In light of my previous post on excellence in worship, I thought of a movie that began to restore my hope in the church producing art on the scale of the secular world. Facing the Giants was released in the fall of 2006, the year my son was a senior. He played high school football, and we attended the movie the same week his team was about to play the game that by winning would earn them a berth at the Section Championship game. I remember attending with my son, and being rather impressed with what I knew was a faith-based film. Now, was it Lord of the Rings worthy or of The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe caliber? Not even close, but maybe we are headed in the right direction?...at least concept-wise? Maybe?
Facing the Giants was a movie directed and produced by Stephen and Alex Kendrick, associate pastors of Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia. The church's media ministry organized the Sherwood Pictures label under which Facing the Giants was filmed. Provident Films then picked up the movie and distributed it into theatres across the country.
Facing the Giants was not the Kendrick brothers' first film, nor their last. Fireproof was recently released on DVD after making a decent theatre run as well. The Kendrick brothers have ignited a flame (pardon the pun) that there is hope for the church in this area after all. There is still much work to be done, though.
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Check out Jeff Berryman, http://www.jberryman.com/
I saw his one-man show ("Leaving Ruin") at a writer's conference a few years ago. I bought his "Leaving Ruin" book, which he wrote after developing the drama. It is about conflict in the church and he plays all the characters--very versatile & talented. If you ever get a chance to see him...wow!
fyi, Berryman moved his site. The old one has his archives...here's the newest stuff: http://jeffberryman.com/
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