Youth ministers excited about movie’s potential impact on teens, families

BURLESON—A nationally released feature film debuted in Burleson last month, and the youth ministers who worked to make it happen are eager to see its impact.

Joe Echols, youth minister at Cross Timber Baptist Church in Burleson, met a young man last year during a college retreat who later went to work at Outreach Films.

That acquaintance later called Echols and asked him to see the film, To Save a Life. Echols invited Rick Eubanks, youth minister of Oak Grove Baptist Church in Burleson, to view the movie. After seeing it, they knew they wanted to be part of bringing it to the attention of everyone they could.

Joe Echols (left), youth minister at Cross Timber Baptist Church in Burleson, and Rick Eubanks, youth minister of Oak Grove Baptist Church in Burleson, helped make the arrangements for To Save a Life to premiere in their city. (PHOTO/George Henson)

“I love film,” Eubanks said. “I really was taken aback by the quality of this particular project. I’ve been in ministry now for 38 years, so I’ve been around for a while, and I’ve seen most everything that’s come around. I was really … moved deeply by the film. It impacted me personally.

“And I guess the best remarks I had was how edgy the film was in the sense that students would not feel overly preached to. It was so real that it really addressed the issues youth are dealing with today. I had never seen a film capture that in such a way that students would watch it.”

That was affirmed for him by the response of the students he took with him to the screening months before its release in Burleson Jan. 21.

“I had two students with me, and all they could do was discuss the issues of the film on the way home. I said, ‘This is golden,’” Eubanks recalled.

Echols and Eubanks spent many hours preparing the area for the premiere weekend, primarily through multiple showings of the film to small groups. They made telephone calls, set up a reservation system for the weekend showings and coordinated visits to area high schools by the film’s actors. In all, it amounted to a heavy investment of time and energy.

It took more than just a good film for him to make that kind of commitment, Echols said.

“The film was very good, but as far as putting this kind of effort and this kind of time into it, I think there was just something inside me that said: ‘Move forward with this. There is something bigger for this film than just our area,’” he said.

While the film may have an evangelistic effect, much of Eubanks’ efforts stem from his certainty that it also has a message for Christians.

“We believed so strongly this film would have an impact on the Christian community. This is not just a film for the lost community. This is a film telling the church to: ‘Step it up. There are some things you need to learn here. Watch this and see what it makes you think,’” he said

The reactions to the advance screenings seem to bear that out. Discussions after the movie generally had to be stopped, not because people were finished talking about it, but because it was so late, Echols said. And they told others what they had seen.

“The more we showed it, the more people wanted to see it,” he said.

Of course, Echols is one of those fans.

“One of the things that really attracted me is that this film is not preachy. It is not a film that gets in your face; it’s not a film that’s judgmental. It’s just a film that asks, ‘Hey, if I’m a guy struggling with real issues, how does the church come alongside that?’” he said.

“It’s not easy believe-ism, either,” Eubanks added. “After this fellow even has his faith, things go south for him. It’s like: ‘I’m reading my Bible. What’s God doing to me here? Why is my life falling apart?’

“And the answer is, ‘Maybe it always was, and you just now are beginning to see it,’” he said.

Supporting materials that can be purchased at the movie’s website, www.tosavealifemovie.com, to help youth ministers and youth workers continue the conversation in the weeks following movie screenings, as well as a place to download a 40-day follow-up devotional guide to mp3 players.

Eubanks also has set up a separate website www.differentkindsofdirt.com, from a phrase in the movie, to present the plan of salvation and a means to contact people to help with that decision.

The veteran youth ministers said the PG-13 movie is not just for teenagers, however.

“This is as much for parents and even grandparents as it is for students,” Eubanks said. “It’s an exposé on the culture that we as the body of Christ need to be thinking about.”

While the film features some instances of teen drinking and drug use and an implied sexual situation, “it’s done in a very tasteful way,” Eubanks said.

“These are some things that are really out there, and unless we want to put our heads in the sand, we need to know what’s going on. I think we need to be students of the culture.”

Viewing the movie as a family could make a great conversation starter, he continued.

“As far as getting the family talking, it’s phenomenal—a wonderful opportunity to teach. I hope they don’t miss this, because there’s not too many things out there like this that allow them to discuss stuff,” Eubanks counseled.

The movie doesn’t, however, overtly present the gospel. The plan is for the church to handle that part of the equation.

“But it does tee up the gospel high enough to hit it with a 40-mile-an-hour back wind,” Eubanks said with a laugh.

And he thinks Christians who see the film will be motivated to do just that.

He told about an eighth grade girl from his youth group who saw it previewed.

“She just said, ‘We’ve got to step it up.’ It moved her, it motivated her to compassion, which as far as I’m concerned, that is the basic thing of Christ that he puts in us. A need to do something about now, a love for people and ‘I can’t go on unless I do something about this.’ So, it’s a real call to movement for the church,” Eubanks said.

Burleson sold out more than a dozen screens the first weekend, when the movie opened in 400 theaters nationwide.

The last weekend in January, it enjoyed wider distribution. Check the movie’s website for theater locations and showtimes.