This is the next movie from the Kendrick Brothers and it speaks to the importance of finding our identity in Christ.
The leading filmmakers in the Christian genre, Alex Kendrick and Stephen Kendrick are out next month with Overcomer. This is their sixth movie and, as with previous efforts - War Room, Courageous, Fireproof, et cetera - the brothers are doing it all: they wrote the screenplay together, and Alex is the lead actor, the director and one of the editors.
That is a routine that they have down pat, but how do they come up with plots for their films? They turn to the Lord in prayer, which, in this case, led them to the idea of identity. Overcomer tells the fictional tale of a successful high school basketball coach - played by Alex - who struggles with his identity when his best players move away and he is forced to coach cross country, a sport he knows nothing about and does not like.
At the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention last month in Birmingham, AL, Alex explained in an interview why they feel this issue of finding our indentity in Christ is so important right now for the Church.
"I don't need to convince any of you guys that our culture is trying to redefine identity, redefine who gets to tell you who you are and what your identity is based on. And, so, we believe that the Creator gets to define his creation."
Stephen adds that by discovering who God is, "we discover who we are," which, in turn, should be visible in every aspect of our lives as a Christians.
"Our identity ends up impacting our thoughts, our attitudes, our words; it drives our behavior."
That makes finding our identity in Christ a "foundational, core issue", as Stephen asserted, and also provides an anchor for us, particularly when we face difficulties. You can be sure that they will send that message loudly and clearly in Overcomer. And the brothers have a strong cast to help them do so, including Christian actors Priscilla Shirer, Shari Rigby and Cameron Arnett. The film will also feature teenager Aryn Wright-Thompson in her silver screen debut.
Overcomer is set to open nationwide on August 23rd. In the meantime, you can take in the entire interview that the Kendrick Brothers gave at the SBC's annual meeting.