Maranatha's clever "I'm Gunna Apply" video

First, the music, to my ear, is based on the Barbershop Quartet style. MBBC men’s groups (The Messengers come to mind) have a tradition of singing BQ arrangements.
Second, it is a “light hearted” promo. So, it isn’t as serious as a heart attack.
And I’ll withhold my third.

R.K. Fall, BA, MBBC, ‘81

[JG] Thanks, Sam. Especially for this:

But, what of: God, Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit, slavehood, Lordship, grace, faith, the “Commission,” sunathleo, agonizomai„ to live is Christ, to die is gain—what of “the Faith?”

The appeal was all wrong. And even my son could see it, but most of SI apparently couldn’t (though they are supposedly older and wiser).

Sorry for not seeing what “even your son” could see. Sorry for not being wiser.

If this were the only promotional material available and the only method of appeal MBBC has made, I could see your point. But it is not, and so I do not.

I agree with Greg. Along with the oatmeal, MBBC threw in some raisins brown sugar.

[Greg Long] If this were the only promotional material available and the only method of appeal MBBC has made, I could see your point. But it is not, and so I do not.

is why the wide and long shot of the puppeteer in the last “marching up the street” scene show him with the Wierd Al Yankovic wig (actual hair?) but he isn’t wearing it/showing it in the close up cameos (homeless guy)? Or is it a different guy scene to scene? Do they allow that kind of hair length at Maranatha now?

A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

- Proverbs 17:22

It’s o.k. to have some humor and some laughing.

That is not a matter of dispute in this thread.

Is this video like one of those inside jokes or “you had to be there” to appreciate the humor type of thing? Maybe I missed the humor and didn’t laugh at the video simply because I don’t know any of the people in it.

So, what parts are funny? Is it the men in suits imitating The Village People? Is it the jobless/homeless looking guy with the handmade cardboard sign? (BTW, if you’ve ever seen a person standing on a street corner holding a “work wanted” sign, it’s not funny. Being without a job and/or a home isn’t laughable — at least not where I live.)

I’ve got no beef against Maranatha. I have no doubt that many of their graduates are faithfully serving the Lord and that many of their current students and employees genuinely love and serve the Lord. But, I don’t “get” the video. That’s all. And, just telling me that it’s “funny, light-hearted, or clever” doesn’t help me “get” it either. I guess I’m not their target audience.

Sometimes I really don’t understand SI, particularly why certain topics generate the attention they do, and why others do not.

[Charlie] Sometimes I really don’t understand SI, particularly why certain topics generate the attention they do, and why others do not.

A quirk of Fundamentalism is that it excites passion over the fringes of what is really important

We are not connecting.

No one is arguing that fun and humor are inherently wrong, so the multiple posts generally defending, even lauding, fun and humor are missing the point. Similarly, references to professors with senses of humor who do not take themselves too seriously are missing the point. How is this not a straw man?

[Pastor Joe Roof]

A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

- Proverbs 17:22
It’s o.k. to have some humor and some laughing.

Is this humor and laughing what the Scriptures, and especially this Scripture, mean by joy? Don’t we need to interpret before we apply? And unless we are prepared to argue that all humor and laughing is acceptable and appropriate—and I will credit everyone here with recognizing that as utter nonsense—then we need to distinguish between what is acceptable and appropriate and what is not. How does this Scripture reference help us do so? How is this not dangerous hermeneutics?

[Greg Long]

[JG] The appeal was all wrong. And even my son could see it, but most of SI apparently couldn’t (though they are supposedly older and wiser).

Sorry for not seeing what “even your son” could see. Sorry for not being wiser.

If this were the only promotional material available and the only method of appeal MBBC has made, I could see your point. But it is not, and so I do not.

But, Greg, in thinking this you have implicitly presumed that this method of appeal is inherently acceptable, which is a key issue here. You seem to have left no room for the possibility of inherent problems with the methodology. Rather, you seem have room for a problem only if the methodology is overused.

[SamH] But, what of: God, Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit, slavehood, Lordship, grace, faith, the “Commission,” sunathleo, agonizomai,, to live is Christ, to die is gain—what of “the Faith?”

It is missing.

Indeed, Sam. In that vein the contrast between the sentiment of this video and of the institution’s http://www.mbbc.edu/about/mission] mission statement is striking.

[Brent Marshall] We are not connecting.

No one is arguing that fun and humor are inherently wrong, so the multiple posts generally defending, even lauding, fun and humor are missing the point. Similarly, references to professors with senses of humor who do not take themselves too seriously are missing the point. How is this not a straw man?

[Pastor Joe Roof]

A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

- Proverbs 17:22
It’s o.k. to have some humor and some laughing.

Is this humor and laughing what the Scriptures, and especially this Scripture, mean by joy? Don’t we need to interpret before we apply? And unless we are prepared to argue that all humor and laughing is acceptable and appropriate—and I will credit everyone here with recognizing that as utter nonsense—then we need to distinguish between what is acceptable and appropriate and what is not. How does this Scripture reference help us do so? How is this not dangerous hermeneutics?

[Greg Long]

[JG] The appeal was all wrong. And even my son could see it, but most of SI apparently couldn’t (though they are supposedly older and wiser).

Sorry for not seeing what “even your son” could see. Sorry for not being wiser.

If this were the only promotional material available and the only method of appeal MBBC has made, I could see your point. But it is not, and so I do not.

But, Greg, in thinking this you have implicitly presumed that this method of appeal is inherently acceptable, which is a key issue here. You seem to have left no room for the possibility of inherent problems with the methodology. Rather, you seem have room for a problem only if the methodology is overused.

No, I always leave room for inherent problems with methodology. I just don’t think there are inherent problems with people singing and acting out a fun song about college life on a video.

I traveled for two summers on a “Summer Ministry Team” for Faith Baptist Bible College. We ministered at camps and sang in churches. Most of our ministry in churches involved singing and preaching. At camps we sang, preached, and counseled. But you know what? We also did some fun skits. I even wrote a skit for us called “A Day in the Life of a College Student.” It was pure fun (although it did talk about sitting in class, sitting in chapel, etc.). Sometimes teens want to see that they can go to a Christian college (especially a conversative one like Faith) and actually have fun. Sometimes we even did that skit (shhh…don’t tell anyone!) for teens at a church, say in a Sunday School class. We also did some skits/dramas during church services that were more spiritually focused but did include some humor.

Now, I’m certainly not one who sees drama playing a central role (get it?) in church worship. Preaching must always be central. The skits that we did were like 5-10% of our total ministry; the vast majority of it was singing and preaching.

So maybe I see this video in the context of my background on summer ministry teams.

So, what parts are funny? Is it the men in suits imitating The Village People? Is it the jobless/homeless looking guy with the handmade cardboard sign? (BTW, if you’ve ever seen a person standing on a street corner holding a “work wanted” sign, it’s not funny. Being without a job and/or a home isn’t laughable — at least not where I live.)

I actually liked it and saw these parts as funny. I’ve ministered in the inner-city among the poor for 20 years and so from time to time I actually deal with folks that hold a jobless/homeless sign on a street corner, most of which have addictions. I spend alot of time trying to educate “guilty-feeling” Christians from giving to panhandlers because they are doing more harm than good. Here is my mentor and former boss speaking about giving to panhandlers. http://www.woodtv.com/dpp/news/local/grand_rapids/Tack-ArtPrize-draws-p…

Back to the topic…. Even though I am quite sensitive to the plight of the poor and homeless and it can be a life and death situation, I really had no problem with the video making light of the situation that had nothing to do with people that are the real homeless and hungry. It lightheartedly exaggerated the point that those who come out of a fundy institution with a degree that is not accredited are going to struggle with getting a job in their field of study (unless you are a pastor or Christian school teacher at an IFB church or school) In truth, I have had several friends who felt led to a fundy college that was not accredited and they came out with a degree that was useless in the real world. They had spent several thousands of $ on it and then realized they were hoodwinked.

As for being sober-minded and serious about our faith and the gospel (which I believe is very important), this does not cause me to wonder if they lack these qualities at MBBC, especially if it as Greg mentions, as only one aspect of their marketing and who they are. In fact, I would not be able to send my kids to a college or to a church that takes itself too seriously where they feel they couldn’t risk doing a video like this. Laughter is very much a big part of our family because we constantly have to deal with serious issues in relationship with my ministry. I constantly have to deal with issues of gang violence that often leads to death, teen pregnancies and STD’s, single-moms that lose their jobs-and are constantly one step away from becoming homeless, drug and alcohol addicted parents, and the list goes on and on. If at times we were not able to laugh through a few of these serious things, we would always be crying about them. One of my favorite comics Bob Newhart once said “Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it, and move on.”

In fact, this video broke some stereotypes for me. My Michigan/Indiana GARBC fundy background is not as culturally conservative as others within fundamentalism so I had some biases against a school like MBBC thinking it was too conservative. However, the music was very well done, they can wear real, but modest clothes, they don’t cut corners on the food (Steak on Fridays), they are accredited, they aren’t afraid to take a cultural risk…. in the eyes of some fundamentalists at least (as long as it does not violate scripture) and even face unwarranted criticism.

Of course, if my kids or if any of my inner-city students were to take an interest in MBBC, we would visit the campus to meet the professors and sit in on their classes, we would connect with other students and observe the atmosphere on campus. I think we’d get a good idea if the faculty and students are also sober-minded and serious about Jesus and the gospel. But from the video, we’d know that they are image-bearers of God and because of that they can have a little fun and laugh.

_____________________________

http://www.utmgr.org/blog_index.html

Someone I consider wise and who has had a very large impact on me regarding things of this nature once said something I will never forget.

Silly people are silly about even those things they think they take seriously.

This does not mean there is never a time for a joke or humor. To so assert is to build a straw man. It implies the legitimate question of how affect is developed, how sensibilities are educated, both of which are rarely given much thought by evangelicals/fundamentalists.

Just because objections are not on our radar screens or our personal experience biases us toward acceptance of a given action does not mean we ought to let it go unexamined, or summarily dismiss those who would ask us to examine it.

[DavidO]

Silly people are silly about even those things they think they take seriously.

This does not mean there is never a time for a joke or humor.

David,

You contradict yourself here. How do you determine which time this is - the one that’s ok or the one that’s not ok?

Guys, I’m bettered by essential real, intelligent natural genius.

Piled high, it’s like, I see their intelligence now easily, so…

Unless nothing’s clarified, look elsewhere…