One of my favorite things is finding where pop culture and religion intersect. I love when tv shows or movies inject some questions about faith. Better yet, I love when an entire movie (or tv episode) is a metaphor about faith. This interest serves me well as Director of Faith Formation (overseeing service and learning for all ages); I do a lot of youth ministry in my role.
As part of my job, I help host evening events for middle school students. Every two months or so, we offer our middle school students the opportunity to come spend time together on a Friday or Saturday night. We play games, sing songs, eat pizza and other snacks, and get to know each other better. We used to also show a movie, but the kids were generally uninterested. They preferred having time to just hang out together. So that past two events, we've switched gears a little bit and we've shown a tv episode to them and used it to have a conversation about faith.
Last spring, we showed "Grilled Cheesus," an episode from the second season of Glee. It's a great episode and shows several of the characters exploring faith - from a devout Baptist to an atheist. It allowed us to talk with our middle school students about prayer in a nonthreatening way. Even if you aren't hosting a middle school event at your church, check out this episode. Last I knew, the entire series of Glee episodes was available on Netflix.
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