Facing the Giants

Facing the Giants
Influencing the Culture through Film

By Charles Colson

Some churches have soup kitchens, and others have potluck dinners. Then there's Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia. Sherwood's ministry is creating major motion pictures. Yes, you read that right: a church making movies.

The new film is called Facing the Giants, and it will open in hundreds of theaters nationwide this weekend. It's a terrific example of what Christians can do when we stop hiding in our sanctuaries and boldly engage the culture.

Facing the Giants is the story of a football coach at a Christian high school who, in six years, has never had a winning season. After his team, the Shiloh Eagles, lose their third game in a row—to the worst team in the league—parents begin scheming to replace Coach Grant.

At home, the coach has other problems: A doctor tells him he is unable to father the children his wife desperately wants. There's no money to buy a much-needed new car, never mind pay the cost of adopting a child. Overwhelmed by fear and failure, Grant rises early one morning and begins a time of intense prayer. "Lord Jesus, would you help me?" he implores. "I'm tired of being afraid."

A few days later, Grant gathers his players together. "What is the purpose of this team?" he asks. "God put us here to honor Him. If we win every game and we miss that, we've done nothing. Football is just one of the tools we use to honor God."

When the team plays, he says, they have to give everything they've got—and leave the results up to God. "I want God to bless this team so much people will talk about what He did. If we win, we praise Him. If we lose, we praise Him."

I won't spoil the ending for you. Suffice it to say, it is a wonderfully inspiring film.

More than five hundred members of Sherwood Baptist Church took part in creating Facing the Giants, from directing and acting to serving meals. Jim McBride, executive producer and Sherwood's pastor, says modern technology enabled them to make the movie: The digitalization of film has dramatically lowered the cost of movie-making.

McBride explains, for too long, Hollywood has stereotyped Christians in a negative light. But now, "The lower cost of producing movies is going to enable grassroots Christians to more accurately portray who they are."

It will also allow them to influence the culture even from small-town America. Sherwood got into the movie business after reading a Barna report showing that films are more influential today than churches. If that's true, Sherwood's leaders decided, then they had better start making some films themselves.

Sherwood is absolutely right. For too long, Christians were AWOL from cultural engagement. That's wrong. And then we thought getting involved in politics was the answer. Well, politics and moral issues are very important. But as Claes Ryn notes in the American Conservative, "Society's long-term direction is . . . set by those who capture a people's mind and imagination." More than politicians, that's people in the media.

So talk this up with your friends and take your church youth group to see Facing the Giants. Who knows? They just might be inspired to go beyond holding potlucks and running soup kitchens—to making movies themselves.