Master Class
Don't Use the Flashy Thing by Nick Pollard
Judges 6: 1-16
The task
I was booked to speak at the leavers-day service of a girl's private school in England. I spend most of my time in secular schools and colleges. But this school was very different. It has a Christian foundation. It aims to help all of the girls to understand the Christian gospel and to respond to it for themselves. Of course, many of the girls are not so keen on this aspect of their school - and find the lure of the world much more attractive than the message of the gospel. However, even those who have become somewhat hardened to the message are much more responsive on their last day at school - and especially at the leavers-day service.
My task was to help a hall full of 17 and 18 year olds to look again at the underlying Christian message of their school and to hold on to it as they step out on the next phase of their lives. My goal was to deliver a 25-minute talk that inspired them to go out into the world with a sense of mission, and to realise that God is not just for school - he is for the whole of life.
Because the talk was set in the context of a service it was appropriate to have a Bible reading - and because I was from Damaris they understood that I would want to use a film clip!
The concept
The task drew me to think of two stories - one from the Bible and one from the cinema.
The Bible story is told in Judges chapter 6. God called Gideon to go out and make a difference. He felt inadequate to the task, but God told him that he should go in the strength that he had, because God would be with him.
The cinema story is from Men In Black. At the end of the first Men in Black film, Agent K uses the neuralyser (what Agent J calls a "flashy thing") to wipe his memory - so he can forget his mission to save the world. In Men In Black II we find Agent K working in a Post Office - being fastidious about the way in which parcels are wrapped, but oblivious to the danger the world is facing, and what he should be do about it. Click here for details of this clip.
What I wanted to do in my talk was to teach the Biblical truth of the Gideon story with the language of the Men In Black story - and to give them a concept and image that would stick in their minds. I wanted to challenge them, as they left the school, to go out with God, to make a difference in the world - and not just to forget it all by using the flashy thing.
The preparation
As always, if I am to 'teach the message of the Bible in the language of contemporary popular culture' I must work hard on my study of the Bible and of contemporary popular culture.
Years ago, when I began my ministry, I dedicated huge amounts of time to studying as much of the Bible as I could - using some of the excellent commentaries which are available from Christian book shops. I always wrote down the results of my study in simple note form, and stored these in a database - so that the results of my study would be available for me whenever I needed them. It therefore did not take long to look back over my notes and, once more, get the story of Gideon's call clear in my mind.
Now, one of the many good things about having founded Damaris is that I get to use the resources produced by such an amazing group of researchers and writers. The various Damaris websites (and particularly now this ToolsForTalks website) provide all that we need to find and learn about elements in contemporary popular culture - such as the clip from Men In Black II.
Once I had done the hard work of understanding the Bible passage as fully as possible, and choosing and learning about the story of Men In Black (and this clip in particular) I was able to prepare the talk and get it ready to deliver.
The delivery
In the early days of my ministry I wrote out all of my talks word for word - on A4 sheets. Then I gradually moved to using detailed notes in A5 booklets (made out of A4 sheets of paper, printed landscape, folded and stapled). I still have a filing cabinet stuffed with these detailed talk notes and I regularly refer to them. Indeed, when I have a very complex or difficult talk to deliver I still use that type of notes.
However, generally I now either use no notes at all or just a few words I have written on a small post-it note (which I stick in my Bible, next to the relevant Bible passage) or a scrap of paper that I hold inconspicuously in my hand. Here, for example, is a picture of the notes I used for this talk on that day.
When I teach speakers I recommend that they, too, gradually develop the ability and confidence to use fewer and fewer notes. However, it is important that they do not move faster than they are able to go.
It is certainly a very liberating experience to know one's material so well that one does not need to use notes. But it would be a really frightening experience to stand in front of an audience without notes and then discover that one is not yet ready to do without them.
It is best for each speaker to assess their own level of ability and confidence, in relation to the demands of that particular speaking engagement, and then use the form of notes that are appropriate to them on that occasion - this may be a full transcript, detailed notes, just odd words, or no notes at all.
The talk
Below is a lightly edited transcript of the talk I gave that day - together with some Helpful Hints that illustrate why I did certain things certain ways. Just before I spoke, one of the girls read from Judges 6:1-2, 11-16.
Thank you for the invitation to share this day with you. It's such an important day as you leave the school and move on to the next stage of your lives. Whenever we leave somewhere, and move on, we need to think about where we are going - I recently faced a problem because I didn't do that.
I was at a conference in London, which was in quite a complicated building - with a number of corridors and stairs. Actually, to be honest, it probably wasn't that complicated - it's just that I am not very good at finding my way around places. Sometimes I get up to go to the toilet in the middle of the night and am not sure how to find my way back to bed. Anyway, when the conference was over I knew I had to find my way out - and decided that the simplest thing was just to follow someone. At that point a really rather good looking woman went out of the door - and I walked behind her. Now the conference had been considering some important issues and I was still deep in thought about them. So I walked with my head down - thinking hard, and just keeping my eye on the woman's shoes as she walked ahead of me. We went along a corridor, down some stairs, round a corner, through a door. Suddenly she stopped. She turned to me. She said 'Why are you in the ladies toilet?'
Being a straightforward sort of person I replied honestly 'I thought you were going home - and so I was following you.' Immediately I could see that this had just made the situation worse. In the space of one sentence I had changed from being a bit of a plonker to a dangerous stalker.
HELPFUL HINT: Although quotes and illustrations from popular culture are a superb means of communicating with an audience today, this does not mean that personal stories are irrelevant - we can still use them to good effect. I often use this (completely true) story at speaking engagements where the audience might expect the speaker to be rather stuffy and unapproachable. I find that it does break the ice and enable them to relate to me as an ordinary person.
Whenever we leave somewhere we need to think about where we are going - and who we are going to follow. Whoever we follow will determine where we end up. May I ask you to think for a minute - as you leave school today - who are you going to follow? It seems to me that you have a choice before you. You can go out and follow on with the message that you have heard here in school - the message about a God who loves you and wants to use you to make a difference in this world. Or you can choose to forget it, to follow other ways.
HELPFUL HINT: At the end of this talk I am going to call for an appropriate response. Whenever I do this I always ensure that this is integral to the whole talk. That is why I highlight it as early as possible. Furthermore I try to take account of the fact that audiences are never homogeneous. They always contain a wide variety of people who will respond in a wide variety of different ways. I always seek to find ways in which everyone feels that they have been treated with respect and can leave with integrity. Although, in this talk, I want to make a very clear call to the audience to respond in one way, I do acknowledge that many of them will respond differently - and they all have a choice.
Let me tell you a story about two people who were on a mission - but one of them chose to forget it, and to ignore all that he had learned.
HELPFUL HINT: This is an event in which the audience expect me to use religious language and to tell religious stories. The fact that I am using a film is a surprise to them. To heighten the impact of that surprise I introduce it in terms of two people on a mission - now they really expect it to be religious.
That was a guy called Kevin, but he used to be called 'K' or Agent K - because he was one of the Men In Black. Have you seen the films?
According to these films this world is not all that it seems - in fact there are aliens everywhere disguised as humans and animals. Some of these aliens are good, but some are really bad and threaten to destroy the world. It is up to the Men In Black to stop them - particularly the two heroes of the films: Agent J played by Will Smith, and Agent K played by Tommy Lee Jones. They have a huge array of equipment that enables them to see aliens and deal with them. But when any ordinary people see an alien the Men In Black have to use one particular piece of equipment, called a neuralyser which flashes in their eyes and erases their memory of the aliens. Agent J calls it 'the flashy thing'.
At the end of the first film Agent K uses the flashy thing to erase his memory, and in the second film we discover that he has actually forgotten all about his mission to save the world from danger. He has become the Postmaster of Truro, Massachusetts - and all he is concerned about now is whether people have tied up their packages correctly. Let's watch a clip.
HELPFUL HINT: This clip makes a very clear and powerful point - and also generates a number of laughs. Click here for details of this clip.
As you leave this school you can make a huge difference in this world. Perhaps there aren't bad aliens to deal with - but there are many other sources of pain and suffering.
You are going out into a world in which millions starve to death - despite the fact that there is more than enough food to feed everybody. It is a world in which, every day, 40,000 children under five years old die of preventable diseases. It's a world in which young girls are held captive and trafficked across countries to be used as prostitutes. Did you hear the news this week about eight children, the same age as those in the classrooms around us, who had been brought to England from Africa to serve as prostitutes? This is just one example of many ways in which slavery still happens in our world - in fact there are more slaves today than there were 200 years ago when slavery was officially abolished. Many are in a form of sexual slavery having been trafficked across borders. Many more are in a form of economic slavery held captive by debts that they can never repay. Across the world, from the Americas, through Africa, India and China there are children, even little five year olds, who are working as 'bonded labour' - for some of them, even the very little ones, this even means working as a prostitute.
HELPFUL HINT: There are, of course, many illustrations of the injustice and evil in the world. Many examples from the news are listed within ToolsForTalks (search using keywords such as justice, sin, despair, or evil. I always seek to use examples that relate to the audience - in this case they were teenage girls, so I used these examples.
I don't know how you react to that. Perhaps you, like me, become angry at the injustice and oppression in this world. Perhaps as you leave school today you are committing yourself to seeing things change. Perhaps you are very determined to go out from here on a mission. Or perhaps you'd rather just use the flashy thing. Perhaps you'd rather forget all about it - and just get absorbed in your own life - what money you can make, what pleasure you can have. I guess no one here is going to become Postmaster of Truro, Massachusetts - but all of us could become like Agent K - using all of our energy and time on trivial things that don't matter, instead of the big things that do.
You've had the opportunity to learn many things here at school. Some of these things you will remember and some of them you will forget. But can I urge you not to forget the fundamental message that you have been able to explore during your time here. That's the message that there is a God who created you, a God who loves you, a God who wants to be with you in every part of your life, a God who wants to use you to make a difference in this world.
HELPFUL HINT: We can never explain the whole gospel with all of its implications in one talk - so we have to select one aspect and focus on that. In this situation I didn't focus on sin, judgement, repentance or forgiveness. I never even mentioned the cross. Obviously I would always rather focus on Jesus. But there are some times when it is appropriate to focus on other aspects of the gospel and its implications. This audience had heard the gospel many times. They didn't need their leavers' day service used as a final chance to 'get at them with the gospel'. What they did need was a challenge to not walk away from it, to take with them the teachings they had heard and to respond to them in the future. That is why I focussed on the fact that God wants to make a difference through us. I was trusting that those who responded to this message would discover that God can only make a difference through them if they, themselves, respond to him in repentance and faith.
If you remember nothing else from your time here, do remember this message: God loves you. He doesn't love you because you are beautiful. He doesn't love you because you are good. He loves you because he loves you because he loves you. He can't help loving you. You are really important to him.
I remember being really amazed when I realised that God was interested in me. It's mind-blowing. I don't know if you have any important friends. I don't. I did once meet Margaret Thatcher - when she was Prime Minister. That's my only claim to fame. I was on holiday in Cornwall with my wife Carol (not that I have another wife who is not called Carol, you understand). We were walking round this stately home but we couldn't get through the door into the dining hall because there was a large crowd of people stood there. So, gradually, I edged myself through - and Carol noticed who was in the middle of that crowd of people. She grabbed hold of my shirt and did enough to make me stop and turn round. So, there I was, stood still, eyeball to eyeball with Margaret Thatcher.
Now, you know what it's like when you are on holiday - you don't have your brain in. You take everything else when you go. You pack your socks, your sweater, your soap on a rope. But you don't pack your brain. So, there I am, without my brain, looking at Margaret Thatcher and thinking to myself 'I know you'. At which point she said to me 'Good afternoon'. I replied ''Allo' and turned round. And it was just as I turned round that I realised who she was. I thought 'Oh no - there goes the knighthood!' I must be the only person in Britain who had a conversation with the Prime Minister that went 'Good afternoon' ''Allo'.
The point of that story is that Margaret Thatcher doesn't know who I am. I don't live in any kind of a relationship with her. But the God who made Margaret Thatcher, the God who made Great Britain, the God who made the world, the God who made everything there is - I live in a day by day relationship with him. That's what it means to be a Christian. It's not just knowing things about him - it's about knowing him. It's about knowing that the most important person in this world (in fact the person who created the world) cares about you - and wants to use you to make a difference in the world.
HELPFUL HINT: I don't usually use that story with young people today - because Margaret Thatcher is no longer a contemporary celebrity. However, these were older teenagers living in a staunchly Conservative area of England - so they will have grown up with pictures and stories about her.
We saw that in the story of Gideon that was read to us from the book of Judges in the Bible. Let me take a few minutes to go through it with you.
We will have to start some years earlier. You will have heard many times here at school the story of Moses leading the children of Israel out of Egypt and taking them through the desert. Then Joshua led them into the Promised Land. In time Joshua died and in fact all of those who came into the Promised Land with Joshua died. Let me read to you from chapter two of the book of Judges. 'After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel'.
HELPFUL HINT: When communicating with most young people today one cannot assume any existing Bible knowledge. This audience was different so I could take some shortcuts as I taught through this Bible passage.
This new generation forgot about God. In fact it says that they did evil things. The result was that they got themselves into real problems - and God had to come to their aid by sending them a rescuer (called a Judge). If you read through the book of Judges - and it is a great story - you will see how this happened over and over again. In fact, twelve times it says 'again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord', each time their world fell apart and each time God had to send a rescuer.
The story that was read to you this morning was one of those times. The children of Israel had become overrun by the Midianites who spoiled their crops and killed their sheep, cattle and donkeys. So God prepares to send them a rescuer called Gideon.
The angel of the Lord came to Gideon and said to him 'The Lord is with you mighty warrior.' 'But sir,' Gideon replied, 'if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?' There seems to be a bit of an argument that develops, the angel says the Lord is with you but Gideon says how can he be with us? In fact they are both right because the angel says the Lord is with you (singular) whereas Gideon questions how the Lord can be with us (plural). It is true that because the children of Israel had turned their backs on God, then they were no longer close to God as a nation. But God has not left them alone, he is still there with Gideon as an individual.
I believe it's like that in our world today. There is a sense in which God does not seem to be with us. When this world rejects God we face the consequences of godlessness. But God says that he will be with you as an individual - and he can use you to change the world.
I don't know how that makes you feel? I do know how Gideon felt - completely inadequate to the task. In verse 15 he said 'How can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least in my family.' Let me explain what he is talking about.
You remember the story of Joseph - even if you haven't read it for yourself in the Bible you will have seen the musical - or even sung in it. Joseph was one of twelve sons of Israel (actually Israel was originally called Jacob, but his name was later changed to Israel). Anyway these twelve sons and their families basically became the tribes of Israel. Except there was a bit of jiggery-pokery that went on. Joseph was a bit of a smart-alec who showed-off to his brothers. So, they got fed up with him, and they sold him to some slave-traders. Consequently he ended up in Egypt. And there he had two sons - called Ephraim and Manasseh.
Later Israel was reunited with Joseph - and he adopted Joseph's two sons into his family, so they became tribes of Israel. However, when Israel put out his hands to bless them he crossed them over. So Ephraim received the right hand on his head, and Manasseh the left hand. This was significant because the left hand was seen as the weaker hand - and so Manasseh received the weaker blessing. That is why Manasseh was considered to be a very weak tribe. It wasn't a proper son of Israel, it was adopted in; and when it was adopted it received a weak blessing.
And Gideon says 'That's my tribe.' You can see why he feels inadequate. He is from the weakest tribe, the lowest clan, the least family, the smallest person. He feels he is the lowest person in Israel. 'You can't get lower than me - you've really picked a good one here.'
Clearly he didn't have a very good self image. He was probably born apologising to the midwife for taking up so much of her time.
But what does God say? He says 'Go in the strength you have' and 'I will be with you'. And he does go. And God is with him. And he saves his people from the oppression they are facing. He fights for justice - and he changes the world.
You can do the same. Today you stand at a very special point in your lives. Here at this school you have learned about God. You have learned about his love for you and for all people. You have learned how he wants to use you to work for justice and peace in this world. So you have a choice you can make this morning.
HELPFUL HINT: In every talk I deliver I always want to appeal for a response. But that appeal always has three characteristics:
First it is integral to the whole talk - not just tagged on the end.
Second it is appropriate to the audience and the situation - here, as in many situations in which I speak, it was not appropriate to invite any physical response (such as standing up) or to offer any ministry (such as praying for people).
Third it is always quick and simple. There is no need for it to be drawn out if the appeal has been integral to the talk.
You can be like Agent K. You can use the flashy thing - you can forget all about it.
Or you can be like Gideon. You can respond to God's call to make a real difference in this world. You may feel inadequate to the task, you may feel that there is not much that you can do. But God says 'Go in the strength you have' and 'I will be with you'.
Relevant Resources
Quotes and Illustrations
Bible Briefing
Youth Groups