Fireproof and Erin Bethea at Southeast

After the church showed the movie on Friday evening, Dave did a nice job on Sunday-- both in his 14-minute interview of Erin Bethea (co-star of Fireproof) and in the opening sermon of a four-part series.

Fireproof is a (surprisingly) well-done movie. On IMDB, I'm laughing/crying since people rate Fireproof at a lower level than Facing the Giants. There is no objective reason for this; it indicates an obsession (or comfort) with sports in Giants and/or an allergy to the message about marriage in Fireproof.

A few cool things from Sunday:

-The producers of Facing the Giants had originally hoped to have the movie shown in one theater in Atlanta. Instead, the Lord used it to be seen in 450 theaters. It has since been released in 56 countries and in 13 languages.

-One of the mission statements of Sherwood Baptist-- which has produced three movies: Flywheel (has anyone seen this?), Facing the Giants, and Fireproof-- "We can change the world from Albany, GA". And they have!

-Erin repeated a point that had meant a lot to her-- that people should "lead their hearts" instead of "following their hearts".

-Dave made a reference to "pulling a Pilate" in washing one's hands of responsibility within a marriage. Perhaps it's my head for puns or my Baptist background (always looking for 3 or 4 things that begin with the same letter), but immediately, three other points popped in my head: Two other mistakes one can make in marriage: putting things on auto-pilot or piloting the marriage (as in controlling it). The Christian understanding of marriage would involve God in the pilot's seat with the husband and wife in some sort of co-pilot arrangement.

-A very funny joke, starting at 27:06. See if you can anticipate the punchline!