My son, David, with a team of people, makes movies. Recently they were shooting a PBS movie in Benton for children called “Mystery League”. It is about some children conducting an investigation to uncover some mysteries in a local area. I am fascinated by what it takes to make a movie, so I told Dave that whenever he is shooting one close, let me know and I will come and observe. It is amazing how much planning, work, and detail goes into even the simplest movie, and any given simple scene of that movie. There are about 30 people in the immediate area of the set all fulfilling some function to make it happen. I was on set, standing back out of the way watching a main monitor with a person who was in attendance to that monitor. This girl would watch the monitor and constantly type on a computer keyboard and draw a line through areas of a finely detailed written out plan. When there was a little break in all the busy-ness, I asked the girl what exactly was her function. Her function was to take the plan and schedule and insert notes (with the computer keyboard) as reference points for the editor of the movie. What she was doing was helping to maintain the cohesiveness of sticking to the plan and to help maintain the continuity, making sure there are reference points to maintain the flow of the movie. Without her function the editor would get volumes of snippets and scene footage all jumbled together to try and make a properly sequenced flowing movie out of it. This is just one very specialized function that goes on among many. It all goes into making those scenes which we plop down on the couch and casually watch and say, “Lets watch a movie tonight.” They will sometimes spend hours just making one short, simple scene, every detail of lighting, action, makeup, etc., etc., being attended to. And it’s all very highly technical with computer and electronic devices everywhere – all this to make a simple movie. On the movie set all are intensely focused on doing their part, all are kind and courteous to one another, and if there are differences, they work it out to an agreement and keep on working together to get the job done. If they don’t, the movie stops.
What a picture of how the Body of Christ is to work together to present Christ to the world. We are to use all the “technology” of the supernatural power of God. We are to pay attention to every detail that it be right, keeping the cohesiveness and continuity of God’s plan to reach the world for Jesus. We are to work out the differences so the outreach goes on. We are to stick with the detailed written plan and make sure we are doing it according to the plan. By this, Jesus is presented in power for everybody in the world to see.
