For fun, let's play a little game. (Honesty is important here.) Can you name all the justices on the Supreme Court? Do you know the name of your Congressional representative? In the Bill of Rights, do you know what the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, or 10th Amendments are? Hmm, you stumped too?

Okay, try these: What is Deuce Bigelow's job? What town does Ron Burgundy remind nightly to "Stay classy?" What's Oprah's best friend's name? What actor delivers the line, "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!"

Pathetic, isn't it?

The Supreme Court, The Bill of Rights, your Congressional representative - these have a substantial impact on your life. Jack Nicholson, Deuce Bigelow and Gayle King have almost none. And yet this is what we know. And that's because at this period of history, entertainment is king.

Media expert and committed Christian Phil Cooke, author of the highly influential book Branding Faith, recently said, "Nothing impacts our life more than media. Absolutely nothing. A pastor may preach for an hour on Sunday. But the average American family now is watching three to five hours of television a day. Media has become pervasive in our lives." How about you - how many times a day do you look at a screen? For myself, when I add up my computer, the theater screen, my Blackberry, my television, my IPod, my cell phone...I frankly can't even begin to count that high. Maybe you're different than me, but I suspect you're not - and I suspect neither are the people populating your church.

At the top of the entertainment food chain are movies. Studios now spend nearly as much marketing their films as they do making them. Four new movies a week. Every week of the year. Literally hundreds of millions of dollars in ad buys every month. Fashion trends, gossip, catch phrases, you name it, all flow from films. Movies, as a producer friend of mine likes to say, are the currency of pop culture.

I think it's important to note that knowing about movies is not the same as condoning the content in them. Rather, entertainment awareness is a device to speak to a generation steeped in media. Here's a Biblical example of what I'm talking about - in many of his parables, Jesus used imagery of agriculture and murder to make his point. That's not to say that Jesus endorsed murder (or, for that matter, farming), but he knew his audience - and he spoke their language.

When I started Grace Hill Media in 2000, my goal was to highlight entertainment for the faith community that shared in our beliefs, that explored our values and that enhanced and elevated our view of the world. Eight years and more than 200 films later, our commitment remains the same, but I'm a little wiser for the experience. I now have a deeper appreciation for just how influential and omnipresent entertainment is - whether we want it there or not.

And that's the reason we've launched Hollywood & The Vine. Every month, our hope is to provide a fun and informative online newsletter to help pastors, youth ministers, lay leaders and even regular Joes to engage in media. For example, in Hollywood Ministry of the Month, we will take a look at different ministries that are already using entertainment in their endeavors. The newsletter will also feature exclusive interviews with Hollywood's most influential Christians (yes, there are more of us here than you think!); all the while keeping you looped in on all of films, music and television shows you must know about.

And maybe we'll throw in some Bill of Rights fun facts along the way - like the 3rd Amendment, which restricts the quartering of soldiers in your house. Probably a good thing - because if they lived with you, all they would do is watch TV all day!

Jonathan Bock, President, Grace Hill Media