An article in Immerse Journal by Ben Kerns reminds us that using things that are popular and well understood to explain spiritual truth is important.

As our cultural context becomes increasingly post Christian, we too must become cross-cultural missionaries and find relevant translations and applications to help our students understand the spiritual realities presented in Scripture.

Even Jesus used parables to help bridge the gap between where his students were and the truth He was trying to explain. The article in Immerse Journal mentions using zombies, which I thought was a great idea and jotted it down as a future blogging idea. Why? The undead are not just for students. Zombies are a popular topic at the office and many colleagues have a copy of one the graphic novel volumes – “The Walking Dead” on their desk.

Zombies are the rage, having infested the popular culture. These undead have mindlessly shuffled into the mainstream as they seek to fulfill an insatiable appetite for their favorite snack – human brains. Likely getting their pop status start in George Romero’s 1968 horror movie Night of the Living Dead, these ghouls have taken over with movies, books, video games,  a hit series The Walking Dead, and even a mud run that bills itself as a “Zombie infested 5K Obstacle Course Race”.  Even the CDC has got in on the action, using the popularity of zombies in a campaign for emergency preparedness:

There are all kinds of emergencies out there that we can prepare for. Take a zombie apocalypse for example. That’s right, I said z-o-m-b-i-e a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e. You may laugh now, but when it happens you’ll be happy you read this, and hey, maybe you’ll even learn a thing or two about how to prepare for a real emergency.

What’s up with Zombies? Continue reading →