Show Me The Father

OK, I'm pretty excited. It's movie date night. Oh, it's one of our favorite nights. And I don't know if our listeners know how excited I get to go to the movies. It's like your favorite thing. Because I love popcorn with real butter and then the Diet Coke that cancels that out, right? And you know this, I love going to movies. In fact, in our church, people are now texting us to get movie reviews. Because we go to so many, there's such power in a great story.

Yeah, and everybody knows this. We love Thriller. There's action movies, comedies that are a break from real life, especially during this pandemic. And that's been nice. But when you get to go to a movie, that's literally life changing.

I mean, that changes you for the future. The best movies ever. Help you pursue the relationships that matter most. I'm Ann Wilson. And I'm Dave Wilson. And you can find us at familylifetoday.com or on our Family Life app. This is Family Life Today.

So today we have two movie directors, producers, writers, the Kendrick brothers, Alec and Stephen Kendrick, are with us today. Welcome to Family Life Today. Thank you. Hey, good to be with you guys. It's good to be with you guys and to talk about this.

This is fun. Yeah, and I'm guessing a lot of our listeners know you too. But you guys, I did not even know this when I'm looking up your bio. You have written and produced a whole bunch of movies, not just one or two. And I've seen them all, but I can't remember them all. So I'm going to list them.

The movies Overcomer, War Room, Courageous, Fireproof, Facing the Giants, and Flywheel. Did I get them all? That's it. Yeah. And then the new ones we're working on.

Yeah. You both co-produced and wrote all of these movies together. We tag teamed on every movie and really starting with prayer on every film. And we've learned there's a big difference between a good idea and a God idea. And the Lord's ideas are always way better than ours. Everybody has a movie idea we found.

And they send them to us in the mail and they try to call us and stop us at the gas pump and, you know, please make my story into a movie, you know. But we found that when you really seek the Lord, He knows what's going to happen in the culture. He knows what's going to happen in the future. And so you just trust Him and walk by faith. And so that's been the journey for us.

And I'll add to that. You know, it's interesting. Stephen and I both grew up Baptist. But there is, however you want to phrase this, when the Lord is pleased with something, I don't know if you want to call it an anointing or a blessing or extra grace or favor or whatever He does to it that touches people's lives.

And we would rather have that ingredient on our movies than any budget that man could provide us. And so we've learned when we seek after the Lord and He does that thing to it that only God can do, people are drawn to it and change his hearts and lives. And we're just amazed at what He does. Another way to say that is instead of being the best caterer in Jerusalem, I would rather be the boy with five loaves and two fish handing it into Jesus and watching Him doing something great with it.

That's right. Just based on how you said that, Stephen, you guys are incredible communicators, preachers, authors, pastors, married. You both have six kids. I don't know, you guys clones? I mean, you got the same number of kids.

Not at all. Well, we have a praying mama who gets up early every morning and is crying out to God on our behalf and all of her 19 grandchildren. We've got a dad who I think we're going to talk a little bit about today, who really deeply impacted our lives and prayed over us, blessed us. And then through his scars and brokenness pointed us to Christ.

And we're just so grateful for the Lord's mercy, really. Now, how did you end up getting into writing, producing, directing movies? Was that something you knew in middle school, high school you wanted to do?

Or how'd you end up where you are? Well, the Lord has gifted each of us with a different bent. Shannon is so gifted at technology. Stephen is gifted at really drawing people into biblical principles. I've always enjoyed storytelling. So growing up, if I could do my book report in school in video form, I begged my teachers to let me do that.

Then I would edit between the VCR and our camcorder. And then Stephen would help me. Stephen, actually, I pulled him in as a stunt man for all our crazy videos. I got beat up in each of his videos.

Yeah. So all of them had the same plot when we were very young, which was chase him down and beat him up. But we would pull in our neighborhood friends.

And so all of them, we had about 32 kids in our neighborhood. They were all in our early movies. And then as Stephen... Shannon is your... Older brother. So I'm the middle. Stephen's the youngest.

Shannon's the oldest. And so Shannon would figure out the technological aspects of editing, of recording sound, even doing early special effects when we could. Stop and go animation, things like that. And then Stephen and I would come up with the harebrained ideas of how to use those tools. It was in high school. As we mentioned earlier, our parents were praying parents. It was in high school that the Lord got a hold of our hearts. And we said, God, whatever we do, we want to do it to honor you and want your blessing on it. And that kind of changed our trajectory from just wanting to make entertainment to wanting to make something that was purposeful, that would draw people to a closer walk with God. And so we have enjoyed going into ministry. Both of us are ordained, been to seminary and spent a number of years as youth pastors. But over the last 20 years, we've developed a love for telling stories in movie form.

And it started with Flywheel in 2002. And each one, the Lord has stretched us and taught us. And now here we are, you know, making movies that the Lord has allowed to go worldwide.

And we're very, very grateful. Now, what's it feel like as you release a movie? Because, you know, we've released a couple of books, but when, you know, when a book goes out, we're afraid, you know, like, oh my goodness, it's out there now. Is it the same with a movie or is it different? Well, I think we have the benefit of screening it dozens of times before it comes out in theaters.

And so it's always a joy to sit on the second row over on the side and to watch the audience watch your film. And we try to take cues from that sometimes and walk out saying that joke didn't work. Let's edit that out, you know, or the ending is good, but it needs to be sped up or whatever. But when the movie comes out itself, we're praying and just asking the Lord to do something with it. But it feels like we're sending our children off into the world and it's completely out of our control at that point.

You know, it's just, Lord, whatever you want to do with it. And I want to add, Stephen and I have been very appreciative of Family Life doing early screenings of our films to your audience when we do events, you know, the Love Like You Mean It cruise or other things. And we have gleaned responses from those showings and made the movies better before they hit theaters. That's right. So you guys have helped us make better movies. That's right. We're going to do it again on the next Love Like You Mean It cruise, but we got to talk about the movie that's coming out today, this weekend, Show Me The Father. Yes. Is it your first documentary?

It is. We love documentaries and I love watching them. I love that the amount of information you can pack into such a short amount of time. We've been focusing on the feature films, the bigger budget feature films, but there's so many different powerful messages that need to be communicated to every generation. You know, we talk about the Bible being the word of God, salvation through Christ alone, standing up for the unborn.

There's other things. But this one specifically was so dear to our hearts. It was so jugular vein for us. And that's the issue of fatherhood in scripture and in practice everyday life. So that translated into Show Me The Father. Well, I have to tell you that we got a chance to preview that. I'm telling you, we were crying the entire time. It is powerful.

Powerful. Praise the Lord. I mean, I can't wait for our listeners to get to the movie theater and watch it, and then they're going to go back and take friends.

But talk about it a little bit. What's the inspiration behind why the movie about fatherhood? Well, when we made Courageous ten years ago, and we've got Courageous Legacy coming out in theaters soon as well. But the movie was so dear to our hearts because we saw God transform our family tree when our father surrendered his life to Christ. And the statistics show that, that when a man, being placed in the driver's seat of his home, whether he realizes it or not, when he surrenders his life to Christ, everything changes. And he'll begin to lead his family spiritually and step up a thousand different ways as the Holy Spirit enables him to do that. But our father made a resolution, and it was, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. His own father had been alcoholic. His grandfather had been wild and away from God. And our dad said, the buck stops here. I want to be faithful to my wife.

I want to be faithful to the Lord and to my kids. And that one commitment and decision really shifted our whole family tree. And so he was the chain breaker who stood in the gap, who had to throw off all those old patterns and habits and lay them at the foot of the cross, and then put on Christ and His Word and trying to be a spiritual leader in his home. And he didn't know what he was doing.

He felt totally inadequate. But we would stumble upon him on his knees, crying out to God, you know, to help him to be the dad, the father that he needed to be. And because of that, we made the movie Courageous, showing what does it look like when men make this resolution, this kind of commitment, and how it will affect their lives. Well, out from that launched the Fatherhood Commission.

Over 150 fathering ministries from across the nation for the last 10 years have been meeting every year together, praying together, supporting each other, and talking about the crisis of fatherlessness and the need for fathers to step up. And so many amazing stories came out of that. Some of the stories that are featured in this documentary came out of our relationships in the Fatherhood Commission. So we're so excited about people getting to see the stories in Show Me the Father. And then, like you talked about, crying the whole way through.

It's not because it's sad. I think it's because there's so many inspirational moments in this. And Show Me the Father is basically four stories, four real-life stories, of various father scenarios. The father that wasn't there for his son or children, the father that was gone and then returned, a father that made a change in his life, and you see the ramifications of that big change he made in his life. And then understanding who God is as our Heavenly Father. Ultimately, He is the perfect role model for a father, and He fathers us spiritually, of course.

He's the creator first, but then He wants a relationship with us, and He can take the place of those voids where an earthly father should have been for each of us. And so you'll see a piece of yourself at some point in this movie. You'll recognize where the real stories are, and you'll say, Hey, I've felt that before.

I've been there before. But by the end, we hope that people understand who God the Father is more clearly through Jesus Christ. And if they're a dad or if they have certain feelings toward their dad, that they know the steps to take to continue growing when the film is over. And that's exactly what I felt as I talked about that we were crying. There were tears of inspiration of our Heavenly Father has always been there. He loves us so much, and He's always drawing us and calling us to Himself. And because every listener has either a great, a mediocre, or a bad experience with fatherhood, and maybe not even having a father, but there's such a goodness of Father God who is continually wooing us to Himself. And that's what you guys did. You made me yearn even more to know our Heavenly Father in that way.

So well done. Praise the Lord. Well, and it's not just for men. Some people may think, oh, this documentary is only for men to go learn how to be better dads.

And that's not really what it's about. It's about everybody has a fatherhood story, and God wants to be the Father of everyone. And all of us have broken fathers on earth, and Scripture actually uses the word perfect tied specifically to the fatherhood of God, that His will is good, pleasing, and perfect. His provision, every good and perfect gift comes from Him. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, be perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect. So God wants to be the perfect Father to all of us that we haven't had on earth, but He longs to be that in our lives. And what we wanted to happen and what we prayed from the very beginning, even before we shot the first interview with this, is we prayed, God, would you let this documentary be an introduction through Jesus to the heart of our Heavenly Father and cause people to walk away with a new revelation of the Holy Spirit when they watch this, that God wants a relationship with me, and through Jesus I can have it, and His heart is for me, He loves me, and for people to walk away saying, God became my Father, or intimately stepped into that relationship as Father after I watched that documentary.

Hey, I don't know if I represent everybody, but I can say this. That goal that you had, which is the first time we've heard that that was your goal, that's exactly what you did. I mean, again, sitting there on that couch watching that thing, when I turned it off, I thought, wow, they captured theology and identity. You know, I've been preaching for 30 years, and anybody at my church would know that I always say every decision we make every day is based on what we believe about God, the character of God, that's theology, and what we believe about our identity. So when I turned off the movie, I thought, wow, I have a better understanding of the character of God, of His perfectness, of His tender heart, of His care, and you say it in the movie, He is there, He is with you. Some of you felt like you didn't have a dad, you have a dad, and He's never left you, and He's there, but at the other side, I'm also sitting there thinking about my identity as a son and as a dad, and it helped me understand, oh my goodness, I am a good father. You know, I'm not a good father like the Father, but I am a good man, and I've done a good job, and it just inspired me in those two sides. I'm guessing that's what you were going for.

Am I right? We were, and both Stephen and I have six kids each, and when we began understanding that this perfect Father who is God, when I am reflecting His attributes, His love for my children, then they have a better picture of who God is. We all know that there's no perfect Father on earth, you know, all of us have flaws, but to the degree that I can reflect the desire of our Heavenly Father to love and want a relationship with us, to help us to be there, to walk through life with us, and I can demonstrate that to my own children, it will help position them to have a closer walk with God.

You know, all of us get our first concept of God through our earthly father, so if your father was distant, you imagine God to be distant. If your father was there for you, you imagine God being there for you, and so it's important for us, and all of us are at various places in our growth and maturity in understanding this, so whether you feel like I failed as a dad, or I'm figuring it out, or anywhere in between, we hope that this film and the stories that we tell will draw people and stir up that desire to say, not only do I want to view God the right way and know God more intimately as my Heavenly Father, but I want to reflect His goodness, His love, and His attributes to people in my life, especially my children, and so if that's the outcome, then we would count that as a success. I would also say, Stephen, as a storyteller, I love watching people, as Stephen said earlier, I love watching people watch an early cut of the movie. When we showed Show Me the Father to an early audience, I loved watching them gasp at a couple different moments in the movie, because they didn't see something coming, and they literally gasped and say, I can't believe what I'm watching, and so we love the storytelling aspect of this too, so yes, it's a documentary, but at the end of the day, it's four powerful stories that will move your heart. The stories are so powerful, and you have to keep watching to see the outcome, and when I was watching, Dave already knew a twist, one of the twists, but I stood up and I'm like, what? She stood up in our family room.

Are you kidding me? It was like, oh, come on. I was so shocked, surprised, and it made me think, oh, Lord Jesus, you are such a good, good father.

Really amazing. And all of these are true. Yeah, they're all true stories.

We didn't have to change anything. We just had to tell the stories as they happened, and what God did through these people's lives and these father connections was just astonishing, even when we were putting the film together. Well, and just to give credit to where credit is due, Rick Altizer was the director of this film.

He's an award-winning filmmaker and has made multiple documentaries and did a great job. He has his own journey of fatherhood that he went on, and the thing at the end, I don't know if you remember, we talked about the piece of glass that you have your earthly father sketch on that piece of glass. That came straight from Rick, because that's just his heart about us learning to replace the image of our earthly father with the perfection of God as Father in our lives and how that affects us on a daily basis. But Mark Miller is a friend of ours who's been in ministry a long time. He was the producer of this film, and these are praying men. So God has put us together with two really strong praying men who have this passionate heart for fatherhood, and being able to work together and tell these stories and say, watch this, watch this new cut, or watch the way the story unfolds now. And so it has been a lot of fun to go on this journey and to really tell these true stories to the glory of our Heavenly Father.

And they are, I would say, so many of those stories are truly miraculous and amazing. The thing that I loved is, it's called a documentary, but it doesn't feel like it. It feels like a film.

I'm wondering, how did you do that? Because often when you watch, you know, Doc and Richard, it just feels sort of, I don't know, stale. This one, I felt like I was watching a feature film. That's really encouraging to hear, because that's what we went for. You know, we were used to making feature films, so we were trying to capture, you know, cinematic footage. We were trying to be careful. We actually hired a guy who does cinema score to do all the music behind the scenes, you know, that you're feeling the music beds in and out. So we've been behind the scenes constantly pushing, saying, how can we make this more cinematic so it does feel like a feature film? Thank you for saying that. Yeah, you know, and I'm the expert on film, so if I say it. No, I do want to add one other thing that really inspired me was your dad.

Yes. I mean, I didn't know that last little backstory that he had to change the legacy. I have a similar story that I had to, I came from two alcoholic parents in divorce, and I had to rewrite the Wilson name. But I didn't know that about your dad, because when you watch his part of, and I won't give it away, but when you watch his story in your movie, I was so inspired by his heart and even the struggle he went through and the turn. And again, I don't want you to give too much away, but how has that impacted you, just your father's life and fathering of you guys? We watched our dad do things that we thought were impossible once he was tracking with God. He would lay the groundwork in prayer, and he built a Christian school almost from scratch. There was a few people that had been a part of another school, but he built it from 80 students to 500 and something students and developed all the teachers and the manner in which the school is run. And it's still going on today, 25 years later. And Stephen and I were products of that. I graduated from that school. Yeah, and so we're very grateful to have watched him do something with no budget, no resources, very few staff members, 80 students.

And that's barely two classes in a public school. So we watched him build a kindergarten all the way through 12th grade and then graduate hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that are now making a difference for the kingdom. And so when we saw what he did with almost nothing by prayer and walking in faith, we said, okay, we can make movies because we didn't have budget.

We didn't have film degrees. And so dad influenced almost every aspect of our ministry and filmmaking and storytelling. So he laid the groundwork in faith and obedience to the Lord and made us want to do the same thing. And he did it after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and after going through 16 months of depression when God had brought him out of that through the revelation of God as a loving father. That was that was the key turning point for our dad when God pulled him out of depression through that revelation. Then he went and launched that school by faith. And so we started filmmaking the same way.

No money, no experience, no training, you know, no budgets, you know, no resources. But we had the Lord and we had a praying church behind us. And so to see God, God is an expert at laying tracks in front of the moving train. And if you find out he's in something and he wants you to do it, if he says, get in the boat and go to the other side, you don't have to have everything figured out. You know, Abraham didn't know where he was going, you know, but by faith, we have to trust the Lord and say, Lord, I can't lean on my own understanding. I have to trust you with all my own heart. I'm going to get in the boat and move forward and trust that you'll be with me in the storm.

You'll provide what we need. And that was our dad's journey. And that really has been our journey on every film. That aspect of a man struggling with the goodness of God and coming to terms with he really is a loving father that comes through. And I just can't wait for people to see that because so many of us struggle with that, especially when things don't go the way we we want. And that that's a big theological dilemma for people. Is he really good?

Is he loving? And your dad's wrestle with that impacts greatly through the movie, but obviously has impacted you. And now it's going to impact millions.

It's going to be powerful. When you come to a realization that even if you had a good father, your dad is not like God in many ways. God is faithful. He's eternal. He is. He is completely right. He is completely holy.

He is completely loving. He does see the future. And so God is the ideal and perfect father. And so for an earthly father to say, well, I can't be all those things perfectly, but if I can just reflect, if I can grab a hold of many of those principles, apply them to my life and then point my kids to God, then your kids already have a jump start on a more fulfilling, purposeful and spiritual walk with the Lord. And so God is an amazing father. And we too often just look at him as God and not father. And of course he's both. But when you know him through Jesus Christ and we are spiritually attached and saved through Jesus Christ, then you are part of his family.

We're adopted into his family. And then so Jesus is the bridge. He is the one that connects us in a right relationship to God the Father. And when you tap into that and are walking in that, begin understanding what that means, it makes all the difference in your life. And you guys, that whole theme was really in your movie Courageous 2 because that was about fathers. It was kind of that same experience in wrestling with God. And so you are re-releasing Courageous. That's correct. We're coming upon 10 years since the original release of Courageous.

It has had an international impact with mind-blowing stories as to what the Lord has done with it around the world. So we actually are re-releasing a new cut of the film. It's remastered. It's re-edited.

It flows faster. We've got some new bonus scenes in there. We shot a new ending that people haven't seen yet. We started off by sharing some of the impact stories as to what God's done around the world even before you see the first scene. And so it's going to be a lot of fun for people.

We really want this to be for a new generation because millions of young men have become dads over the last 10 years. And they're going to be seeing this movie through a new lens. But it's recolored.

There's music changes. We're very excited about Courageous Legacy and how it will work together with Show Me the Father. So Courageous Legacy will look familiar but still be fresh.

And so 70% of it will say, okay, I'm familiar with the story. I saw the original version of Courageous. But to see actors literally age 10 years by the end of the film, to watch how these families turn out, to see updated shots. You know, we didn't have drones back then. We couldn't film these epic shots over buildings and down streets and chasing police cars.

But now we can. So we added some shots throughout, upgraded the quality of the movie. As Steven said, recolored it, re-edited it and have a brand new surprise ending scene in it. So we think when people see it, they will see a movie if they loved it the first time that they'll be familiar with. And all the powerful moments are still there, but they'll be hopefully encouraged by the new ending where you see what does it look like even one decade later for fathers to implement these biblical principles for their families.

And so, yes, we can't wait to release it. Are you taking the characters in the movie and you're updating them or aging them 10 years? We literally waited 10 years and shot some new scenes, a new ending to the movie. So when you're watching Courageous Legacy, which is a special edition of the original movie, when you're watching Courageous Legacy, when it gets near the end of the movie, it literally jumps forward 10 years and you catch up with everybody 10 years later. And so you'll see all of the fathers, some of the kids and what they're doing, what they look like 10 years later and to find out what became of them. And we have some exciting twist along the way that we can't wait for people to see. So we're hoping that people will, if they've seen Courageous in the past, they will take their neighbors, their friends, these young men, young fathers that they know to see the movie. And then after they walk out, they're going to be thinking, how do I live this out?

What do I do? There's still the resources and discipleship resources that are connected to that. But Show Me the Father picks up also with the theology of the Fatherhood of God.

So we've gotten both of those kind of tag teaming together and we're hoping it'll be a great one-two punch that the church can use to really impact families. Yeah. It's the kind of, as you know, all your movies are this way. It's the kind that you go and you watch and then you go talk.

Yeah. You can't not talk. You want to see it in community. You want to go somewhere and not just talk about it for one hour, but spend some time to say, okay, what kind of a dad am I going to be?

Am I going to forgive my dad? I mean, there's all kinds of questions that are going to be raised, but that's why I started our program saying I love movies that change lives because your movies change lives. And I just want to say from one movie viewer, thank you. Thank you for what you do, what you've done, what you're going to do.

I mean, I've been a preacher for 30 years and it's just one mode, a talking head. But to sit in a theater and watch Story literally go right to the heart or to the soul is a different way to impact somebody's lives. And you guys have been gifted by God and anointed by God and He's anointed your writing and your film. I just want to say thank you. And I just want to thank you guys because not only are you creating these beautiful stories, but you guys are the real deal in terms of your passion and your love for Jesus. I think every time we've been around you, that's the thing I walk away with. These guys, their love for God, their passion for Him and their love for others is the real thing. Like you're really living it. You can tell that you've spent time with God and that comes through in everything that you've produced.

So thanks. Wow, that's very encouraging for us and we hope that is always the case. We would like to finish well, we'd like to end our lives honoring the Lord and nothing can replace the joy of knowing that you're walking with Him and that you're watching Him do what only He can do and we just get to be a part of it.

Well, and we know every good thing about our lives is really the Lord and we have so many people, the body of Christ, praying for us on every project and just so grateful that we have accountability and our pastor preaching the word unapologetically, calling us to repentance, calling us to humility and I tell people, if you hang out with us, you'll be less impressed with us and you'll be more impressed with the God that we serve because we serve a mighty God. Well, Dave and Ann Wilson have been talking today with our friends Alex and Stephen Kendrick, the filmmakers who have a new film that's coming out in theaters this weekend. It's a documentary called Show Me the Father and let me just say this is a movie that you will find compelling and moving and challenging and it's really a remarkable film and it's probably been a while since you've been to a movie theater.

This is a great weekend to head back and to see the new movie Show Me the Father from filmmakers Alex and Stephen Kendrick. There's information about the film on our website at familylifetoday.com. There's also information about the 10-year anniversary re-release of the movie Courageous that happens next month in theaters. The Kendricks have added a continuing storyline to the movie we all loved when it came out 10 years ago. So there's information about Courageous, the 10-year anniversary re-release at familylifetoday.com as well and of course Alex and Stephen are going to join us on the Love Like You Mean It marriage cruise in February and we're going to see a sneak preview of their latest movie which will be out next year in theaters.

So a lot going on with the Kendricks. Again, you can find out more at familylifetoday.com and if you're not signed up for the cruise, you can still sign up to attend the Love Like You Mean It marriage cruise in February. Speaking of signing up, our weekend to remember marriage getaways.

We've got about 30 of those happening this fall in cities all across the country and this is the last weekend for you to sign up and save 50% off the regular registration fee. This is a great getaway for couples. We've had millions of couples who've joined us in the 45 years we've been hosting these events and they would tell you this weekend has been transformative in so many of their marriages. We could all use a getaway right about now, I think, so you can find out more if you'd like to register for the weekend to remember marriage getaway when it comes to a city near where you live.

Go to our website familylifetoday.com to find out when and where the getaways are being held and you can register online or call if you have any questions or if you'd like to register by phone 1-800-358-6329, 1-800-F as in family, L as in life, and then the word today and you can join us at the weekend to remember marriage getaway coming to a city near where you live this fall. And with that, we've got to wrap things up for this week. Thanks for joining us. Hope you have a great weekend. Hope you and your family are able to worship together in your local church this weekend and I hope you can join us back on Monday. Jim Elmore is going to be here and he's going to share with us about the mess that his life was.

He was involved in substance abuse and destructive behavior and really was right on the edge when God got a hold of him and turned things around. It's a powerful story. Hope you can be here for that. On behalf of our hosts Dave and Ann Wilson, I am Bob Lapine. Have a great weekend. We'll see you Monday for another edition of Family Life Today. Family Life Today is a production of Family Life, a crew ministry helping you pursue the relationships that matter most.