meditatio at the water's edge

could gospel be like good t.v. ???

Last night I watched a Sunday nights episode of "Boston Legal." I nearly cried, laughed myself silly, and yet was deeply captivated... all within 40 minutes (without commercials) of television. Tonight I watched last nights episode of "NYPD Blue" as well as "The West Wing."

I was deeply moved with each of the above. It seems that television, much better than the church, has captivated its audience (us) with good stories (much like our lives) along with a good mixture of both thoughtfulness and emotions, and usually the mixture is pretty true to life in terms of the rationing of each.

So, I am wondering if we as the church have usually run the error of either being too intellectual such as the Calvinist (my tradition) or too emotional without good thought such as the Pentecostal?

What if we could tell the stories of our lives and the stories of the lives of others with the same kind of skill that the writers of good television stories use? Perhaps we are simply too scared to be this real with people? Or perhaps their passion for their art of television runs deeper than our passion for seeing real lives transformed into more intentional kingdom creatures?

...?