The Open Door

Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, where Michael C. Catt is pastor, is investing itself in an incredible out-of-the-box vision for reaching people with the Gospel of Christ. They are making motion pictures with excellence and outstanding spiritual impact.

Sherwood Pictures’ first film was titled Flywheel and surprised everyone with its popularity. It is being used worldwide as a ministry tool and has been blessed by God for the reaching of many lost people with the Good News. If you have not seen Flywheel, you can rent it at Blockbusters across the country.

Their second film is titled Facing the Giants, and is due in theaters this fall. The movie will be released September 29 in 85 cities on about 400 screens across the country.

I have already viewed the film twice and found it to be inspiring, uplifting, encouraging and effective in its strong spiritual impact.

The film has been picked up by Provident and Sony. It was recently premiered in Boston and Syracuse and resulted in 284 people coming to faith in Jesus Christ at the conclusion of the showing. The reviews of the film have been impressive.

Facing the Giants was written by two brothers, Alex and Stephen Kendrick, who also serve as associate pastors at Sherwood and are nephews of Bill Kendrick, who is an employee of the Georgia Baptist Executive Committee. Their goals were to produce a family-friendly movie that could be affordably filmed in Albany, would be fun to watch, impactful to viewers, and glorifying to God.

Stephen Kendrick said, “I believe there is a huge culture of people like us who love movies, but continually leave theaters disappointed by films with profanity, immorality, and messages that trample their family’s values and faith.”

The movie with a high school football theme was filmed in and around Albany, Georgia and includes footage from real games from Sherwood Christian Academy, Lee County High School players and stadium and a cameo appearance by UGA head coach Mark Richt, who has a dynamic Christian testimony. The story is about a football coach at a Christian school, Grant Taylor, who uses his faith to battle his fear and failure on and off the field.

The lead role is played by Alex Kendrick, associate pastor at Sherwood. Grant Taylor’s wife, Brooke Taylor, is played by Shannen Fields. In real life, Shannen’s husband is the head football coach for Sherwood Christian Academy. She also serves a local church as bookkeeper and children’s director. Jim McBride, executive pastor at Sherwood, plays the tough, competitive coach of the opposing State Championship team. Other roles in the film are played by church members.

I want you to see this film. I laughed; I cried; I was involved in the story. I was excited and thrilled. I’ve seen it twice. I will see it again. My prayer is that God will take this film and use it to His glory in ways that we cannot imagine. I have been told that the initial weekend the film is out is extremely important. If the film does well on that weekend, it will be given a broader market.

I encourage our churches to buy out the theaters showing the film in your area and fill the theaters with people who need the Lord. If you buy out the theater, you can offer an invitation at the conclusion of the film. I am convinced that if we do this repeatedly across our state we will see hundreds come to faith in Christ.

Let’s get behind Sherwood Baptist Church on this project and do all we can to make it extremely successful. Tell your friends and family members across the country about this film so when it comes out they will flock to see it.

A couple of weeks ago, the film received a PG rating due to the religious content. This amazing response to the film by the MPAA rating system has shocked believers everywhere. If there has ever been a film in America that everyone should be encouraged to see, this is it.

Yes, I suppose if a parent does not want his child to see a wholesome film with profound values, integrity, ethics and life lessons, if a parent is concerned about his child going to a film with not a word of foul language, alcoholic beverages and promiscuity, if he wants to prevent his child from understanding that a relationship with Jesus Christ is the way to live a full and meaningful life, then he will want to advise his child not to see this film.

In my opinion, Facing the Giants is a film that should be seen by everyone in America and then purchased on DVD when it comes out so that it can be viewed periodically in the home.

Congratulations to Sherwood Baptist Church and everyone who had anything to do with Facing the Giants. May God bless it with unparalleled popularity!

Related articles in this issue:

Lights, camera, evangelize!

Pastor helps

Frequently asked questions about Facing the Giants

MPAA "PG" rating is mixed blessing for Kendrick brothers

Facing the Giants Overview