Film Festival, Thursday Evening – Stephen Kendrick and music: 4 Proches, Jarrell Flowers

To wrap up the inaugural day of the Christian Worldview Film Festival, the 4 Proches serenaded the audience with some rousing gospel songs, followed by local rapper Jarrell Flowers and company with a mixed selection of rap, hip hop, and praise songs. Jarrell talked about his newly released EP, ‘Somewhere Between Dreams and Reality’, and expounded, “Sometimes we get stuck between what God has given us and the reality of where we really are.”

The highlight of the evening was Award-winning Christian filmmaker Stephen Kendrick who shared behind the scenes stories from their blockbuster movie War Room as well as strategies to pray effectively. Kendrick exhorted believers to make prayer a priority encouraging them to pray offensively, defensively, and persistently. He related that we have a big God who wants us to be intimate with Him so why not ask Him for everything. “Delay is not always denial.”

Kendrick used the prophet Elijah praying for rain as an example. It took seven times pleading with the Lord for rain before He answered affirmatively. He also used examples from the life of George Mueller who prayed for the salvation of a man for 63 years before He answered. In contrast, Kendrick warned about what happens when we fail to pray, “Peter committed the two worst sins of his life” the night he failed to stay up and pray with Christ in the garden of Gethsemane. Kendrick concluded with an encouragement to get right with the Lord and with others so that our hearts are right, relationally, to enter into His presence.