Well, I'm starting to feel a bit silly about the biases I have going into movies. Perhaps I should take a page from my Bible and do better at not judging...at least beforehand. For the reviews I gotta judge, right? Anyway, I was apprehensive about I Can Only Imagine as a Christian movie, and I was even MORE apprehensive about this one. I have not seen the previous two movies in this series, mostly because I heard terrible reviews from fellow pastor friends about bad theology and how it promoted the false narrative of Christianity as a persecuted group in this country.
As this movie started, it seemed like it was mostly going in that direction. The main character, Pastor Dave, was in jail for refusing to turn over transcripts of his sermons, making him be in contempt of court. Absolutely zero context was given for this - why was he asked to turn over his sermons? why did he refuse? (As a pastor, I stand by my sermons and would turn over a transcript to absolutely anyone who asked for one). It was mainly used as a plot device to set up the poor beleaguered pastor being attacked by the soulless godless secular world. So right away my hackles were up, and I was pretty determined I was not going to like this movie.
Things didn't seem to be looking much better as the church was attacked by someone throwing a brick though a window - annoying but fairly benign vandalism. But of course the brick hit some sort of gas gauge which broke, then when one of the pastors went to look and turned on the light the light broke and the spark from the light ignited the gas...long story short the church burned down and one of the pastors died. So Pastor Dave is mourning the loss of his friend, and the university takes this as an opportunity to push the church off campus, he gets his lawyer brother to help him fight back, and the battle ensues.
There are MAJOR SPOILERS ahead! Do not read if you don't want to know how it ends!
For the first two-thirds of the movie, I really didn't like it. I could not find myself siding with the pastor as he fought for his church building to remain (it was my Father's church!) and even attacked the student responsible for the brick throwing when he found out the culprit. He seemed to be a poor example of what it means to be a Christian, even as he was this "warrior" fighting for the rights of the church. If that had remained the narrative, I would have remained disappointed. However, during the last third of the movie it took a surprising turn.
The people around Pastor Dave began to point out where he was being kind of a jerk. The African-American pastor of the church where he was attending called him out on his whiny crap about being attacked, and told him to buck up and respond with love. A young student who was struggling with her faith (and whose boyfriend threw the brick) called the church out on its mistakes - saying one of the reasons young people don't attend church is because too many people know exactly what the church is against, but no one really knows anymore what the church is for. At this point I was ready to shout 'Amen!' The whole time Pastor Dave was fighting for his building to remain on campus, I kept saying in my head (and whispered to Joel once) this is so dumb, the church is not a building, and he of all people should know this!
AND THEN, in the final scene, (yes, this is a major spoiler) he came to that realization and said exactly that! He conceded the land to the university, took the insurance money to start a new church in the name of the deceased pastor, and began to help heal the tensions and hurt on the campus. I mean, wow. I did not expect that. In the end the movie had a lot of great messages about mistakes the church has made, how we need to do better, and how we can be a better witness in this world.
Now, that's the story. As a movie, well, as a movie you can tell it's no Hollywood blockbuster. The acting could be better (though I have a soft spot for John Corbett), the writing could have been better (though it still had heart), and the directing could be better. But for the message it conveys, I'll take it. I would show this movie in my church, and would love to lead a discussion group around it. That's a surprising win in my book.