For those of you who say, “It’s only a movie,” consider the life of one missionary, Ken Taylor, a Filipino-born former nightclub entertainer.
After he and his wife accepted Jesus Christ, they began to make short-term mission trips to Japan. Then, in 1997, they moved to Japan under the auspices of a ministry called World Venture, to become musical missionaries.
In Japan, they discovered that the 1992 movie SISTER ACT starring Whoopi Goldberg about a lounge singer who helps some nuns form a choir putting religious lyrics to popular songs had inspired Japanese businesses and community centers to offer Gospel choir lessons.
About 10 years ago, Ken formed his first “Black Gospel” choir composed mostly of Non-Christian people of Japanese ancestry. Today, he has 30 such choirs going, with about 600 members!
“God is using these Non-Christians to witness to their Non-Christian friends and relatives who are watching,” Ken says.
“We really need prayer for Japan,” Ken adds. “Please pray for the Japanese people that they would come to know Jesus. We just want what God wants, which is to see more and more Japanese come to know the Lord, because I know they will then make a great impact on the world.”
Ken’s story shows the great power that movies and entertainment exert on people of all backgrounds, for good or ill.
As MOVIEGUIDE® has often preached, the media creates the culture that influences our attitudes, ideas, feelings, and behavior. The best way to transform our culture and people’s lives with the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to apply that Gospel to the media itself, just as Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformers did in using the printing press.
For more information about Ken and his wife, Bola’s, ministry, go to www.kenandbola.com. For more information about MOVIEGUIDE® and its efforts to redeem the values of the media, go to www.movieguide.org, or call 1-888-248-6689.
– Source: Dan Wooding, ASSIST News Service, 07/08/09.
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