… and it’s here because… why?

Actually, that’s a good question. The biggest reason is that I wanted a place to talk at length about business matters other than my usual weblog. Sounds good in theory, except I hardly ever talk about anything at my usual weblog. Which brings us back to the first question: why?

I guess the bigger question is “Why do we need a company like Recovering Pharisee at all?” And in order to answer that question, we need to know what kind of company Recovering Pharisee is. While I’d like to think we’ve answered that on the home page, it’s going to be a question we’re continually asking ourselves in order to make sure we’re where we’re supposed to be as we wrestle with our identity as a Christian entertainment company.

But I’ll go ahead and venture that Christian entertainment as it stands today isn’t really entertaining, and in many cases it isn’t even that Christian. There are exceptions, of course; but all to often the questions being asked are “Is this family-friendly?” or “Does it mention Jesus enough?” In some cases the question even seems to be “Is this something Christians are going to spend money on?” And where does this leave us? With “entertainment” that’s so focused on the message that it forgets to be, well, entertaining!

Right now, my vision for Recovering Pharisee is a company that challenges people’s assumptions of Christian entertainment. In order to do that, we can’t be afraid to take risks. We have to constantly and consistently ask questions, be inventive, and push the creative envelope. But we can’t do it alone.

That’s where this blog comes in. As we search for our place in this world and envelopes to push, it becomes necessary to “think out loud,” so to speak. So I’ll be posting here with questions and essays on what it means to be us, and I encourage you to comment. And be critical of us. Flame us if you want to. But don’t let us get away with anything stupid. After all, a few people can change the world; imagine what would happen if we had God on our side?