What's the Big Idea?

      In the busyness of family life, a new school-year (in which my son is attending pre-K at a classical Christian school, and I am teaching first grade at the same school), while continuing in the ministry we serve with, it has been almost a month since my last post.  So many things come to my heart and mind that I could share.    

My teacher school picture

     In my "down" time in the evening, I like to read before bed.  I recently re-read an interesting book, titled Me, Myself, and Bob, by Phil Vischer (creator of VeggieTales).  I'll put the link to it at the end.  In this book, he shares his journey of being a hurting young man from a broken home with a dream of being used by God to bring healing to others (while searching earnestly for it himself).  He dreamed of telling stories that would change the world for God.  The book is very enjoyable, because I was a high schooler when his famous VeggieTales videos began appearing in stores.  

     I don't spend a great deal of time thinking about VeggieTales, but when it comes to mind, it's always interesting, because I have a complicated relationship with this series of children's videos.  When we first adopted Tommy as a young toddler, a lot of people said, "I bet he watches a lot of VeggieTales, right?"  and they were shocked when I said we really hadn't done VeggieTales.  Part of that was because there are newer and (I think) better Christian children's options (Tommy's favorite are the Good News Guys--check them out!).  But there was another reason Tommy hadn't seen VeggieTales.  I'll get to it, because I have revisited it this week.  

The Good News Guys. Check out their videos on YouTube

     I remember first becoming aware of VeggieTales as a teenager, browsing in the Christian Bookstore around 1996.  An employee of the store was showing the video to a family with children, and I remember hearing the employee tell them, "It uses the same animation as Toy Story!"  Since Toy Story was the recent big hit that had wowed the world with its revolutionary computer animation, this claim about VeggieTales using the same animation caught my attention.  Could a Christian video really use the same technology as a major hit movie?  I glanced over from the Christian teen romance book I was looking at and saw the family excitedly pick up the video the employee was recommending.  I filed this away as interesting knowledge, but didn't really expect to think more about it, since it was clear these videos were geared to kids, and I was above the intended age.  

     What I would later learn (and Phil Vischer's book goes on to share) was that the first VeggieTales video had launched in 1993 (I was still older than their target audience then).  With each new release, they grew in popularity, until I heard about it that day in the bookstore.  Phil Vischer had started the company behind these successful videos, and called it Big Idea.  For the first several years, they grew amazingly.  Everyone loved them.  Phil shares in the book that he had dreams of growing the company to become a Christian version of Disney, and taken entertainment back to wholesomeness and family values--all for God.  I'll return to his story.

     Shortly after the bookstore encounter, kids I babysat started watching VeggieTales videos, and suddenly, I was watching them too.  The first one I watched was a spoof on Gilligan's Island, and taught a lesson about forgiveness.  Because I got the intended references, the humor of it hit me hard, and I cracked up at the zaniness of it.  To this day, that is my favorite VeggieTales story.  I'm sure it has a name, but I always just call it the Gilligan's Island one.  I saw several others, and was always entertained.  Other teens got into them, and pretty soon, youth group kids (and youth pastors) were sporting VeggieTales merch.  A movement was happening.  

  

     Behind the scenes of Big Idea, things weren't so rosy.  Phil recounts how, due to their growth, they began to produce faster, and had to hire more and more people.  Since computer animation was a new field at the time, animators were harder to locate, and they couldn't afford to be too picky about the animators' personal lives or beliefs.  This meant that non-Christians were working for this Christian company.  Phil publicly stood for Christ and his mission when he was invited to speak, but in his own company, he shied away from sharing the Gospel, because he was afraid of offending his people and driving them away.  He was trying to do something good, so it didn't matter, right?  But it did.  He also made naive and misguided business decisions.  His company had taken everyone by storm and become popular so fast, and he was unsure how to handle the growth.  

     Into my adulthood, I got a chuckle out of VeggieTales whenever I'd see them (which was less often, as I was no longer babysitting as much).  One day, all that changed.  A pastor I was serving under just told me in the calmest, most pleasant voice, that he didn't approve of VeggieTales, because, "they make light of the wrath of God."  His cheerful tone as he said it almost seemed to contradict his words.  But it made me think.  He was kind of right.  

     While they didn't teach heresy or false doctrine, they certainly didn't teach salvation or deep spiritual truths.  Even the fun forgiveness one (AKA Gilligan's Island) just taught that God always forgives us when we ask, so we should forgive others, but there was no explanation of why and how that forgiveness was made available.  In Bible story episodes (that is, when the Veggies acted out actual stories from the Bible), the zaniness went a little far (like the Canaanites dropping slushies on the Israelites).  Some of the new ones at that time told sanitized versions of David and Bathsheba (only about a rubber ducky) and Queen Esther (only instead of annhiliation, the Jews were to be sent to the Island of perpetual tickling).  These soften the realities a bit too much.  These stories are in God's word, and teach us about what was going on in history as people awaited the Messiah, and Satan tried to fight it.  Reducing it to rubber duckies and tickling seems wrong somehow.  

     Even less extreme stories based from the Bible changed the facts a little too much.  An early one (which I enjoyed a lot) was a play on Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, only the setting was a chocolate bunny factory, and the character's names were Rack, Shack, and Benny.  The boss of the factory was Nebby K. Nezzer (get it?  Nebuchadnezzar.  Nebby K. Nezzer.  It kind of makes sense.).  I didn't see a problem with this until kids in my Sunday school class started referring to these Biblical heroes by the VeggieTales names.  When I would tell the story from the Bible, kids would interrupted and say, "No, their names are Rack, Shack and Benny, and you forgot the part where Mr. Nezzer makes them sing the Bunny Song and chases them around the factory!"  It was like they believed in the Gospel According to VeggieTales.  

     Teaching God's word is a big responsibility, and we can't take it lightly.  James 3:1 says, Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.  Some have argued that it's the parents' job to teach their children God's word, and if the children think the VeggieTales version is correct, it's the parents' fault for not teaching them the real version.  Maybe.  But if VeggieTales is all they're getting, they may as well be accurate, right?  An evangelism teacher I had in high school used to say, "You can have fun with God's word, but don't make light of it."  I think VeggieTales started out as wanting to have fun, but there were times I think that line might have gotten crossed.  

     From the day this pastor ruined VeggieTales for me with his observation, I never really got into it again.  When God brought Tommy to us, I didn't show him VeggieTales, because I wanted him to learn God's word clearly, rather than through the filter of too much silliness.  This week, though, after one of his Good News Guys videos ended, I didn't change it fast enough, and the next video up happened to be a VeggieTales--and just after I had re-read Phil Vischer's book.  Providentially, it was the Gilligan's Island one, so no Bible Story was misrepresented.  Tommy giggled at the singing and dancing vegetables, and enjoyed it.  Memories were brought back for me, from being a teenager babysitting fun kids from church, laughing at this silly video.  It felt good.  It had been a long time.  I'm not ready to show Tommy the Bible stories on VeggieTales yet, and don't know if I really will, but he's seen one now.  

     To get back to Phil's book, he relays how his misguided view of following his own dream (even doing it for godly-sounding reasons) led to the demise of his company as he knew it.  He lost Big Idea, and was deeply humbled by his experience.  He gives a lot of business insight into the way some of it went wrong.  But he concludes with spiritual reasons, his own faults that led to the company's direction.  He warns about following one's dreams, and instead, urges Christians to seek God's will for them and spend time in the Bible.  There are a lot of Christian executive types who are always interested in numbers, and growing a company (or even a ministry), but that might not be what God wants.  God doesn't define success the way we do.  In the Bible, God led Philip away from crowds of people to lead one man to Christ (Acts 8:26-40).  Phil Vischer even came to the point that he doesn't like the question, "Where do you see yourself five years from now?"  He believes the answer should be, "In the will of God."  I agree.  

     This week has been a stroll down memory lane, to a time when everyone was singing along with the VeggieTales theme song, when pastors wore VeggieTales ties, and youth pastors wore VeggieTales T-shirts.  To a time when I was a teenager, enjoying my babysitting jobs, getting a laugh out of some talking vegetables doing a spoof on a well-known TV show.  The memories are fun and pleasant.  The lessons are critical, though.  First, as Phil Vischer warns, beware of your dreams, and focus on God instead.  As I advise, study and handle God's word diligently.  I don't know when or if my son will see more VeggieTales, or if I'll ever see the ones I missed (which are basically any made after the turn of the century).  But the lessons will stay with me.  They definitely got something right.  As Bob and Larry always concluded their shows, "God made you special, and He loves you very much." 

To view Me, Myself and Bob, click here.