“I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. The materialism of affluent Christian countries appears to contradict the claims of Jesus Christ that says it’s not possible to worship both Mammon and God at the same time.” – Mohandas Gandhi
Hillsong United started out as a band playing music for their local church (Hillsong) in the youth ministry (also called United) in the late 1990s. As their talents matured and the songs caught on they made a commitment to release an album every year “as long as God keeps bringing us songs.” Their popularity continued to extend beyond their home in Sydney, Australia and reached the far corners of the Earth. In 2005 they embarked on a 2-1/2-year world tour (not contiguously) that took them to places they had only heard of and opened their eyes to things they had only read about. They decided to document their journeys and this movie (as well as last year’s double-album and the continuing movement at www.i-heart.org) is the result. I’m almost positive they set out to make a concert DVD & CD project but along the way it turns out everyone was more touched and changed than they originally thought possible.
The purpose of the film is summed up fairly well in the final trailer by United frontman (if you can call him that) Joel Houston when he realizes that the streets the band travels down to get to the concert venues are likely to be unchanged by what happens inside the venue itself. “Maybe we’re missing the point,” he laments.
I knew I was in for something different than a feel-good “Christian” movie when the title opened with a reading of Amos 5:21-24 where God basically says he doesn’t want our religious meetings or fancy projects or schemes. He wants justice and fairness. This is something the Western church has generally been lacking in for a long time. The film says we know it, but are we doing anything about it.
From the title and for the next hour the movie takes us basically around the world with the band and seeing the plight of young and old everywhere. There is a focus on consumerism, slavery, image-consciousness, materialism, AIDS, the downtrodden, poor, homeless, hopeless, etc… Throughout it all I found myself feeling concerned, but like I had heard it all before. The band recognizes this as well as they admit to knowing it’s going on, but always changing the channel or walking/driving past and going on to the next thing.
Young people are interviewed all around the world and a few are picked out to show their self-centeredness and unaware of the world outside their own bubble. I thought to myself, aren’t most teenagers that way? I don’t blame them – they’re just finding out who they are. Some want to be schoolteachers, others want to be actors and one guy said what we’d all like to do - make a lot of money without having a lot of responsibilities. Sign me up!
Each country or struggle was its own vignette that sometimes felt separated from the other parts of the film. After about 45 minutes I was wondering what was going on. They did not delve deep into any one struggle and just gave us a few glimpses into things like: refugees displaced by war or natural disasters, the child slave/sex trade, racism, genocide and the poor all over the world. I was feeling frustrated because it was a high level view of so many issues plaguing our world at home and abroad but they kept shuffling on to the next place or next horror.
At about the 1 hour mark the background music starts building and the voiceovers and images get more frenetic. Everyone is feeling helpless at seeing and experiencing all of these injustices and wonders what to do. It was then that I finally got what they were trying to do. The band can only relate their experiences and for them they got off a plane, got on a bus or in a van, drove to a venue, setup & soundchecked, played, packed it all back up and got on another plane. There was maybe a few hours to spend with a local church or ministry or people and see what was happening and then they were off to the next thing. That is the experience I was feeling just watching it unfold: “You’ve only spent 5 minutes on this thing or 2 minutes on that and then rushed off to the next issue. What are we supposed to do with so little time?” And that is exactly how they felt.
After the crescendo the movie took a different tone and started speaking (indirectly) to the church – to Christians. Though the Gandhi quote above was not used that sentiment was felt throughout the latter half. The movie is bookended and sprinkled throughout with excerpts from Robert Kennedy’s historic speech in South Africa 1966 which concluded by saying that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own (which he quoted from his brother). If I could sum up the 2nd half of the film it would be those final words.
The focus was certainly on youth and young people but it was really for everyone. The message was to stop just “doing” church and actually start living what you say you believe. People like Mother Theresa should be the rule and not the exception. We know that and say that , but do we believe it? And if we do then it’s time to start acting on it rather than keeping it inside. I know that but I always allow something else to get in the way. There was a pastor in India who told of his passion being so great and crying out to God to call him wherever He wanted him to go. The man was just waiting for “the call.” After some time (I can’t remember whether it was days or weeks or months) he says he finally realized he was in the middle of extreme poverty and injustice and it was like God said to him, “Are you still waiting for the call?” He woke up and that is what the church needs to do.
Someone in the movie said Christians are all too often known for what we are against. We have made big things out of small things (poilitical issues) and small things out of big (social justice). One of the pastors said the message of Jesus is perfect (i.e. – love your neighbor as yourself) and therefore the only thing that can screw it up is people – is Christians. And he is totally right. None of these things are new revelations, but there has to come a point where you say “no more” as Martin Smith does in this video below:
So what do we do? What do I do? I saw the movie with a friend of mine and we both agreed that the injustice is staggering and overwhelming. What can I do? Is giving $5 to someone on the street going to change anything? And is that really costing me anything or am I doing it to make myself feel better?
What I took away from it just to get more serious and be more intentional about seeing the needs locally. I drive everywhere and rush from place to place, thing to thing, event to event. I’m always concerned about what’s next and never realizing where I’m at. Another quote from movie was, “People always say ‘We are the future.’ And that’s true. But we’re also the present.” If I could learn to live now in this moment, I think I would have wider eyes to see what is happening around me rather than reading about it online or seeing it on the evening news.
I don’t know if this film is going to change anyone or if it’s going to be a flash-in-the-pan. My goal is to not let it be a two-hour experience one Wednesday night back in November of 2009…somewhere in the distant past. I’ve got to start with myself and if others can too then maybe the church can start becoming what Jesus prayed it would be 2000 years ago – that they will know we are Christians by our love.
Nice review, Joe.
Though I am an atheist and am vehemently against organized religion of any stripe, I appreciate how this movie affected you and that it caused you to want to look inside yourself and pushed you to do something about how you see and feel about the world.
When a movie causes you to want to keep it alive in the present long after you see it, I would say that movie was an unqualified success. And it’s great to see that’s what you took away from it.
Well-written, and I like the ‘we are the future, but we’re also the present’ idea.
There was a book by Dave Eggers some years ago called “You Shall Know our Velocity”.
People bagged on this book pretty badly. But the first thing I thought about while reading your review was this book: When faced with giving away things we want to do to help people, what are the consequences and does it really matter?
Check out the book…I think you’d like it.