Advance – Fall 2015

There is a group of Christian ministries that have been pulled together by Steve Douglas, the President of Cru (formerly Campus Crusade) to look differently at evangelism and how to fulfill the great commission.  This group is called GEN, Global Evangelism Network, and is focused on collaboration and real impact not logos or egos.  Need Him Global is grateful to be a part of this group.  We recently all gathered in Orlando and some fascinating work and objectives were shared.  One of those involves using entertainment to share the Gospel.

Jon Erwin and his brother Andrew are a directing team that focus on developing and producing unique stories of redemption, faith, and triumph of the human spirit. They have directed October Baby and Mom’s Night Out. Their goal is to create truly big movies with a Gospel message. They took the ultimate leap of faith by walking away from Sony Studios and raising the money for their next film privately.  Their goal was to go from the typical Christian movie production budget of less than $4 million to a $20 million production budget in order to create a truly big movie experience.

They have done this and their next film is called Woodlawn (www.woodlawnmovie.com).  A true story about how Jesus changed a young man, an entire football team, and eventually a city. You may be asking how Need Him Global fits into this story.  Without all the red tape and political correctness of a major Hollywood studio, the Erwin brothers have made a big film with a very direct and overt message about Jesus.  They know that when the numbers come in and this starts looking a like a blockbuster that many non-believers will attend the movie. They also know those people need a safe place to go with questions about following Jesus. So this movie will include a closing message directing people to Need Him Global.  It will simply invite anyone with questions that wants to talk to someone about what it means to follow Jesus Christ to go to our www.chataboutjesus.com site.

I don’t see many big Hollywood movies that put Jesus before all else. I don’t know any other directors that forgo putting their own names first at the end of their film.

I encourage you to go see Woodlawn when it opens on October 16th. I have seen it and you will not be disappointed.  I also seek your prayers for the success of this movie. Not so it wins awards or makes lots of money but rather so it shares the only true message of hope with as many as possible.  This is truly an epic movie about evangelism with the Gospel as the star.  May it encourage you to share your faith.

Pete Miller
President & CEO