The Next Sherwood Movie

From their first movie, Sherwood Pictures has been focused on more than entertaining moviegoers. Theirs is a true ministry endeavor. And each step along the way, they have seen the audiences grow and the impact enlarged.

After much prayer, creative brainstorming, more prayer, wise counsel, and still more prayer, Sherwood Pictures is ready to move ahead with their fourth motion picture.

This website was created to promote and build excitement for this next movie. The content is from this site's 2009 archived pages and a press release from the Baptist Press website. If you are interested in learning more about Sherwood Pictures and its current pictures go to their newer 2011 built website: http://sherwoodpictures.com/.

I have to admit Alex Kendrick, an associate pastor at the Sherwood Baptist Church from 1999-2011 did a great job of building up excitement for their films.

SPOILER ALERT: The fourth feature film by Sherwood Pictures, named Courageous, was distributed by TriSta It was released in theaters in September 2011. The film went on to win the Best Feature Film and the Jubilee Award at the 2012 San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival, as well as the Epiphany Prize at the 2012 Movieguide Awards. Courageous was also the first winner of the K-Love Movie Impact Award (presented in 2013) and winner of the first Dove Award for Movie of the Year (also presented in 2013). Pretty impressive.

It was a very memorably night the evening I saw Courageous in NYC. The movie was everything you would expect from the awards it eventually won. However, it wasn't the movie per se that made that evening so memorable. Instead it was when we returned home to our garden duplex apartment into find four inches of water on the floors. Apparently a water main had broken earlier in the evening and gravity literally brought the water to our lovely home. We were especially concerned for our valuable carpets and oriental rugs, which were dirty and soaked. While I scrambled to find a NYC company the specialized in this kind of clean up, my wife was grabbing everything that she could quickly salvage and move up to our second floor, including our carpets and mats. Luckily when I called a company claiming to specialize in local oriental carpet cleaning in NYC, someone answered. They sent a team over that evening and according to the insurance agent their immediate response helped minimize the damage and reduce the cost of restoration and cleaning. They are our heroes! We have watched Courageous on DVD several times since then. You can even rent it from Netflix if you are interested.
Now to return to the website's 2009 message to visitors.

On November 15, 2009 we will find out the movie’s title and its story line. Until then, let's see if their first three films have any clues about ... The Next Sherwood Movie!

 

Is it Courageous?

 

What IS it?  Does ANYBODY know?

 

A Hint

From their first movie, Sherwood Pictures has been focused on more than entertaining moviegoers. Theirs is a true ministry endeavor. And each step along the way, they have seen the audiences grow and the impact enlarged.

After much prayer, creative brainstorming, more prayer, wise counsel, and still more prayer, Sherwood Pictures is ready to move ahead with their fourth motion picture.

On November 15, 2009 we will find out the movie's title and its story line. Until then, let's see if their first three films have any clues about ... The Next Sherwood Movie!

While we hope you enjoy this light-hearted endeavor, we sincerely hope you will join with us in praying for the impact of The Next Sherwood Movie. Thanks!

Call it mission media . . . or entertainment with purpose. Sherwood Pictures calls it "reaching the world from Albany, Georgia." As the movie-production arm of Sherwood Church, Sherwood Pictures harnesses the power of story to take the greatest story to people where they are.

Sherwood's first film, Flywheel (2003), took faith to business. Its second film, Facing the Giants (2006), inspired audiences with courage and hope. Its most-recent film, FIREPROOF (2008), shows what can happen when God redeems a marriage.

In each of their motion pictures, utilizing masterful storytelling and increasingly strong production quality, Sherwood Pictures is setting the standard for faith-based films.
To further distinguish Sherwood Pictures from typical film studios, as an extension of the Sherwood Church ministry, Sherwood Pictures productions use all-volunteer casts and predominantly volunteer crews. Sunday school classes handle catering.
Sherwood Pictures operates under the leadership of Sherwood Senior Pastor Michael Catt, Executive Pastor Jim McBride, and Associate Pastors Alex Kendrick and Stephen Kendrick.
Renewing Your Faith in Films When it comes to movies, the options are seemingly limitless—you have total access to every kind of movie genre you can think of.
Except these days, it's awfully hard to find movies like those that helped make Hollywood, well, Hollywood.
You know, movies where real life is conveyed in a meaningful story.

  • Movies about ordinary people who want to make a difference.
  • Movies where inspiration, celebration, humor, and tears intermingle.
  • Movies that renew your passion ... and your purpose.
  • Stories of hope, love, and faith that touch the hearts and lives of everyday people in extraordinary ways.

Movies can make a difference. They can be something the entire family enjoys together. They can be stories you recommend to your friends and neighbors. They can literally leave you cheering.

Movies can be so much more …

These are the kind of movies that Provident Films is committed to bringing you through our theatrical and direct-to-DVD releases. Provident Films helps create movies for a committed fan base that desires heartfelt family fare.
As part of Nashville-based Provident Music Group, Provident Films utilizes more than three decades of experience in bringing high-impact entertainment to faith-based audiences. The Provident Films team has experience working on some of the most popular faith-based films, including FIREPROOF, the leading independent film of 2008, and Facing the Giants, the surprise theatrical hit of 2006.

 

Viewer's Note: I would really like to see more movies that treat the subject matter as perfectly as this film. But you guys should do a better job of promoting this masterpiece. When I searched online for it I could not find it. That search result should have been #1 in Google! Use search engine optimization so your site can be found when people search for you. You can get experts, like TNG/Earthling to help you figure this out, but I know you'll get your message out to a lot more people if you do. Anyway don't want to dwell on criticism. Amazing cinematic work that will live longer than us. : Willis Jones II

 

+++

UPDATE 

Baptist Press Press Release

Next Sherwood film to spotlight fatherhood

by Michael Foust, posted Monday, November 16, 2009

"Courageous," a movie about fatherhood that the church hopes will convict men to rise up and be spiritual leaders of their children and families.

Alex and Stephen Kendrick, associate pastors at Sherwood Baptist Church, said the script -- which the two brothers have not finished -- will focus on the lives of four policemen and their struggle to be better fathers. Not all of them succeed. It will be the fourth movie from the church, which saw its last two films, Facing the Giants (2006) and Fireproof (2008), surprise movie observers and gross $10 million and $33.5 million, respectively, despite relatively small budgets by Hollywood's standards. Fireproof was the top grossing independent film last year. The church gets only a small slice of the revenue and puts it toward various ministries.

The target date for filming Courageous is spring 2010, with release likely in early 2011. A budget has not been set, although it probably will be more than it was for Fireproof, which cost $500,000 to make.

The movie is being filmed at a time when 36 percent of all children live without their biological fathers and 40 percent of all births take place outside of marriage.

The announcement -- attended by a large contingent of Christian and secular media-- would have gone largely unnoticed if not for the success of its recent films, particularly Fireproof, which spawned a New York Times best-selling book, "The Love Dare" and also launched a marriage movement. The church, affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, is praying that Courageous sparks a fatherhood movement.

"The media often portrays fathers as weak, selfish, often immoral," Alex Kendrick told church members. "But we know the healthier home is when a father is engaged and involved with a purpose.... It is our desire that when men walk out of the theater, they will ask themselves what kind of man they are and -- if they are a father -- what kind of father they are."

He added to a standing ovation, "Is this [movie] likely to be controversial? You bet. But are we going to back down from what the Lord has told us to do? No way."

The controversy, Alex Kendrick told Baptist Press, cannot be avoided in a movie that tells men they should be the spiritual leaders of their families.

"We want to say, 'Fathers, it is your job to nurture and to lead your children in the admonition of the Lord. The steering wheel of your family is supposed to be in your hands, not your wife's, not anybody else's. This is your job.' Your job is to serve and protect and to teach about the Lord."

The movie has already impacted Stephen Kendrick's marriage. He said in writing the script he became convicted so much that he started leading his family in evening discipleship, reading the Bible to his wife and four kids, and leading in discussion. The effect on his children, he said, has been "incredible."

"My heart's desire is if we can call men to spiritual leadership in their homes and to be praying over their kids and their families and to be feeding them the Word ... there's no telling what God will do," Stephen Kendrick told BP.

The movie will spotlight one of the officers and how he is led to be a better father following a tragic event in his family. At one point the policeman tells his friends, "I do not want to be a good enough dad. I want to be a good dad honorable to God." He searches the Bible and writes out a "code" for what kind of father he wants to be, and he asks his three police buddies to hold him accountable. All of them are inspired by watching the change in his life, but not all of them end up being godly fathers.

Courageous, the Kendricks said, gets much of its inspiration from the Old Testament prophet Joshua and his declaration in Joshua 24:15,  "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." The movie gets its title from God's urging of Joshua to be "strong and courageous."

The movie's theme and title were decided after a year of prayer by the Kendricks, senior pastor Michael Catt and executive pastor Jim McBride. Even before the church shot its first film, Catt said, it was decided that the four must be in agreement over every major decision.

"We don't do any of this with a 3 to 1 vote," Catt said. "We have to be in harmony and unity because we believe that God blesses unity."

Courageous, Alex Kendrick said, is not a "Fireproof Part 2."

"Fireproof was centrally focused on marriage. This one is not," he said. "It will have aspects of marriage but this one is centrally focused on men living with integrity -- especially in light of their role as fathers. We're going after the hearts of men with this movie and calling them to take God at his Word."

The film's script, McBride said, "will dictate the budget," which they hope to know in about two months.

 

TheNextSherwoodMovie.com