I love it!

i love that this kind of media can reach around the globe and isn’t hid away in one church anymore - brilliant!

Me, too.

(pause)

Wait a minute… that’s one of the signs of the end times, isn’t it?

Dang it! Curse you, Google/YouTube/Blogger!

I likd them both…but I LOVED the first one! Thanks for sharing!

Excellent!

[…] ht: ysmarko […]

Got to say, I find it interesting that this has, thus far, received more comments than the posting regarding the TIME article. What does this say/mean, besides Marko’s blog-readers love a good YouTube hit?

[…] – ht to ysmarko - […]

By far, those are some of the funniest videos I’ve seen in a long time. I’d even pay cold hard cash for them. BTW, Macs DO rule. Any Christ-follower would know that…

I liked them, but there was that indie “let’s make fun of the squares” mindset there, which can often be just as divisive as a traditional exclusionist mindset.

Marko,

Just wanted to let you know that last night the church put up video #3 in this series. It is great as well. Here is the YouTube Link for #3: Enjoy

i am with phil. funny, but upon further review, the ‘them vs us’ not so funny.

phil and gavin - normally, i would agree with you. but i just don’t think that was this church’s intention in making these at all. they were made for a teaching series on what it means to be a follower of jesus christ, and they’re just setting up an alternative way of thinking, other than embracing sub-cultural christianity. to be honest, i thought the guy on the right was rather warm and non-dismissive to the guy on the left.

i noticed on youtube that there is a 3rd about christian music. don’t know if you chose not to put that one up, or didn’t know about it??

so where does this leave me?

marko, posted some of these spoofs of mac’s latest successful ads bridging christian versus christ follow. phil and i both mentioned them to be rather divisive. marko disagrees, which is fine, most would. what i couldn’t write when i wrote

Isn’t it a little cliche for the Christ-follower to have U2 on his iPod? Not that that they aren’t great…

Marko- Thanks for putting these up. They were both laughter and thought provoking. Not often that we (meaning the Christian community) do something of that quality that also makes us think. I appreciate the effort and thought they did a good job.

Marco a while back we conversed about meetin in cinci and you told em to email you a couple of weeks out. Here we are and I misplaced your email. so hit me back so I can set it up

hey man, just wanted to let you know that i am currently at the soul shaper retreat, and loving it. if you’re interested, i’m blogging about it at joshcooksucks.com. peace!

[…] Go here. […]

[…] I’m starting to develop this theory that Apple is taking over our creative and visual environment with their ads and products - simply because they’re so good there’s little else to do but copy them. The Christian realm is jumping on the bandwagon too - see the parody’s of the Mac vs. PC ads below. Clever… (I saw these here on the YSMarko blog, written by Mark Oestreicher with Youth Specialties.) […]

Clever idea with the video. Unfortunately we’re left to assume that reading one’s bible and other books is lumped into the same basket as peppering your car/notebook/suitcoat with bumper stickers, since that lead question moves into the area that’s a little easier to press as dorky. Are we really saying that thinking is antithetical to authentic Christ-following?

Two thoughts for self-awareness’ sake:
1. As to the medium: Does it strike anyone else as awkwardly ironic that there is a Christian mimic of a popular sales campaign that is mocking the type of person who gets excited about Christian mimics of popular sales campaigns?

2. Is there not a post-modern/emerging Christian sub-culture, one of whom’s marks of group identity that we hold in common is the rejection of the Christian sub-culture we’ve been so used to? This seems clear from the U2 reference in one of the videos since U2 is an obvious and predictable mark of post-mod/emerging Christian sub-culture. Perhaps it bridges culture better, but there are distinguishing characteristics…and that’s not a bad thing altogether. I’m just saying, hey, I’m in this group so let’s have a little more awareness of ourselves.

Hey people who don’t like the videos,
I hear what you are saying, but seriously, don’t press the videos so hard. I’m sure there was a sermon/talk after the videos and we who view these videos online are missing that context. Just enjoy the videos for what they are…no one said you had to show them to your church or anything like that. Perhaps those who are most upset felt like they were being judged.

I agree, someone doesn’t have to do these things to be a child of God, but if someone wants to do these things, why try to make it look like they’re doing something wrong?

funny funny funny! thanks

Where has all the sense of humor gone?

These commercials are OBVIOUSLY an exaggeration for both sides. Lighten up people…

These videos just piss me off… I can’t believe that someone would go to the trouble of making videos poking fun at Christians. I would really like…. oh just kidding… those flippin’ rock. I could really make a good sermon using those and you could take it any direction you wanted… Thanks for posting them.

I love all four of them! (All four are on YouTube, labeled “I’m a Christ Follower (Mac vs. PC Parody)”.) I love the Mac and PC commercials, but these are much better … because they’re true! There are two types of Christians out there, and teens (especially) today would rather be Christ Followers than Christians.

I can’t wait for more to come out!

I enjoyed these videos, thank you for posting them and to whoever made them.

I describe myself as “post-evangelical” because I can’t identify wholly with the evangelical culture camp anymore. Too much anti-intellectualism, contempt for art, legalism dressed up as hliness and too much performance as “right relationship with God.” Also, it seems fraught with a bunker mentality that regards believers in other doctrinal camps as suspect or second-class.

These videos do a great job of highlighting the difference between following the letter of the law and following the spirit. I’ve heard more conservative believers quote the Christian actor about “wearing one’s best to church to honor God.”

Kudos to the writers, actors and producers of these videos.

Does anyone know where you can go to purchase these videos for download? I’ve read everyone’s comments but I didn’t notice a link. Any help would be appreciated.

rick, someone commented (on a previous post) that there is freeware out there that allows you to rip you-tube videos. but i don’t know what it is. perhaps someone can pipe in again with that knowledge, or you can search for it.

I was reading (don’t read into that) and came across this quote which may apply. “If humor withough faith is in danger of dissolving into cynicism and dispair, faith without humor is in danger of turning into arrogance and intolerance.” (Conrad Hyers, I believe) So I choose to smile and be amused.

The videos are funny…
but I think we have quickly advanced upon an arrogance that all of us “post modern Christ followers” need to be incredibly weary of. “The hand cannot say to the foot I don’t need you.”
there are many in the body of Christ that we would easily scoff at. many of us feel painted with the same brush and therefore just wish those “modern” Christians would just keep quiet. But those “moderneres” are members of the body of Christ and the only one who can say otherwise is the only one with the authority to judge. We are not a holy remnant of Christendom as much as (in arrogance) we often raise ourselves up to be. We are not here to distance ourselves from steriotypes by makign fun of the ‘other party.’ We are not here to seperate the sheep from the goats rather we are here to inspire people to be sheep.

This is getting long…
Since the reformation (500 years ago) Christianity has been dividing faster than you can shake a stick at it. I vote for unity, learning from eachother and inspiring eachother to be more.

Sweet! More ammo to further alienate the passionate Christian youth culture from the more traditional ‘passionate’ older generation. I love it.
Alright…thought provoking; I am just one of those that thinks maybe we can pull “them” along thru grace and mercy rather than distancing our selves from other Christians. peace

i like the message in these ads, mainly because they’re so true. and i don’t see how it’s “alienating” anyone. i think the problem is that the older generation wants for things to be done in their fashion, when the truth is that God doesn’t do ANYTHING in our fashion. God is God, we are not. it’s that simple. and God doesn’t need our permission to change things around so that things will be fresh. who in the world really wants for things to stay the same? i don’t, i’m always open for change, because i know that change is inevitable, and that goes for my walk with God. that’s definitely one thing i’ve learned over the course of time i’ve been alive, that things WILL change, no matter how much i may not want them to. and the fact that there have been splits amongst so many Christian churches just proves the point that they obviously were and still are not in full agreement with God’s Word, because if they were, then there wouldn’t be any of this religiousity that so many people associate with Christianity. simply put, there’s waaaaay too much doctrine and dogma out there and not enough TRUTH. it’s amazing how so many people will go and believe any little thing, just because it may be the latest spiritual craze, all the while not questioning it. i’m not saying that we as Christians should question whether or not God is who He is. i’m simply saying that we as Christians are supposed to have WAAAY more discernment concerning spiritual matters than to allow ourselves to be led around like lambs to the slaughter, so to speak. if there’s a question that any Christian has concerning what a pastor/preacher/bishop says, then ASK GOD ABOUT IT. don’t just go by what they’re saying, if there’s a check in your spirit, because they could have been led astray by some wrong doctrines and dogma. remember this: where there’s no relationship with Jesus, there’s no life, and there’s most likely a whole bunch of religion.

Someone asked about buying these videos for download: go to http://communitychristian.org and click on eStore. They’re $10 each.

I made them, along with my funny guys Eric (Christian) and Elic (Christ-follower). In general, we were just having fun. But taken out of the context of the teaching for those four weeks, not all the jokes translate… at least, the intent/point might be unclear. So don’t pick them apart too much.

We had fun with them, we think they’re funny, and it totally rocks how many people are talking about them on the web.

Exactly. The point is making a point by telling a story. At NYWC St. Louis last weekend Ralph Winter made the point that it’s the way we tell the story: look up “Brokeback to the Future” on YouTube and see how they switched the idea thru a few cuts. These clips are about making a point to tell a story, not something to be analyzed on their own. As a youth pastor, I would HATE it if someone analyzed my stuff based on the video clips alone… (that and it might just get me fired…). Just a thought on some of the previous comments…