This weekend marked the opening of the highly anticipated War Room movie. As you might expect from anything so public with such a solid Christian message, the movie has had a bit of a polarizing effect in early reviews. The movie's Facebook page has over half a million likes, with many rave reviews about not only the message of the movie, but also the entertainment value. Reviews from outside the faith are not so positive, ranging from pure anti-Christian rhetoric to doubts about the effectiveness of prayer and the reality of spiritual warfare.
The audience for the movie is definitely Christians, which means that if you take a seeker friend, the message likely will not resonate with them (although it might offer a challenge). This movie is more about Christians relying on God in prayer than it is about trying to convince people that Jesus is the Son of God. The movie assumes a basic Christian belief system, if not necessarily an active faith. In fact, one of its most powerful messages is the need for Christians to act out of faith more - starting with prayer. Nominal Christians and believers who tend to operate out of their own strength rather than leaning on God will find plenty of challenge in this movie, in a format that they might be more open to hearing than a sermon.
This movie stands apart from most Christian movies in its pervasive message about prayer. Because everyone's experience with prayer is a little different, there are likely to be aspects of the message that ring true and aspects of the message that don't resonate with any individual believer. But the overall message - that God responds to prayer and that we need to depend on him more - is one we can all applaud.
War Room goes beyond just the movie. Several resources, including Bible studies, books, and more, have been created to help drive the message of the movie deeper and assist believers in growing their prayer lives. These can be found on the Resources page of the movie's website, http://www.warroommovie.com/.
Many of us at PrayNetwork are praying and have been praying (some for many years) for a revival in our country and for an increasing dependence on God through prayer in our churches. War Room may indeed turn out to be a tool that God uses toward those ends. As the movie would suggest, Let's Pray!
PrayNetwork.org Spotlight by Andrew Wheeler.
See Andrew's website at www.togetherinprayer.net
