Church Binge
I am sure many of you are taking part in ‘The Big Church Binge’ which St Mary’s and other churches have been promoting. For those unaware of it, it is a great initiative to encourage Christians to watch one episode a week of Season 3 of the great series ‘The Chosen’. That healthy habit will take us close to when Season 4 is due to open in UK cinemas in January.
‘The Chosen’ started in 2018 with the aim of accurately representing the character and intentions of Jesus and the Gospels, by taking viewers deeper into those stories of Jesus and those who knew Him. There is no doubt how successful the series has been in that respect – as I write there have been over 500m views of the series (the target is 1bn views so 50% there already) and over 100m people have seen it – equivalent to over 1% of the entire world population.
Its biggest impact however is in how it has evangelised and discipled new, especially younger, people into the faith as its style of storytelling is in a language and form that the unchurched can really respond to. I think it passes the first test of discipleship which is you have to engage and entertain people in order to allow them to be discipled-it is also very funny and we should never forget that humour is also a way to understand and believe.
How it has done that is by showing how human the disciples were and not far removed from our own experiences today and we grow in their own development. The creative choices the production team have made are not without controversy, but they are informed by the Gospels and really work well. So Matthew is played as someone on the autistic spectrum, a person who would have been reviled by his family and community, collecting the taxes of an occupying force and forcing people into poverty, but realising on meeting Jesus that there is a better way. Thomas is shown as someone who overthinks things and has to be 100% sure of something before believing it, whilst Mary Magdelene is someone with mental afflictions and is challenged by her former life. You also learn more about the family behind the disciples -how for example do their wives and family react to them suddenly leaving home and following this man Jesus? In ‘The Chosen’, we get an idea of that.
So for those new to the series, ‘The Big Church Binge’ has started with Series 3 (think Matthew 6 and Luke 11)- we are in the second year of Jesus’ ministry, he is about to give the Sermon on the Mount speech, John the Baptist has been imprisoned by Herod and a young apprentice takes an interest in Jesus-by the name of…Judas- on meeting him for the first time Jesus says to him cryptically “ Judas, are you ready to do hard things?”: you get the picture.
Although I have seen all the series so far, I am enjoying them again and I hope you are too.
To see ‘The Chosen’ there are a variety ways to view it: a) on ‘The Chosen App’, b) at https://watch.thechosen.tv/ or c) on Amazon Freevee- all free so happy viewing!
Tags: The Chosen, Binge on Jesus