Movie challenges husbands and fathers to be ‘Courageous’

Courageous—the latest movie produced by Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga.—offers a 21st century representation of a call first uttered in the Old Testament, said Alex Kendrick, director and one of the lead actors in the film.

"We asked God, 'What themes and stories do you want us to tell?' And he's been very clear with us on what to focus on. This season, it's kind of themed around Joshua 24:15, where he boldly calls out to the men of Israel and says, 'Choose this day whom you will serve … as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord,'" said Kendrick, who along with his brother, Stephen, also co-wrote the script.

"He doesn't say, 'Go and think about it.' He doesn't say, 'Go start some conversations.' He draws a line in the sand and says basically: 'We don't need half-hearted men. We don't need men who straddle the fence.' It's killing our nation. It's killing our culture," Kendrick said.

"He says, 'You choose this day.' And in a way, that's what Courageous is doing."

The movie, which opens in theaters across the country Sept. 30, revolves around several law enforcement officers and how they learned the importance to their families of their roles as fathers and husbands under God's authority.

Kendrick also is an associate pastor at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga., which was behind the making of the movies Flywheel, Facing the Giants and Fireproof.

Courageous is aimed at men in particular, he said. It is crucial that men rise up, because the world "in some ways is morally being driven off a cliff," he said.

A scene from Courageous shows the importance of a father and husband leading his family in devotional times. (PHOTO/Courtesy of Sherwood Pictures)

"Men who love the Lord, men who proclaim to be Christian—we don't need them to be lukewarm. We sure don't need them entertaining themselves to death," Kendrick said.

As he and his brother wrote the movie and the book, The Resolution for Men, which reinforces its themes, friction was created in his own soul, he noted.

"When my brother Stephen and I prayed through 'What are we supposed to do?' and God told us fatherhood and specifically gave us the verses, we started writing the book The Resolution for Men.

"If I could be honest, that was not an enjoyable experience, because as we searched for what exactly does God call men to do and fathers to do, we had to raise our own standards. We had to give up some things and admit it wasn't good enough for us to be good enough," Kendrick said.

"In some ways, it's like going to war. Just like Joshua called on men to wake up and step up, that's what we're doing."

Pondering the importance of men rallying to save their families has given him a greater sense of the urgency of the situation, he said.

"If we wait too much longer, we're going to lose this generation—just flat out lose them. What we do as fathers in moderation, the next generation is going to do in excess, and we are entertaining ourselves to death. We're more about finding comfort and pleasure in our Christian walk than we are about doing whatever it takes to make sure others know Christ and that he is prominently Lord of our lives.

"The Christian life is certainly a joyful walk, and it certainly is a fulfilling walk. But it's not supposed to be comfortable and pleasurable," Kendrick insisted. "Any man in Scripture used miraculously by God also had a difficult road to walk and hard decisions to make. What we see is too many men seeking the easiest road and the most comfortable path."

The movie challenges men to diverge from the easy road, he said.

"It takes courage to do something that is uncomfortable. It takes courage to do something you know is right but is scary to think about. But we're talking about men raising their game to save the next generation, determining to seek the Lord without apology, to walk with the Lord without compromise and to live their faith unashamedly," Kendrick said.

He prays Courageous will be much more than a theatrical hit.

"Our scope is much broader than a movie. A movie may be the starting point, telling a story that we hope stirs up men till they see themselves on the screen, but it goes so far beyond that.

"We want men in churches all across the country to get serious about their own level of accountability, their own standard they are living out in the sight of God, to fall under the authority of God's word, to support one another with prayer, support and accountability, and to say boldly: 'This is what I live for, this is what I stand for, here is my own resolution. I'm proclaiming it in front of other witnesses, and I'm posting it on the wall of my home. And whatever change has to happen to live out God's call on my life, I'm going to do it,'" Kendrick said.

He acknowledges the movie is in large part directed at Christians.

"Some people say, 'Aren't you preaching to the choir?' I would say the choir needs it right now," Kendrick said.

"We want men to get stirred up. We are holding up a mirror in the form of a movie and saying: 'This is where you are. Is this what God called you to be?'"