This site is run and shoddily maintained by Jen.
Code Monkey: Dave in the other room

All articles written by J. Biegel unless otherwise stated. Everything else Copyrighted by the respective owners. So no stealin' or nuthin'.


You’re living in it. You’re on the internet right now, with millions of others around the world.

What have you done today? Watched some TV? Read a book? Seen a movie? Listened to music? You’re definitely part of the Pop Culture Church.

Essentially a church is a group of people gathered together. Sure, ‘church’ usually means a group of people, generally Christians, who come together to learn about God but these days there are so many other places to hear God’s Word. Pop Culture Church is one of them.

If you look hard enough at a TV show, a movie, a song or a book, you can find a spiritual theme. Some of the time these themes are deliberately put there. Sometimes they’re not. The best part is that they are modern day parables for the masses – and better still the restless crowd probably already know the story.

When Jesus told a parable he wanted those who heard it to change their way of thinking. He related the story to their culture and made sure that all those who heard it would walk away with a different view of the world.

This is where Pop Culture Church comes in.

While Jesus’ parables are still relevant today, non-Christians find them hard to understand, as do many experienced Christians. Using pop culture as a teaching tool is one of the best ways to get God’s Word to the masses. Uncovering spiritual messages in TV, movies, books and music will not only grab people’s attention but it will get them thinking about what’s under the surface.


Firstly, let me say that you can use the resources on popculturechurch.com however you like. The following suggestions are just that – suggestions.

General Bits: The resources on PCC are intended for use in Youth groups, young adult groups, Religious education classes and that sort of thing. Obviously, use some common sense – not all material on the site is suitable for all audiences. The Simpsons is pretty much an all ages resource, where as clips from a show such as Six Feet Under should definitely be restricted to the 16+ age group.

TV – The great thing about TV shows is that they’re short. Some as short as 20 minutes which means a group can watch a whole episode together. Also, they’re accessible. Most shows are on TV regularly, or at least have been in the past, so chances are that someone in the group will have seen it or at the very least, heard of it. Most TV shows (the decent ones anyway) are usually available on DVD these days which makes it a heck of a lot easier to get a hold of a certain episode. With a show like the Simpsons, which in Australia is currently screening about 10 times a week on commercial television, you can usually record the episode you want off the TV, or someone else will surely have a copy of it. Also, they’re usually suitable for wider audiences because primetime shows have to (we hope) reach a certain standard of ‘cleanliness’.

Movies – I’m a big believer in watching ‘the whole thing’. That’s probably why I like using TV shows more than movies. A lot of books that examine spiritual themes in cinema will tell you to play a two-minute movie clip from a certain point to another point. This is fine if the audience has seen the movie but if half the group hasn’t seen Tomb Raider, then they’re probably not going to understand the message you’re trying to get across to them. My advice is to watch the whole movie. Make a night of it (if you can) – break open the popcorn, have a few drinks and watch the whole movie. Often movies will have several themes running through them simply because they are longer than TV shows. Sometimes the themes are related, other times they aren’t. This can work in your favour because the audience will pick out the themes they are drawn to.

Books – Books are probably the least popular of the departments in the pop culture church. However they require the least amount of electricity to use. They are much more time consuming though. While listening to a song can take as little as 2 minutes, reading a book can take a few days, sometimes months depending on the reader. Book clubs are great ways to draw themes out of the pages – the only problem is making sure everyone has read the book. That is if you’re dealing with novels (Harry Potter, for example). Picture books are also a great source of inspiration. Especially the classic children’s picture books – most people will have read, or at least be familiar with a wide variety of kid’s picture books. How many people haven’t read the Very Hungry Caterpillar? Picture books are good if you want to make a small, simple point about something like friendship or love, whereas novels are better for more in-depth studies.

Music – Everyone has a favourite type of music, so this can be a tricky one to work with. No matter which song you pick to use there will always be someone who says they ‘like Green Day better’ or thinks 'their old stuff was better than their new stuff'. It’s just another obstacle to overcome. Most songs can be interpreted in dozens of different ways (see www.songmeanings.net for proof) so make sure you’re ready for some arguments. Songs are interpreted by different people as meaning different things – which is great because it means group members can learn from each other. Some songs have a meaning that is as clear as day and others need a lot of work to get to the bottom of. If you can get your hands on the film clips that accompany the song this can sometimes shed some light on the meaning but often they will just confuse matters. On the other hand it gives the audience something to watch, rather than just listening to a song.

If you do find this website helpful, spread the news. Pop Culture Church is only small and we need all the publicity we can get.

The shopping centre theme managed to send most people to sleep; so I scrapped it. Instead it has been replaced with this ecclectic mix of junk that can be found on my desk. By found I mean you need to look hard because there is a lot of other stuff stacked on top of it.

What type of biscuit is that on the "about" button?
It was a macadamia something - I can't remember the brand, but it was the last one in the packet and it was very crumbly, as you can see. I do believe it was the second biscuit that I photographed as I accidentally ate the first one while setting up the book and bookmark.