By Jonathan Smith, Managing Editor

The gospel and culture coffee house, a new addition to this year’s Bible Lectureship, will feature discussions about literature and the popular movies The Matrix and The Lord of the Rings.

The coffee house will be in the Bean Sprout following each night’s main lecture and will be conducted by different professors. Al Haley, assistant professor of English, will talk Sunday about the gospel and literature; Dr. Bill Rankin, assistant professor of English, will discuss the gospel and The Matrix; and Dr. Jeff Childers, associate professor of Bible, ministry and missions, will discuss the gospel and The Lord of the Rings.

“We’re trying to model a method or approach of connecting with the culture,” Childers said.

The coffee house idea, Childers said, came from an evangelistic strategy some churches use. He said in areas of the country where coffee houses are more popular, they are a good place for both Christians and non-Christians to discuss culture.

Childers said being able to talk about aspects of popular culture with non-Christians could be a doorway to discussing the Christian themes and gospel message that appear in literature and movies.

Childers, who was asked by Dr. Mark Love, director of ministry events, to lead one of the discussions, said he chose The Lord of the Rings because of the Christian themes found in it.

“There’s a lot of things in the story that are counter-culture,” Childers said, such as the realities of evil, hope and surrendering power instead of grasping for it. “They become talking points for non-Christians. You can talk about some interesting things in the movie and about how those relate to the gospel. The gospel message is you gain power by surrendering it. You gain life by losing it.”

Rankin said his topic, The Matrix, is probably the most controversial of the three.

“Although it is filled with Christian imagery, it’s hard for some Christians to handle,” Rankin said. “Here’s an R-rated movie with violence and swearing.”

Rankin posed a question for people to consider when viewing things from popular culture.

“Can we embrace things for their good qualities?,” Rankin said. “Are we concerned with the bad qualities?”

Childers said he hopes by discussing culture and how it relates to the gospel, people will begin to think about how they can do that and apply it in their homes. Rankin said he thinks it is important for Christians to know about the culture they live in.

“If we don’t look at culture and engage in culture, we quickly become irrelevant.”