Why I do not recommend Kendrick Brothers’ movies (The Forge opened this weekend)

By Elizabeth Prata

This weekend, a new Kendrick Brothers movie opened. Authors and directors of previous Christian films such as War Room, Courageous, Facing the Giants, and Fireproof, The Forge opened in 1,800 theaters nationwide.

Facts from Deadline: “Meanwhile, Sony Affirm’s faith-based The Forge received five stars from its moviegoers and an 88% definite recommend, all of whom spent $600K Thursday night off showtimes that began at 2 p.m.“

For Christians seeking family friendly faith based movies, the Kendrick Brothers movies from Sherwood Pictures have been the go-to series for many. Originally from Athens GA, the Kendrick Brothers are Shannon, Alex and Stephen. The latter two attended college, were ordained as ministers. Alex accepted a call to Roswell Baptist Church as staff, then later to Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany GA as associate minister of media. Stephen joined him there two years later. Shannon completed college and accepted a job at IBM.

It has been a lifelong dream of Alex and Stephen to make full-length Christian movies, and at Sherwood Baptist that dream came to fruition in 2003 with the independent production of their first film collaboration, Flywheel. After that came Facing The Giants, a huge hit in 2006, Fireproof in 2008, a bigger hit which starred their first bona fide professional actor Kirk Cameron, and then Courageous in 2011, yet another hit with secular validations of climbing the NY Times Bestseller lists and gate take to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. And so on.

After War Room, the brothers split from Sherwood Pictures/Sherwood Baptist as their base for production and formed their own company, Kendrick Brothers Productions. Shannon, the eldest brother who had been working at IBM all this time, resigned to help his siblings with the management of their new company. Along the way much merchandise has been sold under the auspices of each film, notably the Love Dare and the LoveDareTest among LOTS of other merchandise from Fireproof, and the Courageous Resolution from Courageous, among LOTS of other merchandise from the aforementioned film. (2 Peter 2:3). More on that below.

Many folks are pleased that faith-based movies are being made which they say honor Christ, and are even more pleased that much merchandise is available to re-stock the movie company coffers so that these movies can keep being made. Churches hype the films and in their church sanctuaries host previews, events, marital retreats, Courageous ceremonies, and ‘Bible’ lessons accompanied by all the paraphernalia and curricula associated with the movies. Marriages are being saved. Fathers are returning to biblical duty. It’s all good.

Isn’t it?

I’d like to offer a different view.

My first introduction to the Kendrick Brothers was as a newbie Christian, bystander of the waves of hype when Facing the Giants was released. The Baptist church I’d been attending at the time heavily promoted the film and everyone was encouraged to attend. No doubt, the movie was a tearjerker, a feel good movie that seemed right with Jesus- on the surface. I was discomfited by the thread throughout that when one submits totally to God is when things begin to work in your earthly life and all your temporal wishes will come true, like winning football games and getting a new truck. It seemed to me a kind of slick Christianity. But I was new to the faith and more to the point, new to church life, and didn’t know for sure.

Yes, it’s true that when one submits to God, we will be blessed, but the biblical Stephen was ‘blessed’ with a vision of heaven before the last killing stone crushed his head. Paul was ‘blessed’ with a thorn in his side which tormented him God called sufficient grace. Peter was ‘blessed’ with a long career preaching in a persecuting world that ended with martyrdom on a cross. Facing the Giants bought into and promoted every Western Christian cliché imaginable. I would like to have seen the coach get fired even if he had won the championships. Or what would have happened to their faith if they hadn’t won the championships. Or if they never had gotten pregnant. What then? Would THAT kind of faith hold true? But Facing the Giants isn’t that kind of movie.

Then Fireproof came out and I was more discomfited. The hype was louder and tsunami-like this time. There were parts in Fireproof I enjoyed but my discomfort with the doctrine in Fireproof was more coalesced this time.

I was aghast at main character Catherine (the wife’s) adultery and more aghast that it was never addressed. I was stunned that her act of filing for divorce with her signature on the decree was never addressed as unbiblical. She was never shown as repenting.

Worse, it was not clear from the hype, plot synopsis, or posters that Catherine was not a Christian. This is a similar theme in War Room, as Justin Peters discussed in his review linked below. Either one or more partners are not Christian, and their unbalanced partnership is not discussed biblically. OR, one or both characters are Christian but errantly presented as backslidden (AKA living a sinful life without godly sorrow).

From the script: at the very end of Fireproof-

This may be the second time they’ve made a commitment to this marriage… …it is the first time they’ve done so on a foundation of faith in Jesus Christ.

So if one or both parties is not of Christ, then we can see that the theme of the movie is how you act (demonstrate unconditional love, and overlook sin) is what brings a marriage together, not Christ. This secular reviewer hit the nail on the head when he wrote:

What about that message? There was really very little, if any, explanation of why Christianity had anything at all to do with the saving of Caleb and Catherine’s marriage. That’s what made the message so weak. All the actions shown from the “love dare” book were secular in nature, except the day where Caleb was supposed to pray for Catherine, which he admitted he didn’t do… which seems to be showing that, even without the religious parts, the marriage was saved.

An issue in the Kendrick movies is that there tends to be a subtle or even overt thread of Word-Faith doctrine. Justin Peters said of War Room, “The entire film is saturated with Word-Faith/N.A.R. spiritual warfare lingo.” In fact, in 2015, Alex Kendrick was a keynote speaker at Word of Faith false teachers at the Missions and Marketplace Conference. (Source)

Reddit readers said of the movie Overcomer,

“The scene where the school head says to a teenager who’s going through an extremely difficult phase something like ‘have you accepted the ways of Jesus yet?’ And in the very next scene literally all of her problems are solved…”

“Pretty much every conflict in this movie is solved by 2 minute chunks of dialogue.”

It’s tricky to negatively review Fireproof or any Kendrick Brothers movie, because it’s true that Jesus needs to be the center of marriage/prayer/manly growth, etc. In War Room it’s good that prayer is emphasized. In The Forge just out this weekend it’s good that biblical mentoring and manliness in God is emphasized.

The Kendrick Brothers make emotional movies. People respond to their filmmaking and storytelling. It’s great to have that skill. However, there are underlying issues, some of which I’ve noted already, that are masked by the intense emotional response their movies give rise to.

I won’t go into length over this, but the Kendricks in my opinion make merchandise of us. For example, “In 2013, adding to the impact of The Love Dare book, [from Fireproof] the brothers partnered with LifeWay research on LoveDareTest.com, a free online marriage and parenting assessment, and then completed The Love Dare for Parents (released July 2013), a 40-day challenge to help parents win the hearts of their children.“

The Forge will capitalize on Christian’s willingness to be made merchandise, too: (2 Peter 2:1-3 KJV) – “Lifeway has teamed up with the Kendricks and Shirer to provide a suite of new resources to accompany the film and address discipleship, including a book by the Kendrick brothers titled “Devoted to Jesus,” “I Surrender All” by Shirer and “Count Me In,” a book for teens written by Travis Agnew and the Kendricks.” (Source)

“The Kendricks hope to launch a discipleship movement within churches. In conjunction with the movie’s release, [The Forge] small group Bible studies and discipleship-themed books are being released.” (Source)

I do not want a movie to lead me to Jesus. I want the Bible to do so.

A second issue is, as ordained ministers formerly operating under the oversight of their home church, (but no longer) listen to how the brothers decide to move forward with the themes for each of their movies. It isn’t from the Bible. Kendrick claims God tells them.”

We go through the better part of a year, saying, ‘Lord what do you want us to focus on, what do you want the plot be?’ It’s usually near the end of that year. It could be eight months, ten months, or a full year… it’s almost like he downloads something to us. … It wasn’t something where we sat in a room and said ‘What do you want to do?’ We’ve never done that.

For the movie Fireproof, Kendrick says his team heard God give them a theme of marriage. For the movie Courageous, fatherhood. And so on. He speculates that upcoming themes may be military faith, motherhood, or teen issues, but says he won’t really know until God downloads. [emphasis mine]

“We want to present stories that would draw people to a relationship with the Lord and a greater depth of faith with God,” says Kendrick.

That statement is highly ironic since the Brothers use a method ‘of getting closer to God’ that is extrabiblical and highly dubious.

This approach to decision making is at minimum is mystical. At maximum it leads to monstrosities like Sarah Young’s Jesus Calling and most things false teacher Beth Moore. Do pastors sit in a prayer closet for 10 months and ask the Lord what to preach on, and wait until He downloads a theme? But this “Ask the Lord and He will tell you” method is all too common today. Is it wrong to seek the Lord in all you do? No. Is it wrong to consult with one another and say, “Let’s do a movie on the importance of prayer”?

Of course not. Christians have been making decisions this way for millennia. It’s called “making a decision.” However, attributing the theme of your movie to God because He downloaded it to you or personally revealed it does not inspire my confidence, it diminishes it, because now I’m concerned with their discernment. This concern revolves around several fronts. One, the aforementioned Mystical-Method of Hearing From God. Second, their choice of casting.

In this Youtube interview years ago regarding the release of War Room, the Brothers stated,

We pray over every single role
We want Christians playing Christians in these movies, we want to know they believe what they are speaking in these roles
We want no hypocrisy, [we hire Christians who show that] we believe what this movie is about then live it out, outside the credits

Rebuttal:

They pray over the movies but wait to hear directly from God.
They want Christians playing roles in their movies and call Priscilla “… an amazing woman of God,” which we know is not quite true. She sees Jesus as her boyfriend, claims to hear directly from Him, teachers others how to do the same, preaches, and lives a feminist lifestyle. Not so Godly.
It’s good not to want hypocrisy, but when the Brothers quit their church to make movies and found their company, they appeared to also abandon accountability or doctrinal oversight.

Perhaps also the Kendricks’ choice of musicians to provide the soundtrack isn’t the most solid, either. Lecrae has several issues. There’s Hulvey who he says God told him to drop out of college to pursue music. Aaron Cole demanded a sign from God. “I want to know right now” he said. Tasha Cobbs-Leonard “is not only a Grammy award-winning Gospel artist, she’s also a pastor and a prophet! Cobbs-Leonard’s m.o. is to quickly reference a passage of scripture, manipulate its context then, for the next 40 minutes, somehow apply it to the hearers’ breakthrough, purpose, destiny, dreams, goals or whatever else their itching ears desire to hear. Meanwhile, the Lord is an after-thought.”

So much for the Kendricks surrounding themselves with actors and singers who are solid Christians.

Yes, they make clean, emotional movies. What’s the harm, you ‘get off my lawn’ church lady?! Well, consider this final thought: Would you rather spend time in entertainment that’s clean but from a secular background that you KNOW is against God and therefore more strongly guard your mind? Or ease into a ‘Christian’ film with a relaxed mind thinking everything is hunky dory which could allow false notions about God and false doctrine to enter? Satan is subtle. If you have strong discernment and an ability to guard against satan’s subtlety then maybe you feel you can risk it.

But is 2 hours of entertainment worth the risk? Missionary William Carey fell in with some friendly Mystics early in his walk, who offered a closely biblical but just a bit off biblical worldview. It distressed, confused, and troubled Carey for three years till a friend who was more solid helped clarify truth to him.

The emotionalism is strong with this one. Think about it.

Further Reading:

Justin Peters reviews War Room

Introducing Priscilla Shirer and Jesus, her boyfriend

Why I Won’t Recommend of Watch War Room by Sunny Shell