What is the most powerful force that shapes the ideas of the young people you work with? For that matter, what shapes the way you think?

Alongside family and friends, much of what is meaningful comes to us through music, magazines, newspapers, television programs, advertisements, novels and the like: what we call ‘popular media’. They are a normal part of the experience of our everyday lives.

Film is probably the premier worldview shaper of all. Like many media they are readily available, on television, at the theatre, on DVD, even downloadable to an iPod.

What is more, because of their length – often times lasting two hours or more – movies draw viewers into a space where they find themselves living within an extended story. When the lights go down and the silver screen begins to flicker, we easy find ourselves completely swallowed up in the scenes playing before our eyes as though we too are participating in them. In contrast, although likely played with more frequency, most popular songs last no more than five minutes.

Films provide a powerful platform for the exchange of ideas. In 2006, former US Vice President, Al Gore won two Oscars for An Inconvenient Truth, his documentary on global warming. For several years, many Americans were ignorant of, or simply chose to deny, the potentially damaging effects of pollution intensifying the effects of global warming. Gore’s work thrust the issue into the public arena. Although the release of this film is not the sole factor, the issue of global warming is increasingly being addressed in the public forum of the USA by the media, by the academy, by the government and by many other institutions in America. Irrespective of whether people agree with Gore’s ideas, the movie provoked more open and thoughtful discussions of the issue.

Symbolism from film has become a normal part of everyday conversation. Have you ever noticed how frequently we explain things by referencing scenes from a movie? Or how often we hear famous film quotes used in everyday conversation? It is what you hear in the office, in the corridors of schools and even in churches.

Young people (for that matter older people as well) are perhaps more used to quoting the movies than the scriptures when trying to express things that matter to them. Symbolism from film is the cultural resource out of which we make sense of our lives. They are the cultural resource we use to express ourselves. Movies now play a role in Western culture that once was held by the Bible and other resources of Christian tradition.

Movies function in religion-like ways because they are built around myths, morals and rituals. People step out of their everyday lives entering into the realm of a mythic story. This then influences their moral choices when they return to their everyday lives.

Similarly, the audience leaves behind everyday life, entering into the idealised world of a narrative represented in film. Engulfed in the experience, we think to ourselves, ‘I don’t want to be that guy!’ or ‘That worked for her. I have got to remember to try that if it ever happens to me.’ Afterwards we return to the everyday world and – maybe subconsciously – make moral decisions informed by our experience at the movies.

Stories are powerful. Movies are powerful. In fact, perhaps they are more powerfully received and incorporated into the everyday life of young people than the Christian story told through the Bible and our respective Christian traditions.

If all this is true, then what are we to make of this powerful contemporary art form? There are several things for us to consider in our ministries with youth people in today’s world. Here are just five ideas:

 1. It is worth recognising that the Church isn’t the only place where people gather and develop religious ideas and identities.

2. Those working with young people do well to educate themselves in the culture of the people with whom they live and work.

If you want to engage with teens, ask them to talk about their favourite film. I am not suggesting that we indiscriminately take in any and all films without exercising some measure of restraint. Some movies (whether in terms of their themes or art) are simply rubbish. Nonetheless, in order to engage in the lives of young people, we need to learn their symbols and language so we can speak with them in a meaningful way. Film provides such resources in our culture. We do well to use them.

3. We must be intentional and systematic in handing on the historic biblical Christian faith to young people.

When working with youth we need to be thoughtful in how we teach them about the most precious gift we have, faith in the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. The problem that we must address is that we are experiencing a shift from a print-dominated literacy to a multi-media literacy where print is but one among many options. We simply must rethink how we engage in Christian formation in the contemporary era.

4. Religious educators should harness the power of popular media - music, television, magazines, and especially film. 

Movies provide a common language in our culture and can be used as a means for reflecting on Christian faith. Film clips can serve as a tool for evangelism in sharing Christian faith. They can function as a bridge over which to walk into the world in which most young people live. Comparing and contrasting themes represented in the Bible with those in films can lead to profound conversations and spiritual discovery.

If they can relate movies to Christian theology, this will strengthen how they live a life of discipleship. In some respect, everyone is a theologian. Every moral decision has a theological basis, either implicit because it is unexamined, or explicit when considered in the light of Christian faith. We must help form mature young believers who can think for themselves in order that they may “attain to the fullness of the measure of the stature of Christ”.

Film is a powerful force, shaping the worldview of many of today’s teens. We cannot afford to ignore its effect in vying for the hearts, minds and money of our youth. But we must not fear it or be in despair as though it were more powerful than the risen Lord Christ himself, nor the Spirit of God who raised Him from the dead.

I say the best way forward is to plunder hell for the sake of advancing of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Maranatha!

Rev Dr Jack Gabig is Director of the Children & Youth Initiative, Anglican Communion Network, US. He is author of 'Youth, Religion & Film', available for £13.00 from www.ytcpress.com