Be You-Nique

I went to Sundance a couple weeks ago and saw four movies. Three were good to great and one … wasn’t. Of the three good films, one (Beasts of the Southern Wild) was very unique, and two were kind of unique (Hello, I Must Be Going, which reminded me a bit of Garden State; and Filly Brown, which smacked of Eight Mile).

The fourth was Wuthering Heights. I believe this is the sixth time Wuthering Heights has been made into a movie. This particular incarnation was mind-numbingly boring. After awhile I started begging my wife to kill me. It may have been a little over dramatic, but at the time death seemed a better option than having to watch the rest of it.

Here’s the thing: Sundance is famous for having some crap movies, some boring movies. And who am I to judge – I’m sure it’s way more difficult to make an interesting movie (especially on a small independent budget) than I realize. BUT when you make a movie and it’s a boring, at least you’ve said something. You’ve added something to the collective human consiousness of the world. But when you remake a movie (for the sixth time!) and it’s boring, what you’ve added is … nothing. It’s a waste of a movie.

And I guess wasting a movie isn’t a big deal, but “wasting” a life, or a church, is. And I’m afraid that too many people never discover the unique way God designed them and so they live out the life of someone else. And too many churches don’t do the work of discovering their unique God-given design and so they carbon copy the vision and methods of some other church. (This is why I love Will Mancini’s church unique vision.)

Have you (or has your church) done the hard work of self-discovery so that you can add something unique to God’s world and live out your own story? If not, it’s time.