Are You Still Watching?: Using Pop Culture to Tune In, Find God & Get Renewed for Another Season

by Stephanie Kendell (Editor), Arthur Stewart (Editor)

Overview

Pop culture does more than entertain us. At its best, it is a mirror— maybe sometimes a distorted funhouse mirror— reflecting back to us beauty, absurdity, and profound truth of what it means to be human. These musicians, actors, writers, and producers often sit in the prophet's chair and offer us modern parables with deeper meanings waiting for those with ears to hear. When we watch and listen through a spiritual lens, their stories challenge our beliefs, help us understand our faith, and encourage us to find ways to change how we treat others and the world we share. Are You Still Watching?: Using Pop Culture to Tune In, Find God and Get Renewed for Another Season highlights different entertainment vehicles like television shows, movies, music, and podcasts that showcase the best in humanity or demonstrate ways we can grow in our faith.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780827201064
Publisher:	APG Sales & Distribution
Publication date:	10/25/2022
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

The Rev. Stephanie Kendell (She | Elle | Ella) was born and raised in California but now comes to you "Live from New York…" where she serves in congregational and general church ministry with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). She is part of numerous justice seeking organizations and ministries, co-hosts The Two On One Project, and is working toward a Doctor of Ministry degree. If you can believe it, she is a 3w4 on the Enneagram. She loves her family and friends, theater, traveling, and sports. Spiff has big dreams and even bigger cats, Physics and The Funk. She votes for justice and equity, hopes for sustainable peace and expansive love, and promotes God and all that She is doing in Creation.


The Rev. Arthur Stewart (he/him) is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a Bethany Ecumenical Fellow alumnus, and co-host of The Two On One Project. Arthur enjoys baking pies, improvisational storytelling, and deconstructing spy movies. In a previous life, he was a jazz musician and professional comedian. He and his husband Brian live in Wichita, Kansas with their daughter, Kenzie.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Are You Still Watching?

The Reverend Stephanie Kendell and The Reverend Arthur Stewart 1

Chapter 1 Following a Gleaming Star: Epiphany, Magi, and the Avett Brothers

The Reverend Daniel Lyvers 7

Chapter 2 Let Your Light Shine: Grief, Healing, and Next to Normal

The Reverend Colton D. Lott 15

Chapter 3 Barbecue Sauce: Ted Lasso, Jesus, and the Hermeneutic of Curiosity

The Reverend Stephanie Kendell 25

Chapter 4 Forget What's Behind: Sanctified Imagination and The Harder They Fall

The Reverend Rae Karim 37

Chapter 5 Lord, Only You Can Answer That: Dry Bones and Get Back

The Reverend Travis Smith McKee 45

Chapter 6 The Sun Has Gazed on Me: Song of Songs, Beyoncé's Black Parade and Decolonization

The Reverend Larry J. Morris III 55

Chapter 7 The Town Where I Currently Am: The Kin-dom and Schitt's Creek

The Reverend Arthur Stewart 65

Chapter 8 Do Our Choices Matter? Free Will, Divine Order, and Foundation

The Reverend Jason Reynolds 75

Chapter 9 One Body, Many Members: Open Minds and Queer Eye

The Reverend Diane Faires Beadie 83

Chapter 10 Where is Fat Jesus? Sympathizing in Weakness and My 600-lb Life

The Reverend Doctor Delesslyn A. Kennebrew 91

Chapter 11 Go to Hell, Christian! The Afterlife, This Life, and Netflix's Lucifer

The Reverend Shane Isner 99

Chapter 12 Chaos as Virtue: Lessons from Loki on Mystery and Mischief

The Reverend Whitney Waller 111

Afterword: Keep Watching

The Reverend Arthur Stewart and The Reverend Stephanie Kendell 121

Contributors 125

Endnotes 129