Success and the Gospel

Yesterday (Oct 12, 2007), Baptist Press released an article written by Norm Miller regarding the success of Facing the Giants. The movie, produced by Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, GA, on a $100,000 budget, took in $10 million at the box office. Alex Kendrick, the church’s associate pastor, starred in the flick as a football coach who struggles to overcome his team’s poor play, financial difficulties, his wife’s infertility, and a foul odor in his house. With “faith” that would make Benny Hinn proud, the coach has a team suddenly playing with championship caliber, he gains financial success, impregnates his wife, and gets rid of the atrocious odor. Miller notes this film “championed family values and Christian virtues.” The senior pastor, Michael Catt, declared, “We’ve heard from more than 3,000 people who have come to Christ because of the movie.” He also stated that the church wants its films to be “distinctively Christian” and, ““We don’t want to tell people to be good; we want to encourage people to be righteous. We will not – we cannot – compromise the Gospel to be successful.” As noted previously on Two Worlds Collide, the implicit theology of this movie is a theology of glory. In particular, that of the ‘prosperity gospel’ (if you really have faith, then God will bless you with success and material prosperity). It lacks biblical theology. I wonder… Did the 3,000 people who made a decision surrender their lives to the historical God-Man? Did they profess faith in the One who died a shameful death upon a cross for rebels? Did they acknowledge their own rebellion to God and ask for forgiveness on account of the Risen One? Did they come to God on His terms, being willing to repent of sin, trust God alone for salvation, die daily to self and live in service to God? Or did they merely align themselves with the genie god who dispenses goodies in return for “really believing”?