I was reading another few pages from Planting Missional Churches by Ed Stetzer this morning, and in the early going he rides the importance of cultural exegesis hard.  I was already familiar with the concept as I just took a course this spring on “Christianity and Culture” from Bruce Guenther over at ACTS (awesome course by the way).  One of the most important texts in the course was called Everyday Theology - a compilation by Kevin Vanhoozer.  This book was awesome for giving a framework to analyze cultural trends in light of Jesus.  It’s given me a very different angle on looking at my culture ever since.

So the two of these sources collided with me while I was driving to work this morning.  Two songs on my iPod came on - “It’s Probably Me” by Eric Clapton and Sting, and “Your Life is Now” by John Mellencamp.  It occured to me that both of these songs have very Christian overtones, though I somehow doubt the writers thought of that.  (Actually, in retrospect, from what I know of Eric Clapton’s spiritual journey, maybe that one wasn’t unintentional.)  I was picturing actually opening a sermon by having everyone come in with that song playing, or the worship team playing (given the mad skillz of Eric Clapton, maybe I had better play the CD).

I was even thinking of doing some kind of youtube, or powerpoint set to coincide with the lyrics to illustrate some profound points to ponder as the music washes over you.

Just some crazy ideas for the future, I guess.  Two of my favorite things are music and movies.  I will be spending more time thinking about how to exegete them and teach with them as illustrations or foci for points.

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