith 289 00:18:36.700 --> 00:18:39.800 and Film Festival and he wanted to get my backing because he knew this was 290 00:18:39.800 --> 00:18:42.800 something that I was interested in it and I said let's go for it. 291 00:18:42.800 --> 00:18:47.600 I had some major projects that I had to finish this last semester and 292 00:18:47.600 --> 00:18:52.700 so he contacted a friend of his Heather Davis who converted to 293 00:18:52.700 --> 00:18:53.000 Christianity 294 00:18:53.000 --> 00:18:56.400 I think she said when she was 33 and as a member of the Lutheran 295 00:18:56.400 --> 00:18:59.900 Church-Missouri Synod, she was a former screenwriter and this was an 296 00:18:59.900 --> 00:19:03.800 interest she had as well. And so at the Theological Symposium in 297 00:19:03.800 --> 00:19:09.300 September, they were both on campus Tim and I met with them in another 298 00:19:09.300 --> 00:19:13.600 group Erica that we met with Erica Bennett and and then the whole thing 299 00:19:13.600 --> 00:19:18.200 was sort of hashed there and considering how late in the late we saw 300 00:19:18.200 --> 00:19:21.000 we were putting this together success. 301 00:19:21.300 --> 00:19:23.000 75 attendees 302 00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:33.300 I think it was spectacular better than we expected better than we needed. Erica deserves special praise 303 00:19:33.300 --> 00:19:36.000 she put it together. Erica is our Director of Continuing Education. 304 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:39.700 She did all the heavy lifting with all the details connecting with 305 00:19:39.700 --> 00:19:45.100 Creative Services who did an incredible job with a scene setting and our technology people. Who had 306 00:19:45.100 --> 00:19:49.000 to have we had to have good audio and visual stuff in the various 307 00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:52.600 venues, cuz a movie will fail if the technology failed and it didn't 308 00:19:52.600 --> 00:19:54.000 fail once in any movie. 309 00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:59.800 They just did a bang-up job with everything and gave us a really great 310 00:19:59.800 --> 00:20:00.500 foundation. 311 00:20:00.500 --> 00:20:04.100 They decorated Werner Auditorium the outside of an Werner 312 00:20:04.100 --> 00:20:08.200 auditorium as a concession stand with the curtain. And when I 313 00:20:08.200 --> 00:20:14.100 when I stepped in by Thursday evening to begin greeting people 314 00:20:14.100 --> 00:20:20.900 I was just stunned I was stunned. Erica and her team the Seminary staff there just 315 00:20:20.900 --> 00:20:21.200 great. 316 00:20:21.300 --> 00:20:22.800 They got it done. 317 00:20:22.800 --> 00:20:26.700 I wanted to hear about this because you know people think of the 318 00:20:26.700 --> 00:20:30.700 faculty when they think of the Seminary man, that's true, but there 319 00:20:30.700 --> 00:20:34.200 is a tremendous support staff and what we do whether it's in the 320 00:20:34.200 --> 00:20:36.500 classroom or for a continuing an event like this. 321 00:20:36.500 --> 00:20:43.700 It wouldn't happen without the dedicated and super competent 322 00:20:43.700 --> 00:20:45.100 staff people that we have. 323 00:20:45.100 --> 00:20:48.000 Let me let me add something just that the viewers might mention about 324 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:50.100 continue adding General. 325 00:20:50.100 --> 00:20:54.800 What's great about continue that is not just a has to come from us. 326 00:20:54.800 --> 00:20:58.800 And then we offer things we actually listened outside constituencies 327 00:20:58.800 --> 00:20:59.900 you want to do an event. 328 00:20:59.900 --> 00:21:05.100 And so Erica wants to reach out to different constituencies it in the 329 00:21:05.100 --> 00:21:05.400 church. 330 00:21:05.400 --> 00:21:08.900 Hey, you got an event you want to plan where the place to do it. 331 00:21:08.900 --> 00:21:13.000 That's what happened with to Heather and Jake actually were the a 332 00:21:13.000 --> 00:21:18.000 brain children of this and who kind of brought it to us rather than 333 00:21:18.000 --> 00:21:18.300 Vice. 334 00:21:18.300 --> 00:21:20.400 Of course, I think that's really important for people out there know 335 00:21:20.400 --> 00:21:21.100 hey if you're 336 00:21:21.200 --> 00:21:25.400 An organization or group that I have something great to offer our 337 00:21:25.400 --> 00:21:30.900 pastors or lay leaders or anyone else in our beautiful Church. 338 00:21:30.900 --> 00:21:36.900 Give her a call and see if we can work something out under square that 339 00:21:36.900 --> 00:21:41.600 if you if you if your group your your circuits your District, whatever 340 00:21:41.600 --> 00:21:46.700 has a continuing education need let us know and end and we got the 341 00:21:46.700 --> 00:21:50.700 resources to help make that happen opening night. 342 00:21:50.700 --> 00:21:57.200 There was a lesser-known film that was shown with tremendous impact. 343 00:21:57.200 --> 00:21:59.000 Could you talk about that? 344 00:21:59.000 --> 00:22:03.000 It was a phone call to writer basic story. 345 00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:09.000 It's about a former rodeo star who is injured while doing Rodeo 346 00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:14.300 December is a head injury and it's the basic story is about him trying 347 00:22:14.300 --> 00:22:19.500 to find purpose and basically nothing really works everything. 348 00:22:19.500 --> 00:22:21.200 He tries seems 349 00:22:21.200 --> 00:22:24.800 Go well, and then comes to a dead end and what's unique about the film 350 00:22:24.800 --> 00:22:26.800 is that it was made by non-actors. 351 00:22:26.800 --> 00:22:32.500 Basically, it's a father a son and a daughter who are playing sort of 352 00:22:32.500 --> 00:22:39.000 themselves as a family and most of the most of the people who appear 353 00:22:39.000 --> 00:22:39.600 this film. 354 00:22:39.600 --> 00:22:44.100 I live on a reservation in South Dakota Lakota Sioux, including the 355 00:22:44.100 --> 00:22:52.600 three primary characters and very gritty realistic film ideas. 356 00:22:52.600 --> 00:22:58.300 This this guy is a writer and he's lost his reason for being him being 357 00:22:58.300 --> 00:23:01.900 a writer and he's got to find meaning somewhere else and it's how this 358 00:23:01.900 --> 00:23:03.200 is just not an easy. 359 00:23:03.200 --> 00:23:07.100 It's not an easy thing for him to do and it's it doesn't have that 360 00:23:07.100 --> 00:23:10.800 kind of what would you call it for a Hollywood sense of fantasy. 361 00:23:10.800 --> 00:23:14.400 This is a very gritty real movie about real people. 362 00:23:15.300 --> 00:23:19.100 Yeah, I think what's interesting about the movie. 363 00:23:19.100 --> 00:23:21.600 I'll talk about the ending in just a second. 364 00:23:21.600 --> 00:23:24.600 One of the interesting things. 365 00:23:24.600 --> 00:23:29.900 You'll see in this movie is that these are men or women who live a 366 00:23:29.900 --> 00:23:33.800 very messy kind of what we would call maybe marginalize life 367 00:23:33.800 --> 00:23:38.300 Hardscrabble people in one sense. 368 00:23:38.300 --> 00:23:41.500 They can be rather while we would say around paying but then they have 369 00:23:41.500 --> 00:23:48.500 this ability to pray to the Lord and show compassion to each other in 370 00:23:48.500 --> 00:23:52.000 very kind of human ways that I really resonated with him. 371 00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:55.800 So you could see their faith even in the midst of a broken world. 372 00:23:55.800 --> 00:24:00.400 And and in the sense of this the main character is life. 373 00:24:00.400 --> 00:24:05.400 It seems so broken the beautiful things at the end, you know hit he 374 00:24:05.400 --> 00:24:09.000 was one of the guys that befriended a friend of his who have been 375 00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:09.800 paralyzed. 376 00:24:09.800 --> 00:24:15.200 I think from the neck down because of a horse Rodeo injury himself. 377 00:24:15.700 --> 00:24:19.100 And he was the only one that kept coming to him and show him 378 00:24:19.100 --> 00:24:23.200 friendship and compassion and it was a very thoughtful thing as a 379 00:24:23.200 --> 00:24:26.300 Christian how that's one of those you get this perspective on. 380 00:24:26.300 --> 00:24:27.600 How do we treat other people? 381 00:24:27.600 --> 00:24:28.700 How do we live in this world? 382 00:24:28.700 --> 00:24:33.200 But at the end of the movie there's this exalting seeing, you know, 383 00:24:33.200 --> 00:24:36.800 your again, you're wondering ok, just got part of the pressure in the 384 00:24:36.800 --> 00:24:38.400 movies has got here any prayers really? 385 00:24:38.400 --> 00:24:42.900 Does he even kind of ever try to intervene or answer problems? 386 00:24:42.900 --> 00:24:47.600 It's just that you seem so alone in the movie and then at the end he 387 00:24:47.600 --> 00:24:51.500 keeps telling his friend who's in a wheelchair like this to sit up sit 388 00:24:51.500 --> 00:24:52.300 up at the end. 389 00:24:52.300 --> 00:24:54.600 You know, it's as the music rise in the movie. 390 00:24:54.600 --> 00:24:59.500 She kind of is able to sit up and the scene that there's almost like a 391 00:24:59.500 --> 00:25:04.100 dreamlike scene of the Rider riding full speed on a horse with the 392 00:25:04.100 --> 00:25:06.200 wind going on something that he would never be able to do for the rest 393 00:25:06.200 --> 00:25:11.100 of his life and and it's part of a way in which okay. 394 00:25:11.100 --> 00:25:13.300 He's starting to find a new Direction new hope 395 00:25:13.900 --> 00:25:17.400 But you get this sense that there is actually someone else in play 396 00:25:17.400 --> 00:25:19.900 someone else working someone else was with him. 397 00:25:19.900 --> 00:25:25.200 You're not alone and no sociological you again the way that the film 398 00:25:25.200 --> 00:25:29.000 and that I thought gave this really powerful too powerful moments of 399 00:25:29.000 --> 00:25:33.400 mercy and Grace that is really worth us contemplate. 400 00:25:33.400 --> 00:25:38.700 Just as you described that my reaction was I've led a sheltered 401 00:25:38.700 --> 00:25:44.600 existence I grew up in a church home and went to largely Church 402 00:25:44.600 --> 00:25:45.300 schools. 403 00:25:45.300 --> 00:25:49.500 I've been a minister ministers tend to live in a bubble off in time. 404 00:25:49.500 --> 00:25:55.800 So that among other benefits just watching movies like this. 405 00:25:56.700 --> 00:25:59.400 Wow, that's the real world. 406 00:25:59.400 --> 00:26:00.700 That's where Jesus went. 407 00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:03.200 I was right. 408 00:26:03.200 --> 00:26:04.400 I I totally agree. 409 00:26:04.400 --> 00:26:08.300 They can give you a view to seeing other people that you don't 410 00:26:08.300 --> 00:26:11.500 normally get to see you and again, they can be they helped to develop 411 00:26:11.500 --> 00:26:14.900 empathy where we may like it. 412 00:26:14.900 --> 00:26:16.800 That's what Luther called Theology of the Cross. 413 00:26:16.800 --> 00:26:18.500 That's where God goes. 414 00:26:18.500 --> 00:26:26.400 You know, not not to the Cocoon Country Club congregation what most 415 00:26:26.400 --> 00:26:30.900 the films we watched have pro-life messages whether intended or not 416 00:26:30.900 --> 00:26:36.100 cuz to the characters the one Tim mentioned his old friend who is who 417 00:26:36.100 --> 00:26:39.600 was paralyzed and hospitalized but also his younger sister is autistic 418 00:26:39.600 --> 00:26:44.300 and and she's actually a major character in the film and actually one 419 00:26:44.300 --> 00:26:48.300 of the places where you find Hope because her outlook on life is 420 00:26:48.300 --> 00:26:53.600 always beautiful and simple and she sees a Sunset and she says goodbye 421 00:26:53.600 --> 00:26:54.400 son. 422 00:26:54.400 --> 00:27:01.300 See you tomorrow, right and you can see that she inspires her brother 423 00:27:01.300 --> 00:27:02.000 with a sense. 424 00:27:02.000 --> 00:27:06.200 Hope and purpose and at least two lives the life of his friend is 425 00:27:06.200 --> 00:27:07.800 paralyzed and his autistic sister. 426 00:27:07.800 --> 00:27:09.700 These would be lives. 427 00:27:09.700 --> 00:27:13.100 I mean that I think many mainstream people would say or less valuable 428 00:27:13.100 --> 00:27:16.900 than others and yet they've become the two most valuable lives in the 429 00:27:16.900 --> 00:27:17.400 story. 430 00:27:17.400 --> 00:27:18.000 That's good. 431 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:23.900 Cuz they give the main character his reason to be. 432 00:27:23.900 --> 00:27:26.800 He still has relationship with these people that he loves and he's 433 00:27:26.800 --> 00:27:31.400 there's a number of other friends of the guy who is injured who don't 434 00:27:31.400 --> 00:27:36.000 go to see him because they probably miss who he was when he was this 435 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:37.700 heroic rodeo star. 436 00:27:37.700 --> 00:27:39.200 I got the main character. 437 00:27:39.200 --> 00:27:50.200 He loves his friend and in that relationship is a reason as much or 438 00:27:50.200 --> 00:27:57.200 more than paid from the way people think about the value of human 439 00:27:57.200 --> 00:27:58.300 beings and human life. 440 00:27:58.300 --> 00:27:59.800 That's really good day. 441 00:28:01.900 --> 00:28:06.500 Your description is encouraging imagined to see the movie now. 442 00:28:06.500 --> 00:28:07.800 That was Thursday evening. 443 00:28:07.800 --> 00:28:10.800 That was Thursday and Friday morning at a presentation called the 444 00:28:10.800 --> 00:28:14.300 filmmakers prayer of the book by dr. 445 00:28:14.300 --> 00:28:14.700 Philip. 446 00:28:14.700 --> 00:28:21.500 Holy who used to teach at Concordia Austin where he got a cinema class 447 00:28:21.500 --> 00:28:28.000 going the lecture he gave was unsalted popcorn neighbors Christ and 448 00:28:28.000 --> 00:28:29.300 culture in Paradox. 449 00:28:29.300 --> 00:28:31.800 And he used the metaphor of popcorn. 450 00:28:31.800 --> 00:28:34.100 Would you like to eat unsalted popcorn? 451 00:28:34.100 --> 00:28:38.900 I know I wouldn't let the Heat and so we talked with the various ways 452 00:28:38.900 --> 00:28:43.700 Christians might approach filmed actually unsalted popcorn. 453 00:28:43.700 --> 00:28:46.400 He says that would be popped. 454 00:28:46.400 --> 00:28:51.300 He uses the metaphor popcorn represents cultures fault with me what we 455 00:28:51.300 --> 00:28:53.500 Christians bring to it, you know to season it. 456 00:28:53.500 --> 00:28:58.600 So it would be a Skype with our Christian worldview or theology. 457 00:28:58.600 --> 00:29:01.500 Even our critique of these films and 458 00:29:01.900 --> 00:29:07.000 They said the Christ of culture approach is the popcorn without the 459 00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:08.000 salt, right? 460 00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:12.500 And he says this is where mate many mainstream Christians. 461 00:29:12.500 --> 00:29:17.600 They simply consumed the movies, but they don't bring anything from 462 00:29:17.600 --> 00:29:20.400 their theology or their Christian faith to the movies. 463 00:29:20.400 --> 00:29:23.800 And then he says the fundamentalist approach would be more Christ 464 00:29:23.800 --> 00:29:27.600 against culture where they will have nothing to do with the film's 465 00:29:27.600 --> 00:29:31.000 because they're all evil and this would be having the salt without the 466 00:29:31.000 --> 00:29:38.500 popcorn and so he challenged us with his perspective that is Christ 467 00:29:38.500 --> 00:29:42.400 and culture and Paradox which in the end is both the popcorn and 468 00:29:42.400 --> 00:29:44.600 assault together the way it's supposed to be. 469 00:29:44.600 --> 00:29:48.600 So this is our challenge to engage the culture but nevertheless never 470 00:29:48.600 --> 00:29:52.000 to take away that sort of Limbs of faith. 471 00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:57.600 And so he even use the analogy that some films may be pretty hard and 472 00:29:57.600 --> 00:30:01.800 the film mother that you saw was the example he he Madre 473 00:30:01.900 --> 00:30:03.000 That right. 474 00:30:03.000 --> 00:30:05.900 He said sometimes we Christians need to put our lab coats in our 475 00:30:05.900 --> 00:30:10.200 goggles and just take the risk get in there and it's not been so it's 476 00:30:10.200 --> 00:30:13.500 not like we're going to let these films influence our faith that we 477 00:30:13.500 --> 00:30:18.500 engage culture in such a way that we can see. 478 00:30:18.500 --> 00:30:20.700 What are you excited about? 479 00:30:20.700 --> 00:30:24.800 Our neighbors think those who are Christian and then and at the same 480 00:30:24.800 --> 00:30:28.900 time, we bring our faith to these films and saw the results. 481 00:30:28.900 --> 00:30:34.600 He says as we have Salted Popcorn in our first segment of the we had a 482 00:30:34.600 --> 00:30:39.600 little discussion about this and you've reaffirmed it culture is not 483 00:30:39.600 --> 00:30:45.600 something that dominates How We Do Church in theology, but it is our 484 00:30:45.600 --> 00:30:50.900 context and not to know the culture not to engage the culture. 485 00:30:50.900 --> 00:30:57.600 It's just retreating away from from any kind of gospel relevance and 486 00:30:57.600 --> 00:30:58.800 Men Proclamation. 487 00:30:58.800 --> 00:30:59.600 So, yeah. 488 00:31:00.600 --> 00:31:05.500 Yellow app with the one of the things that pops into my mind is in my 489 00:31:05.500 --> 00:31:06.100 books. 490 00:31:06.100 --> 00:31:12.600 I have a small book of tips for screenwriters. 491 00:31:13.800 --> 00:31:18.500 And I I don't remember where I came across this but I have this and 492 00:31:18.500 --> 00:31:23.100 any interesting enough the tips for screenwriters are just like 493 00:31:23.100 --> 00:31:26.700 writing a sermon because what's going on, I think in a movie 494 00:31:26.700 --> 00:31:31.200 translates to the way we're supposed to communicate and engage in a 495 00:31:31.200 --> 00:31:31.700 sermon. 496 00:31:31.700 --> 00:31:38.200 So Tim you said that we're going to do this next year and all of us 497 00:31:38.200 --> 00:31:38.900 are all in. 498 00:31:38.900 --> 00:31:41.600 I mean, there's more movies ice coming out. 499 00:31:41.600 --> 00:31:43.400 I think they have another list. 500 00:31:43.400 --> 00:31:49.700 They probably will get more cutting-edge as we get a little more 501 00:31:49.700 --> 00:31:53.600 experience with this salt expect more challenging movies not less 502 00:31:53.600 --> 00:31:57.800 challenging which is I think a great way to be and I think since we 503 00:31:57.800 --> 00:32:01.700 only had six months the publicity you're able to do some things but 504 00:32:01.700 --> 00:32:05.900 now having a had this experience and we'll have a lot more preparation 505 00:32:05.900 --> 00:32:06.200 time. 506 00:32:06.200 --> 00:32:10.500 The publicity will be much better and again of goal would be to bring 507 00:32:10.500 --> 00:32:13.400 in people from outside the community in 508 00:32:13.800 --> 00:32:16.100 For the discussions as well. 509 00:32:16.100 --> 00:32:21.100 So look forward to hopefully a number of years of a great continue 510 00:32:21.100 --> 00:32:24.000 Ativan and great time together really? 511 00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:27.800 So this is exciting David working our audience get more information 512 00:32:27.800 --> 00:32:28.600 about this. 513 00:32:28.600 --> 00:32:32.900 I think. 514 00:32:32.900 --> 00:32:37.500 Org if you if you wanted to find out what happened to the present face 515 00:32:37.500 --> 00:32:41.700 and Film Festival, you can even just Google faith in film festival at 516 00:32:41.700 --> 00:32:44.900 Concordia Seminary and a site will come up cuz I've done that and 517 00:32:44.900 --> 00:32:47.000 you'll you'll see what happened this year. 518 00:32:47.000 --> 00:32:53.200 I think Erica plants to get this publicized right away that we 519 00:32:53.200 --> 00:32:54.000 actually have a meeting. 520 00:32:54.000 --> 00:32:56.700 We're planning a meeting next week next week and they already got a 521 00:32:56.700 --> 00:33:00.100 date I think that's that's that's super gentleman. 522 00:33:00.100 --> 00:33:03.200 Thank you so much for being with us walking today and end for telling 523 00:33:03.200 --> 00:33:06.500 us about the faith in film festival and thank you our audience for 524 00:33:06.500 --> 00:33:07.000 joining us. 525 00:33:07.000 --> 00:33:11.800 I'm deal Mayer and this is Benward and work and intersection May the 526 00:33:11.800 --> 00:33:13.700 intersection of word and work. 527 00:33:13.700 --> 00:33:15.500 I'm busy on your corner.