A few months ago, my wife and I were privileged to attend a preview screening of War Room, the latest movie produced by the Kendrick brothers (Courageous, Fireproof, & Facing the Giants are some of their other works). The movie opens Friday, August 28th, and I urge you to attend a showing in your community to support the movie.
Here is a clip from the movie that might whet your appetite.
There are many aspects about the movie that I like. For example, it portrays disciple-making in an informal context. The clip above demonstrates a commitment by the movie-makers to portray relational disciple-making and I am grateful for it since Matthew 28:18-20 is being fulfilled before our very eyes.
Another powerful theme is the importance of biblical prayer. The focus is upon praying for God to work in our own hearts first (Matt. 7:1-3) and then in the lives of others next. So many times we pray for God to do what we want rather than for His will to be done regardless of what we want. And we pray for Him to change others and forget to ask Him to change our heart desires. War Room emphasizes biblical prayer and is honest and authentic in how an immature believer learns to strategically pray.
Repentance is clear and it’s not an “easy believe” message or one that ignores sin. The Gospel is true in this movie and I cannot say that about a lot of movies that pretend we do not have to repent and trust in Christ. Those movies emphasize trusting in Christ but not repentance but War Room is faithful.
Grace is accurately portrayed (see the clip above). None of us deserve grace and God’s forgiveness yet God offers it freely through the Lord Jesus Christ.
The humorous moments are splendid and often in the movie. I won’t spoil any of them here, but you will laugh and cry so bring plenty of tissues. I really love the character of Ms. Clara and you will, too!
To be fair, there were only one or two lines and/or scenes that I might have gone a different direction than the movie producers did based upon my personal convictions. But I could say that of many movies, Christian and especially, non-Christian. Those issues are matters of conscience based upon my understanding of Scripture and I am not going to mention them here because they are not that significant to me. I find it is easy to be critical.
Overall, I highly recommend this movie and give it 4.99 stars out of 5 stars (no movie is perfect!). I appreciate the immense, hard work done to portray godliness on the big screen and think this movie does a wonderful job of doing just that…to the glory of Christ!
-Pastor Mark Shaw (praising God for the Kendrick brothers and their commitment to do Christ-honoring films like this one that emphasizes the importance of biblical prayer)
