Don't Forget Monumental Premiers Tomorrow

Cleaner than a Mark Driscoll sermon, just like a Michael Moore documentary (except for the truth part), more powerful than global warming and Al Gore combined, more realistic than Avatar, more historical than Back to the Future, more patriotic than Barack Obama, Monumental is truly Monumental.

Ok, jokes aside, I really believe this is a movie worth supporting. Wherever you stand on the nationalism spectrum, I think we will all benefit by revisiting the fact that God is the hero of history and throughout history God has used fallen men for His glorious purposes. I don't think we should buy into efforts to Christianize every founding father of America, but neither should we bury the fact that many of them were Christians with a biblical worldview who landed in the New World for reasons driven by this worldview. History is His Story and that is reason enough to join me tomorrow on one of my extremely rare cinematic experiences. Some theaters still have tickets available. And hey, when was the last time you saw a movie with this censorship warning:

Very strong Christian, Pro-American and patriotic, moral worldview about the search for the values that made America great; no foul language; no violence; no sex; no nudity; no alcohol; no smoking or drugs; and, nothing else objectionable.

Click here to find a cinema near you.

Click here to buy tickets.

Coming Soon - Monumental: A Search For America's National Treasure

In July of 2010 I had the privilege of driving Kirk Cameron and his film crew around Holland during the European leg of their filming schedule for Kirk's new movie project called Monumental. Amidst the many goals that Kirk had in making this movie, it was readily apparent that telling the truth about history and having that impact upon how we live our lives today, lay at the epicenter of this project. I am looking forward to the release of this movie, not only to see if designated drivers in foreign countries are included in the credits, but also because Kirk's journey parallels mine in many ways.

Ray Comfort once said that "the only thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history!" And when I grew up I had zero interest in history. I didn’t care one bit – and my father was a history teacher! But years after God saved me I really discovered and embraced the doctrine of God’s Sovereignty. And that is when I began to see that history is His story. God has been at work all through history working all things together for His glory and when we start to see God’s Sovereign hand at work history becomes exciting. And a failure to learn history becomes deadly.

The book of Judges is one of the saddest darkest books in the Bible. I can remember the first time I read Judges and it was very distressing for me because some of the stories are so evil it is shocking. I also read Judges the way I approach any story (actually I wasn’t a reader so I should say movie) and I always understood stories as something that has a good guy and a bad guy – and here I was reading Judges as a new Christian trying to figure out who exactly are the good guys in this book? But the key to understanding the book of Judges is that there aren’t really any good guys. The phrase that appears over and over again in Judges is the same as the verse that closes the whole book:

In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (Judges 21:25)

But what does the book of Judges have to do with not learning history? Go back to chapter 2 verse 7 and we will see exactly where things went wrong:

And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the LORD had done for Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110 years. And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel. (Judges 2:7-10)

The people of Israel did not know what happened in their past. They knew nothing of God’s mighty works in saving Israel out of Egypt. They did not teach history, they did not learn His Story. We need to be a people and a church that knows our history, especially in response to the aggressive historical revisionism going on right now determined to secularize and sanitize a history rich with Divine Providence.

One of the most tragic modern examples of this is due to the concerted attempts of American secularists to bury all facets of the role Christianity played in the founding and prosperity of the USA, along with a gross perversion of the original meaning and intent of "separation of church and state". This is not an attempt to make some outlandish claim that everyone involved in America's heritage was a born again Christian. But neither should we deny that a lot of the pioneers and founders were Christians whose theological convictions played a major role in the establishment of the "New World".



So here's the trailer . . .



Find out details on when to see it, where to see it, and how to get your tickets by clicking here.

Way Of The Master Profiles - Duane the Producer

DUANE BARNHART

If you've ever wondered who makes Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron look so good on their TV series The Way of the Master with it's great production and direction quality then look no further than the man in the cap. I first met Duane Barnhart in September 2007 when Way of the Master (WOTM) were filming their fourth season in Amsterdam. This guy was the producer and director and he really knew what he was doing - at least he sounded like he did.

While filming in Amsterdam Ray Comfort (who is generous to a fault) offered to buy coffee for everyone at a coffee shop. As people placed their orders with Ray, Duane, realising he was in Amsterdam, decided to make the most of Ray's generosity and request a "joint". From that point on I knew Duane Barnhart wasn't your regular producer of reputable Christian TV. At that point I went over to Duane and told him that with a sense of humor that black he could be considered for Australian citizenship. It was then that Duane informed me that his wife is Australian and that explained everything.

As filming went on through the day it was obvious that Duane did a great job squeezing every ounce of potential from the surrounding locations and their extremely tight schedule.

As a regular listener of Way of the Master Radio I was well aware of Trish the phone fisher and her passion for good chocolate. So I brought a mother load of the finest Danish chocolate all the way to Amsterdam to bless her and the rest of the team. She gratefully accepted my gift and took it with her on the train as they all left Amsterdam. As Trish and the team slept on the train a "chocaholic lynch mob" rose in the black of night led by Duane, EZ, and Ray Comfort. It was a binge session not seen since Elvis in his "white jump suit" days. Sadly, as Trish sifted through the wreckage the next morning, no "survivors" were found. Now, one year later, I am glad to say that Duane and Trish are back on speaking terms.

Fast forward to January 2008 and my family were visiting California. One sunday I went to a large church of more than 3000 people. Little did I know that it was Duane's home church. Duane actually spotted and recognised me out of the 3000 people there and grabbed me at the door after the service. He and his family then took us all out for my favorite kind of lunch - the free kind.

Spending time with Duane that day it was obvious to see that he is an excellent husband and father dedicated to raising his family in the fear and admonition of the Lord (even though he still had issues with chocolate). I learnt that he is a man of the Word and that the Gospel is the driving force behind all his labor including his work in the media.

One thing that makes WOTM really stand out as a Christian ministry is that everyone I've met who is a part of the ministry is an active and fervent witness for Jesus Christ. Duane is no exception to this and practices evangelism behind the camera, in front of the camera, and off the camera.

I was later invited to be an extra on an upcoming shoot for WOTM season 3. It was an amazing day that I'll never forget. I really got to see a lot of the work that goes into making such a powerful TV show and the enormous skill required to produce and direct such a product. It was an amazing day and everything ran like clockwork . . . well almost . . . I did get run over by a tank in a battle scene (and I was under the false idea that Australia and the US are allies). Those scenes can be watched in the third season episode of WOTM called "Battle For the Lost" (still no sign of my royalty check). It was a surreal experience as all the cast, extras, and crew spent their time between takes either witnessing or discussing theology.

WOTM, the TV series, has won a host of awards including the National Religious Broadcasters' People’s Choice 2004, 2005, 2006, and Best Program, 2005 and 2006. The third season episode "Battle for the Lost" has already scooped the Silver Telly award.

If you are looking for quality media production and capitalising on Duane's award winning work then check out his production company www.pyropictures.com.

Here is a promo for the third season of WOTM TV series which reveals great Christian television with top class production values (you'll need HD to see it in it's full glory)


Continued Wednesday where EZ will be profiled!

Other Way Of The Master Profiles Can Be Read By Clicking On The Links Below:
Brainiac
Duane The Producer
EZ
Hip Hop
Kirk Cameron
Lawman
Mark Spence
Ray Comfort
Scotty
Todd Friel
Trish The Phone Fisher