What Zombies Can Teach The Church

Hear me out on this. In 1968, George Romero created Night of the living dead. It resembles a college film class project, but it changed the horror genre and ushered in the modern era of, fleshing eating Zombies that still is the standard today. It was more than just a horror film, it was a social commentary that showed the horrors of humanity as much as it showed horrible monsters.

Like all good films, it spawned imitators, an industry full of them in fact. Some of them were good, most of them were terrible and none of them got better with age. While there remained this hardcore following of zombie-philes who went to the movies, and imitated the creatures, and even started philanthropic cultural gatherings, the genre itself declined badly, in quality and popularity. I was going to name some examples but did not want to be mean. Trust me though, if you look up zombie movies from the mid-2000's, you'll see. 

But then, this happened:

Premiering, appropriately, on Halloween 2010 the series grew into a phenomena. It was and is the biggest show on AMC and on cable. In fact, it's Season 4 premiere crushed every other show ratings-wise. A cable show, that is not available in every home, beat all the network shows, which are. It has jump started the zombie genre again and zombie-mania is running, or staggering, full blast. Parties, costumes, books, games, etc etc, are all over the place. A show finally lived up to the original product, nearly 50 years later. Why?

1. The people were more important than the action: Walking Dead has it's share of special effects and gore and zombie battles, but it's the characters that keep people tuning back in. We care about the people on that show and what happens to them. And the stories they are involved in are pretty good. The monsters and gore support and compliment the story, not the other way around.

2. It's about more than the zombies: The original Night of the Living Dead was a commentary about race, trusting or mistrusting "the other." It was deeper than it's premise. Walking Dead is the same. It's a commentary about death, the break down of civilization and about what it means to be human when all the societal norms fall away.

3.There is a sense of hope, if a guarded one: The walking dead shows that people can change and grow, they can rise above what they were and become heroes. They can become monsters too and the world of Walking Dead is brutally cruel and vicious. But always, at the heart of the story, is the hope that the survivors can find a way to live, survive and humanity can carry on.

Now, if you haven't given up yet, what does this have to do with the church? Well I think there are something in those previous principles that we in the church can learn from. Because Lutheranism along with most of Christianity is not the game changer it was 50 years ago, but I believe is can experience another resurgence. Why?

1. We are more about the people than the programs: Program, curriculum, cool worship, snazzy pastors and all the "special effects" of church are great, but we need to remember it is the people that make a church worth being a part of. Authentic, loving, serving, Christ-like Christians are what make people come back for another event, service, or what have you. And it's people that make them want to be a part of the community. See Pope Francis for an example. The good news is that we have great people. We have people who can build the community, who can model faith and generosity, we have people who can imperfectly but genuinely welcome new disciples into the church and show them what it means to live differently in the kingdom of God.

2. The story is more than just the headlines and disagreements: Often what is heard about the church is prejudiced fights, corrupt leaders, and blowhard celebrity leaders. The bible is trotted out to lay down battle lines and that's it. But we have more than that to offer. We have a great Gospel to share, good news of hope and life. We have the ability to give messages that speak to today's issues help provide a way forward that is life-giving. That's not to reduce the bible to a how to guide, but to say there is more to the story than rules and gory stories. There is hope, there is truth and there is a better way to live together as human beings.

3. We have real hope to offer, one that acknowledges reality: We offer hope, but we also know that life is hard. The worst monsters are real people, not movie creations. People are brutal, greedy, cruel, violent, hateful and horrible to each other. They are this way with strangers, with children, with the weak, even with the ones who are friends and family. People are this way in the church, but we have a message that people can change. We have a hope founded in Christ and in the grace of God that we can rise above. We believe villains can become heroes and cruelty can be changed into love. We have enough hope to believe that the cranky, raucous, loud, argumentative, devise, stubborn, disruptive people who make up our churches (this includes pastors), can rise above all that and be the amazing people God made them to be. We even see glimpses of this amazing community in the congregations and groups we form together. The world is brutal, violent and incredibly cruel, but our faith gives us hope that, by the grace of God, we can overcome and be saved  from all of it, even a zombie apocalypse.

In the end, you don't have to cry "braaaains", like zombies or watch the Walking Dead to be a part of a resurging church. What is really truly need is authenticity, love, humility and hope. We need to remember where we came from and where we are going and trust that the God who created us and our communities in the past can help re-create them in a meaningful and life giving ways today.