Movie Camp: The Parables Like Aesop's Fables

Nordeast Luteran hosted three movie camps this summer, and I felt a great deal of satisfaction with how they went. There was action, learning, progress, and comedy.

My espousal unit, Kirsten, started this several years ago in a home-school coop, and the kids liked it so much she kept on doing it, even hiring me to handle the cats we were trying to herd. That was the secular version.

I was inspired to steal the idea when I was a youth minister in my MDiv Internship, when I asked my three teen guys if they had a favorite parable. They said, "What's a Parable?" There are enough parables, and enough kids who don't know about them, that I thought we should try making something happen.

Here's how it works. For the uninitiated, what we do is take kids from about 8 to about 13. It's a four day experience. Day one, we do theater warm-ups and exorcises, improvisation games that give the kids a sense of shared experience and the freedom to try ideas. After lunch, I read them four or five parables. Luke is best, but if you have repeat customers like we do there's plenty to dig through in Matthew. We talk about the message of each story, without being religious about it; but let me emphasise, we are very clear that these are stories about Ethics with a Capital E, and the kids really go for it. The jumpy and short-attention-span assumptions about kids disappear because they are being engaged with real ideas. I have to credit Rev. Scott Stapleton for this; he said to me, "If you don't challenge them, they aren't going to get it."

He was totally right. The challenge is to pick one story, maybe two, and rewrite them for our time and our place. That is, after all, the method a good church takes to the text; what does it mean for us today? Who would be the Good Samaritan now? How about the Pharisee and the Tax Collector?

The stories have to be explained first, and then we start generating ideas. The Good Samaritan needs to be someone that would be a surprise if they stopped to help someone; they picked a Homeless Person. The Pharisee needs to be someone powerful who is proud of themselves; they picked Gov. Schwarzenegger (a funny accent goes a long way). The Tax Collector, the unpopular minion of the powerful and oppressor of the poor, became the Foreclosure Specialist. It was really good stuff.

The first one was done with a small cast. The Widow and the Judge is about a widow who pesters a judge, who cares nothing for justice, and bugs him until she gets what she wants. Jesus tells this about prayer; that God loves us more than this judge cares about the widow, but we should pester God with our prayers until hey are answered. It's not about getting what you want, it's about praying for action that needs to happen, praying for Justice, and not giving up until justice is done.

The kids were from different places. One our very own Tommy, has been in every movie camp because he loves movies. He has gone from being a shy actor with lots of props to being a much better actor and in fact the editor of our last movie, when our VHS camera (built in 1492 with stone knives and bear skins) stopped working. Tommy's camera and Tommy's computer gave him a promotion, and we go the movie back on DVD in time to see it on our last day. Rachel came for her first one, and had the idea to be the homeless person who saves the robbery victim.

One kid, Gavin, had been to the secular movie camp and then did two Parable movie camps. He mused one day, "You know, in these stories we do here, the robbers always get away." And I thought to my self, "YESSSSS! Jesus is still up to date!"

But there were kids from outside the congregation, which is very much part of the idea. One kid was in a family that does not go to church, and has good reasons not to, but they liked the idea of their kid getting some ethical training. And that's how it's taught. That concept drew two more kids from another family. There was another from a family in the neighborhood who had a recommendation from the first family mentioned here. The church may or may not draw new members from outreach like this; but like the food shelf, we are making a difference in people's lives. I think it's a safe bet that these kids would not have encountered the teachings of Jesus in a way that was fun, creative, and useful. Storytellers say that when someone is preaching or speaking that we get as little as 14% of the information from the words (did I mention that before? Well, here it is again). The rest comes from tone, gesture, inflection, body language. So drama is an effective means by which the story can be installed in someone's head, instead of bouncing off. These kids, I believe, have a better chance of remembering.

This isn't a new idea, by any means, but it is new to these kids. It brings the story to where they are int he world, instead of trying to force them into something alien. And it may not change the world- but it will change Their world.