Posted on 07/10/2007 4:28:22 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Preacher Dan Smith turned a rap song about babes with booty into a spoof Internet hit, and used it to help create a new church for people who hate church.
Dan Smith thinks Christians take themselves too seriously.
Pastor Dan Smith's 'Baby Got Book' video, a big hit online, helped him start his Momentum Church. "We can be dorks," he says after Sunday service in suburban Cleveland. "We can be Ned Flanders and basically speak jargon that nobody understands."
The 33-year-old pastor has made it his mission to turn the notion of earnest, boring, humorless Christianity on its head — and tickle its feet until it laughs.
He did just that when, as a creative arts minister for a church outside Washington, D.C., he made a video parody of rapper Sir-Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back," an ode to women with generous behinds.
Smith's version was called "Baby Got Book," and its praise was reserved for "Christian sisters" who carry big bibles.
"It's worn and it's torn," go the lyrics, "and I know that girl's reborn."
At the suggestion of parishioners, he posted the video on the Web, and viewers streamed it millions of times.
Smith isn't the only preacher to find success on the Web. One of the hottest names in religion online today is none other than former "Growing Pains" star Kirk Cameron, who spreads the gospel online via wayofthemaster.com.
Smith used the publicity from "Baby Got Book" to help sell his comedy DVDs. Then he used that money and his newfound fame to start a church "for people who don't like church."
He should know. He says he's one of them.
"Some people don't like church because it's boring, full of hypocrites and often led by greedy dudes who only care about cash flow," Smith writes in a promotional flyer for his church, Momentum Christian Church. "And church is really boring, too. Did I mention that a lot of people hate church because it's boring? I usually do."
"People just feel welcome here and they can just be themselves." — church attendee Cindy Lu
Worshippers say you won't be bored at Momentum. You may not even feel like you're in a church — because technically you're not. Momentum holds its services in a multiplex movie theatre in a suburban shopping center. Salvation and Popcorn Buckets On a cool spring Sunday morning, people are filling the lobby of the Cinemark in Valley View, Ohio, warming up with coffee and hot chocolate and munching on donuts and bagels. It is boisterous and full of laughter and excited chat. It feels more like a family holiday gathering than church.
A crowd gathers around television monitors where Smith's "Baby Got Book" video plays on a loop along with other comedy videos he's made, and videotapes of past services.
"I said ladies, yeah, ladies," Smith's voice is heard on the video, "Do you wanna save people from Hades? Yeah!"
The smell of popcorn fills the air and large, framed posters of classic movie stars like Marilyn Monroe and John Wayne hang on the walls.
Smith is running around with a Starbucks coffee in his hand.
"My salvation," he tells me, motioning to the coffee, after explaining that his wife Shannon just gave birth to their third child yesterday and he was up most of the rest of the night writing today's sermon.
A steady stream of people line up to give him congratulatory hugs and handshakes.
The service is as complex as a Broadway show, with comedy skits, stories and a multi-piece band. Like a professional stage show, the service has its own rundown sheet with lighting, audio and video cues.
And then there is Smith's sermon, "Superhero Parables," in which he encourages attendees to use their own special gifts to serve others and God.
"If one day you wake up and realize you've been bitten by a radioactive spider and you've got something new in your repertoire," he tells them, "there's this unspoken code among superheroes that says, you know what, your life is not your own anymore."
Smith electrifies his services with a blend of music and comedy. At the end of the service, the collection is taken up in popcorn buckets.
"I grew up going to Catholic church, so this is very different for me," says 25-year-old Cindy Lu after the service. "But it's just more relaxed. People just feel welcome here and they can just be themselves." Finding a Way Smith himself didn't grow up in a religious household, but came to the faith, he says, through the help of a neighbor. That outsider attitude, he believes, helps him to round up the "unchurched," just like Jesus did.
He says about 200 people attend each week, but admits his unorthodox approach has also drawn critics.
A posting about his Internet video warns viewers "to beware of false prophets."
Smith shrugs it off.
"We're not trying to reach other Christians," Smith says, "If you love your church, stay at your church. That's awesome. But for people who haven't gone in ten years — or all of their lives — I think there's a lot of people who might need to hear the message of 'maybe this might be the church that I can go to.'"
The same church, Smith says, that welcomes people who cuss, watch R-rated movies and smell like cigarettes; the church where "Baby Got Book" is always in rotation and whose services are available by Podcast if you just happen to sleep in some Sunday.
I disagree with the implication that as Christians we can only preach the Gospel using the exact same external methods as Christ and the Apostles.
Neither do 99% of the churches in existence today. Unless they are preaching to their followers in the local market or public square. Too many people ignore the message and pay too much attention to the trinkets (The arena sized church, pastor’s new armani suit, the TV time the pastor purchases). It’s the message, not the delivery, that’s important.
The problem here is that God specified what He wants in worship, and it’s not “comedy skits.”
I think I’m going to be ill.... Just how is this different? We have more churches like this, trying to be “hip”, than we do traditional churches.
Oh, and I don’t think there is any recorded instance in the Bible of Jesus laughing.
Meaning...what, exactly? Jesus wasn't human? Jesus was emotionally crippled? Had no sense of humor?
Where were you going, with that?
Okay, LOL! I see the issue, there. Uh, the article says there are comedy skits in the church, it doesn't say they're used as a form of worship; more probably they're bieng used as a means of illustrating a scriptural principle related to the message being preached on any given Sunday.
Sin? LOL! No.
It's just a different means of presenting an illustration; a more attention-holding alternative to the traditional man-behind-the-wooden-box-talking-and-gesticulating method.
How about using porno movies to preach the Gospel?
Or even more likely, they are merely entertainment for the same kind of shallow itching-ears types who'd agree that "church is boring."
AMEN! I am SSSOOO sick 'n' tired of folks proclaiming that God's all serious and somber all of the time. In fact, you read the Psalms and you'll find out YHVH LAUGHS! Now, that laughin in there isn't the good kind where something's funny; it's the bad kind where His enemies just stepped in it bigtime and they're about to get whacked. But, still, there it is right in the Holy Word; The Almighty is laughing.
Besides, if God's got no humor, then how'd He ever dream up a platypus?
If God's got no humor, then how come WE'VE got humor?
I'm pretty certain that a sense of humor isn't a product of Adam's sin, because a sense of humor is a joyous thing; it's not bad fruit. If it was a product of the fall, a sense of humor would be a corrupt thing. Now, we can use it badly, but, of itself, it isn't corrupt or sinful. So, Adam must've had a sense of humor before his big slip up, and if he had it before that -- well, there wasn't any part of Adam that wasn't in the image of God, so, whatever Adam had, God's gotta have it, too.
FOUL!!!
Not limiting methods to those used by Jesus and the Apostles does NOT necessitate inclusion of sinful methods.
You know better than that. Now apologize.
Why do you so NEED to believe that?
What's driving your vehement opposition and borderline hostility?
Who says making funny videos about the Word of God/Christianity isn't sinful?
Yes, one of my favorite quotes is from Mark Twain. (something to the affect of) It’s not the parts of the Bible that I don’t understand that bother me but the parts I do.
Here’s a thought to ponder: Rahab and Ruth were both non-Jews by blood. The mother passes her mDNA (mitochondrial DNA) to the off-spring; Jesus had non-Jewish mDNA; the Gospel was preached (is preached) to the non-Jewish as well as the Jew; the Apostles didn’t know about mDNA and hesitated to ‘authorize’ the Gospel to Gentiles, but it was meant to be from the start and even His DNA testifies to the efficacy of it!
Too many people trust their feelings, follow men blindly, and fail to follow the Berean example of searching the Scriptures daily to see whether what they are being told is true. Acts 17:11
We are free to make our choices, but we will be held accountable to the Word, which teaches us how to live lives that are pleasing to God.
“Too many people trust their feelings, follow men blindly, and fail to follow the Berean example of searching the Scriptures daily to see whether what they are being told is true. Acts 17:11
We are free to make our choices, but we will be held accountable to the Word, which teaches us how to live lives that are pleasing to God.”
Certainly that’s true as a general principle, but, what do you do with the Biblical examples of people going against the “Word” of the day yet still being ok? ie Jesus and the Apostles breaking the Sabbath. God causing Samson to marry a Philistine when it was forbidden.
There seem to be occasions where the “law” or “Word” was set aside for a higher purpose of the moment.
The video is freakin’ HILARIOUS.
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