OK. Now on to the list. The purpose of this list is not to undermine the efforts of those pastors/speakers who are trying to do something new and different by using video clips as sermon illustrations. My purpose is merely to suggest that there is a greater variety of filmic material that should be explored. I'm all for adding extra dimensions to the experience of church-going. Movies in church? Yeah, sign me up. But I don't want to see the same clips (or movies) used repeatedly to the point of becoming meaningless.

Rather than offer creative suggestions for what movie clips should be shown, I'll take the easier path of critic and suggest some movies that should not be shown. Also, if I were to suggest which movies should be used, I'm sure that my considerable bully pulpit that is Cinneklesia would cause those same movies to be used in churches, synagogues, mosques and buddhist temples across the world, thereby making them into hackneyed spectres of their former creative selves.

Without further adieu... (sorry, I'm a big Sound of Music fan. Which reminds me. How DO you solve a problem like Maria?)

5. City Slickers (1991)

Yesterday They Were Businessmen. Today They're Cowboys. Tomorrow They'll Be Walking Funny. (IMDB)

THE CLIP: If I've seen it once, I've seen it five or six times. In church. Billy Crystal's character riding on his horse as he and his fellow mid-life-crisis-types drive cattle through the New Mexico landscape. They are wondering what it's all about. Up rides Curly with this sage piece of advice. "I'll tell you the secret to life. This one thing." he says as he holds up his finger. "Just this one thing."

THE PROBLEM: The apparent relevance of this clip is fairly obvious. Focus your priorities on the main thing in life, which is [pastor inserts sermon point here ... maybe he even holds up HIS finger for effect]. The main problem is that the advice is (1) ambiguous, and (2) comes from a cowboy whose spurs don't all jingle-jangle, if you know what I mean.

THE EXCEPTION: There is an exception to the City Slickers ban. I once attended a church service where the A/V guys (and no, I wasn't running the VCR that morning) let the clip play for too long. The last part of Curly’s quote is "... Just this one thing. You stick to that and everything else don't mean SH-T." Play that clip every Sunday, as far as I'm concerned.

4. Braveheart (1995)

What kind of man would defy a king?

THE CLIP: Men in loin cloths. Faces painted. Sunday morning. (No, it's not a Pittsburgh Steelers game). William Wallace famously cries out:

Aye, fight and you may die, run, and you'll live... at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin' to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take away our lives, but they'll never take... OUR FREEDOM!

THE PROBLEM: It doesn't do anything for me. I've actually never seen the full movie (see Nat's list). Some say I'm dead inside. I don't know ... men in skirts? Maybe if I were Presbyterian.

THE EXCEPTION: Maybe if I saw the whole movie (feel free to send me a copy of you're a big fan ... preferably on DVD ... widescreen. Maybe some kind of Special Edition or something). And maybe if I had some face paint on. And maybe if the pastor preached the entire sermon in his very best Scottish accent.

3. Chariots of Fire (1981)

Two men chasing dreams of glory!

THE CLIP: The runner guy (Eric Liddell) preaching in the rain, not competing on a Sunday, or winning the race. The Chariots of Fire theme blares from the sanctuary loudspeakers (bum bum bum bum buuuummmmm buummmmmmm. bum bummm bummm bummm bummmmmmmm.)

THE PROBLEM: This movie is from the 80's or something. Right? I saw it in the theater with my dad at a special "pastors only" screening. (He was the pastor, not me. I was 9.) It was a good movie, but it's been used too darn much. It's too easy of a choice. And everybody already knows how it ends. (Wait, do I know how it ends? He wins, right?)

THE EXCEPTION: Sorry. No exceptions.

2. Spider-Man (2002)

With great power comes great responsibility.

THE CLIP: It doesn't matter. Every time that a clip is shown the phrase "With great power comes great responsibility" is included.

THE PROBLEM: Yes. We get it. We apparently all have great power. And great responsibility. But -- to paraphrase Aunt May's observation to Peter Parker -- we're not Superman.

THE EXCEPTION: Spider-Man 2 escapes its predecessor's weakness as sermon illustration because it does not distill into a quick catch phrase. And because there is a villian with octopus arms.

1. Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001 - 2003)

The Fellowship of the Ring: The Legend Comes to Life
The Two Towers: A New Power Is Rising
The Return of the King: Ya'll come back now. Ya hear?

THE CLIP: Any. A Trilogy of this magnitude lends itself to being shown. With a hobbit in every clip and a constant battle of good vs. evil, any would-be clergy/critic could simply pick scenes at random and then deliver an extemporaneous sermon/commentary on the scene.

THE PROBLEM: It's too easy. It's like shooting dwarfs in a barrel. And when you've seen one LOTR clip, you've seen them all. Don't get me wrong ... I loved this trilogy. I own the extended versions of each. But I'd prefer that our prophets/poets/dreamers/sages/priests not be drawn into a "Tolkien wrote it ... it must be good" mentality.

THE EXCEPTION: This series receives my broadest exception yet. Each pastor in the country is allowed to show one clip from each movie once. Period. Not once per audience, or once per new series. Once. Choose wisely. Think of it as "One Clip to rule them all, One Clip to find them, One Clip to bring them all and in the darkness hit them up for the building fund."

I hope you enjoyed this non-exhaustive list of movie clips that are overused as sermon illustrations. I'd love to read your comments about what I got right, what I got wrong, and what movie clips I may have missed. And if anyone has suggestions for movie clips that ought to be used (but generally aren't) please do tell. One day I'd like to stop being a critic and actually do something constructive. ;-)