Bring God’s Not Dead to Your Church…On Me
I really liked the movie God’s Not Dead and not just because it was inspired by the work of my longtime employer Alliance Defending Freedom (a Christian legal ministry that along with shutting down Planned Parenthood clinics also protects Christians and Christian groups on campuses) as well as the fine book by Rice Broocks but because it presents real challenges and real answers. Apologetics (and the freedom to engage in it) is not a luxury but a necessity on university campuses. The battle for the hearts and minds of young people begins with the mind and although there is an embarrassment of apologetic riches out there for Christians to mine, the film God’s Not Dead is a great place to start.
The good folks at Pure Flix will push out the DVD and Blu-Ray of God’s Not Dead on August 5th. Your church can show the movie to the entire congregation (or at least your youth group) for a minimal licensing fee depending on the size of the audience. I greatly encourage your congregation to pay the fee (don’t just buy the DVD and skirt the law…stupid for Jesus is still stupid) and then host a discussion afterward.
Please don’t be intimated by the questions you may receive. I bet there are people in your churches that can thoughtfully answer them. But if you are worried, please pick up the book by Pastor Broocks. You have plenty of time between now and then to read it so that you are armed for questions. If you get a question you can’t answer, don’t worry. I have found that it is productive to simply say, “That’s a great question! I don’t know the answer right now but can find out for you and post it on our blog” (or whatever). I am happy to help you find that answer as I have yet to field one that wasn’t already addressed by the fine folks at ministries like Reasonable Faith or Reasons to Believe, etc.
Also, for one lucky blog subscriber outside of my own church, I will pay for the DVD and movie license so that you can partake of this blessing at your congregation. However, I only make this request of the winner (and of all of you) and that is to stick around for the credits, which give a shout out to Alliance Defending Freedom for all their work in defending Christians and Christian groups on campus.
I joined ADF in 2006 as one of their more than 2000 trained volunteer attorneys worldwide dedicated to protecting life, marriage and religious liberty. I joined ADF full-time in 2008 and am blown away every day by the dedication of every single one of our more than 100 team members including our more than 40 full-time attorneys who oversee our volunteer litigators.
I decided to go to law school while still in seminary and applied to Cornell Law School among others. What I didn’t know while waiting to hear from the dozen or so schools that I applied to was that although I had the requisite GPA and LSAT score to gain automatic admission to Cornell, a number of faculty members had rejected me. They wrote on my admission file, “Don’t need a member of the God squad here!”, “Bible thumper!”, etc. One lone member of the admission’s committee was an evangelical Christian and fought back. I received my acceptance letter without knowing about any of this until years later when that faculty member, who later joined the staff of ADF, tapped me on the shoulder at my week-long volunteer training session, introduced himself and said, “Let me tell you how you got into law school!”
I’m sure many could tell a similar story of being blackballed from educational opportunities simply because he or she is a disciple of Jesus Christ. My fellow Christians need to know about this unconstitutional activity and that there are ministries out there who will help them defend their right to spread the Gospel and equip them to be better evangelists.
I’ll announce the winner during the first week of August but if you can afford to, I would encourage you to go ahead and pre-order and prepare for a great night of a good film and challenging but necessary discussions.
Grace and peace to you all.