Brehm Center

            For many of us, summer is filled with vacation spots where crashing waves, tall pine trees, new adventures or relaxing moments with a good book are enjoyed.  Not surprisingly, our summer also includes catching up on movies. Recently, we revisited a movie on video, which first caused us to smile and  tap our toes four years ago.  Seeing it again only reinforced our desire to commend its vitality. In particular, the movie portrays how it is possible to renew a church—perhaps even the Church.  So, what video should you see?  “Sister Act.”

            Now before you laugh us off, hear us out.  Perhaps picturing Whoopi Goldberg as the agent of church renewal is a stretch for you?!  Her character,  Deloris van Cartier (a lounge singer) who later becomes Sister Mary Clarence (to hide from the mob in “the last place on earth they would look for her”), is even a less likely candidate. Yet, from the opening scene of Deloris as a young girl in Catholic school naming the apostles “John, Paul, George…..Ringo or was it Elvis?”, we suspect that she will return to her roots somehow and bring new life to them.

            Not exactly thrilled with her situation of having to hide out as a “penguin” in a convent attached to a dying urban church, Deloris is befriended by two of the nuns.  However, her unorthodox ways (leading her sisters to a “bikers’ bar” in the neighborhood) get her into trouble and the Mother Superior assigns her the task of  directing the off-key, off-beat, and off-putting choir.  Sister Mary Clarence has her hands full, but combining her lounge singing and catholic-school experience, she leads the choir in a new type of “sacred music.”  Their Sunday choral pieces include: “My God” (“My Guy”), and “I Will Follow Him.”                                

            Into this church where the priest cries out to his few but faithful flock,  “Something has gone wrong here. Where is faith; where is celebration; where are our neighbors?”, comes a new alive worship.  But Sister Mary Clarence and her choir do more than bring new life to worship, they bring new life to the neighborhood.  They break out of their insulated and isolated life of the cloister and march into the needs, dreams, problems and joys of the people in their midst. From food lines to car repair,  from wazzu painting projects to jumping rope or dancing with the “unreachable” youth in the neighborhood, they bring their worship of a loving God into the streets.  Soon the neighborhood catches the vision (and the sound!) and starts packing the pews.

            Worship and mission, worship and service, worship and outreach--whatever, you choose to call them, these are two key ingredients of a vital community of disciples.  Writing from his cell in a Nazi prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wondered how best to renew a church which had all the right words, but which lacked spiritual life and vitality. His answer: “prayer and righteous action.”  We doubt Sister Mary Clarence read Bonhoeffer, but she learned by trial and error his point. Our worship, drawing close to God in penitence and praise, should propel us into the world, living the “good news.” And our outreach and service should propel us back to worship, of the One without whom our own poverty would engulf us.

            Now certainly Disney did not plan for this movie to be a possible resource for church renewal specialists, but most reviewers understood that engaged worship and ministry in the neighborhood were key to St. Catherine’s renewal.  Granted not all church communities have a “Sister Mary Clarence,” but no matter, for it is the Holy Spirit who will empower our worship and service.

            Try it out.  How about a leadership or church retreat this fall where you view the movie and have a frank conversation about the health and vitality of your church? While you may think that Sister Mary Clarence’s goal of getting “butts in the seats”  may be a bit crass, perhaps we care too little about the Church being an inviting place for friends and neighbors.  Create vital worship--and this does not have to include Motown hits nor preclude Mozart’s hits--and reach out in your context.

            “Sister Act” was panned by some critics as being too “predictable, with stereotypical characters and a plot that strains credulity.” But others saw it as the sleeper hit that summer, since it was “funny, up-beat, a film you could take your kids or your grandparents to.”  As you can tell we side with the latter and add our “amen” to its message for us, the Church.