The Supernatural Presentation

Last week I gave a new performance for the eXtra Years of Zest group at church. New in that it was themed on the supernatural, and I did some new effects which simulated having mental powers such as the ability to predict the future, and read the minds of audience members. The take-away was that one’s worldview is what determines how they interpret what they see. For this purpose I have distilled worldviews down to three types:

  1. Everything has the potential to be supernatural – this represents those who believe psychic surgery, horoscopes, and seances to be real.
  2. Nothing is supernatural – there only exists that which can be measured by our 5 senses.
  3. Some things which appear to be supernatural are deceptions, and some things really are supernatural – but God alone is the source of supernatural powers to use as He purposes, not as a puppet to serve our desires – the Biblical worldview.

Supernatural themes are of great interest to the current culture. This is evidenced by the popularity of supernatural themes in movies and television:

  • One of the highest grossing movies of this summer is “The Conjuring” – it has brought in over 140 million dollars as of the beginning of September. It is “the true story of world renowned paranormal investigators forced to confront a powerful demonic entity”.
  • In September “Insidious: Chapter 2” opened, which tells the tale of a boy who is lost in an invisible demon-populated region. It brought in $41 million in its debut weekend, making it the best September opening for any film. This horror sequel raked in $20 million on the opening Friday, the biggest one-day gross in the month of September.
  • 22 of the 50 top grossing films of all time deal with supernatural themes.
  • One of the top ten shows on television right now is “Supernatural”
  • Other prime time shows in current production at the time of this writing include these supernatural themed programs: Paranormal witness, Ghost Adventures, the Dead Files, and Haven.

So, why the emphasis on the supernatural? Because we think it is a good way to get the attention of an audience with which is is so popular. In fact many people believe that supernatural phenomena, such as this do exist. And even if they are not sure supernatural abilities exist, they certainly do enjoy imagining what it would be like if they did. Of course, that is part of the appeal of watching a magic show.

We hope to capitalize on the public’s interest in the supernatural with the documentary movie we are working on which is framed around Andre’s life. It deals with three areas of his life: the Inventor, the Skeptic, and the Believer. And we hope that as the audience walks away after having seen this feature, they will be asking themselves “Is belief important?” and “What do I believe, and why?” And as a result, maybe they will be motivated to research the evidence for each of the three general wordviews and be willing to shift their belief system based on that evidence, and not just a hope or wishful thinking.

 

The short URL of the present article is: https://greenwoodministry.info/9crH4

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