The Gospel According To The Wiz
Title: The Gospel According To The Wiz -Sermons/ Worship & Devotion/ Religion & Spirituality/Ministry & Evangelism/ Christian Books & Bibles
Author: Reverend Dr. Otis Moss III
Publisher: The Pilgrim Press; 1 edition (April 1, 2014)
Number of Pages: 145
ASIN:B00KO964OS
ISBN10: 0829819916
ISBN13:978-0829819915
About The Author:
With civil rights advocacy in his DNA, Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III built his ministry on community advancement and social justice activism. As Senior Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, IL, Dr. Moss spent the last two decades practicing and preaching a Black theology that unapologetically calls attention to the problems of mass incarceration, environmental justice, and economic inequality. Dr. Moss is part of a new generation of ministers committed to preaching a prophetic message of love and justice, which he believes are inseparable companions that form the foundation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As part of his community engagement through Trinity United Church of Christ, Dr. Moss led the team that came up with the “My Life Matters” curriculum, which includes the viral video, “Get Home Safely: 10 Rules of Survival” created in the aftermath of Michael Brown’s death at the hands of Ferguson, Missouri police.
A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Dr. Moss is an honors graduate of Morehouse College who earned a Master of Divinity from Yale Divinity School and a Doctor of Ministry from Chicago Theological Seminary. He returned to Yale in 2014 to present the famed Lyman Beecher lectures. The three-day event included an in-depth discourse on the subject of “The Blue Note Gospel: Preaching the Prophetic Blues in a Post-Soul World.” The lectures, which demonstrated a homiletic blueprint for prophetic preaching in the 21st century, were the foundation of his latest book, Blue Note Preaching in a Post-Soul World: Finding Hope in an Age of Despair, published in 2015. Dr. Moss was named to the inaugural Root 100, a list that “recognizes emerging and established African-American leaders who are making extraordinary contributions,” according to the publication’s Website. Honorees range between ages 25 to 45 and their accomplishments and successes transcend media headlines or statistics. With a unique gift to communicate across generations, Dr. Moss’ creative Bible-based messages have inspired young and old alike. His intergenerational preaching gift has made Dr. Moss a popular speaker on college campuses and at conferences and churches across the globe. He is highly influenced by the works of Zora Neale Hurston, August Wilson, Howard Thurman, Jazz, and Hip-Hop music. The work and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the pastoral ministry of his father, Dr. Otis Moss, Jr. of Cleveland, Ohio, have been primary mentors for his spiritual formation.
Dr. Moss is the former pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Augusta, Georgia, his first pastorate, where the church grew from 125 members to over 2,100 disciples during his tenure. His earlier publications include: Redemption in a Red Light District, and The Gospel According to the Wiz: And Other Sermons from Cinema. He co-authored The Gospel Re-Mix; How to Reach the Hip-Hop Generation with three other contributors, and Preach! The Power and Purpose Behind Our Praise, with his father, Rev. Dr. Otis Moss, Jr. His sermons, articles, and poetry have appeared in publications such as Sojourners Magazine and The African American Pulpit Journal. Those works include: Power in the Pulpit II: America’s Most Effective Preachers, Joy To The World: Sermons From America’s Pulpit, Sound The Trumpet: Messages of Hope for Black Men, and The Audacity of Faith: Christian Leaders Reflect on the Election of Barack Obama. His work has also been featured on Huffington Post, Urban Cusp, and The Root. Dr. Moss is an ordained minister in the Progressive National Baptist Convention and the United Church of Christ. He is on the board of The Christian Century Magazine and chaplain of the Children’s Defense Fund’s Samuel DeWitt Proctor Child Advocacy Conference.
He is married to his college sweetheart, the former Monica Brown of Orlando, Florida, a Spelman College and Columbia University graduate. They are the proud parents of two creative and humorous children, Elijah Wynton and Makayla Elon.
https://trinitychicago.org/rev-dr-otis-moss-iii/
About This Book
“Through a biblical lens The Godfather is a retelling of the Shakespearean story of Macbeth . . . and The Matrix is a modern retelling of the Christ narrative.” Every Sunday, more than 5,000 people come to hear Otis Moss III preach at Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ. According to Common, hip hop artist, actor, and member of Trinity, “A message from Otis Moss III always teaches about love, justice, and commitment to the community. It’s good to have a pastor who’s real and relevant.” Moss describes himself as, “a jazz-influenced pastor with a hip-hop vibe committed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ rooted in love and justice.” And he admits he can talk endlessly about theology, popular culture, and movies. Especially movies. That’s why he’s based some of his best sermons, collected in this book, on these powerful films:
12 Years a Slave
The Butler
The Book of Eli
The Color Purple
The Wiz
Avatar
Flight
For Colored Girls
Read this book if you love movies and want to find even deeper meaning in them. Discussion questions are included, making it ideal for individuals or groups, movie nights and book clubs. As Pastor Moss says, “If you think about it, movie theaters are the modern cathedrals. Where else, outside of the church, do we gather for a shared experience and are not bothered by the outburst and shouts of neighbors?”
The Gospel According To The Wiz Book Review
“The Gospel According To The Wiz” is that one book will be taken by surprise in the views of the readers. This isn’t any book like other literary pieces that I have read. There are many sermons from themes of your favorite movies including “The Wiz”. Reverend Dr. Otis Moss III really created a book that have several sermons based on Cinema. I thought that was a wonderful ideas in a creative way to minister to the readers through the Cinema. My completely treasure moments about “The Gospel According To The Wiz” is the contemplation questions that deliver the chapters together. Additionally encourages the readers network with the principles provided from Reverend Otis Moss III. The Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III is definitely one of the unmistakable, most fearless and creative speakers in the current seasons. “The Gospel According To The Wiz” explains in a creative expressions format to the readers. Reverend Moss’ collections of sermons and shudder. This preacher from the South Side of Chicago steeped in the world of faith and rituals. He engaged the readers with secular texts to lectures and preach. He wanted to shares his theological foundation. He believes as a person of the African descent who is deeply informed by Africanized motifs from the South that flow from the black churches and West Africa, traditional modalities of sacred and secular disrupting. The entire life is connected to God and all cultural productions from music, dance, and the arts are gifts from God. The Gospel music, the standard bearer of religious inspired folk music, is an amalgamation of blues chords and structure. Jazz and the blues inform and serve as a catalyst for gospel music.Although the arts when authentic, creative, and developed from the wellspring of humanity will absolutely speaks to spirituality. He also mentioned that the references of movies are the language for cultural competency in America. It is not possible to completely engage any television shows or understands a comic reference unless our cultural competency is sufficient to make the connection between the reference, irony, and punch line of the comedian. In my opinion that movies in the hands of gifted writers should be able to do more than entertain. Movies should inspire, empower, inform and motivates us to reexamine our relationships to the world. Movies have always been parts of our lives. That’s exactly what Reverend Moss did with “ The Gospel According To The Wiz” for that purpose in preaching the Gospels to the lost and empower the Believers of Christ.