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Sermons have their place. I look forward to them every week. But when I go to a movie, I do not want the gospel preached to me. That makes the audience feel cheated, like they've been baited in for a story and then hit with a sales pitch. Only true masters of art are able to weave the clear message of the gospel into something greater than itself … a lasting and powerful incarnation.

Chariots of Fire, often celebrated as a great "Christian movie," included gospel messages, but it did so as part of a much greater ambition. It gave us two complex and compelling character studies—Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams—and it dared to suggest something even more: That living out the call of the gospel might not be just about preaching; it might be about running at the Olympics, and running with integrity. The craft of whole-hearted running "preached" in a way that a sermon could not.

Francis of Assisi said, "Preach the gospel. When necessary, use words." I love that. It suggests that the gospel is not so much a matter of making your message clear. It's not about ending the film with an evangelistic climax that declares, "The moral of this story is …" It is about the form, the beauty, the truth of that artwork.

Some have observed that our reviews sometimes read like "secular" reviews, and thus accuse us of writing "non-Christian" reviews. But our reviews are no such thing. Instead:

• We are here to love our neighbors by attending to their art with care and discernment.
  
• We are here to acknowledge the beauty and ugliness manifest in the world and reflected in art.
  
• We are here to address our readers with care, making them aware of the nature of the art so that they can decide whether any particular film is worth their own time and attention. (Each viewer is different, faced with different issues of conscience, so we emphasize discernment, rather than exhorting people to see things that would draw them into temptation or compromise.)
  
• And we are here to examine each film, hold fast to what is good and truthful, and expose what is shoddy or false or mediocre or indulgent or unnecessary.
  

God does not rely solely on Christian artists to reveal himself to the world. From him all things come, through him all things live, and for him all things exist. These days, some of us may encounter him in the Cineplex, even during a Saturday matinee … if we go in with minds awake, eyes to see, and ears to hear.

Jeffrey Overstreet expands on his film reviewing philosophy much more in his new book, Through a Screen Darkly; look for an excerpt here next week.

© 2007 Jeffrey Overstreet, subject to licensing agreement with Christianity Today International. All rights reserved. Click for reprint information.

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