An Excellent Easter Morning Film

Film is indisputably the most powerful storytelling medium of the present age, and yet its full potential for Christian educational contexts has remained largely unexplored.  There’s been no shortage of Christian movies, of course, and no shortage of Christian videos of various talking heads, from James Dobson telling us how to parent to Francis Chan telling us how to return to a more basic faith.  But short films, narrative films, that can serve as centerpieces of sermons, classes, Bible studies and even family devotionals have been strangely lacking.

Into the gap steps Rhemedia, and it’s been a great pleasure to get to know the folks behind Rhemedia and even get involved to some extent.  I hope you’ll take the time to get to know them.  The production value is top notch.  And I’ve seen in my own (quite large) church how transformative the films can be, used well.  Rhemedia has done very little to tell the world about itself; mostly they’ve been building their library of content.  But their most complete product to date has been a five-part series called Living Generously, and LG is winning rave reviews and fundamentally changing the churches that feature it.

For the month of March, Rhemedia is giving away the following film, called “Bullseye,” for free.  When our pastor used this last year, he called it “The Easter Door.”  You could take this in any number of directions in a sermon or class or study.

There are little things I might have done differently, but overall it’s a gripping, interesting, creative new parable for the gospel.  Christ used simple stories to tell us about the kingdom.  We can do so too, with the most powerful storytelling medium of our time.  I’m a big supporter of Rhemedia and even persuaded them to set up some space at Patheos to raise their profile and tell their story.

If you like the film, check out the website or follow the Facebook page.  At the site, you can peruse other films, but only Bullseye is free for download in the weeks leading up to Easter.  So feel free to use it for a family devotional, or for your small group — or, if you’re a pastor or teacher, consider whether it might help you communicate what you want to communicate in a more memorable, impacting way.