New Film Challenges the Church | ‘Is the Gospel Enough?’ from Christian News Journal
Actor Thor Ramsey wrote the script for the new comedy film “Church People.” He plays Guy Sides who works to dissuade his humorous church leadership from a potentially blasphemous Easter publicity stunt, all while grappling with life’s biggest question: “Is the Gospel enough?”
How did it all start?
A friend of Ramsey shared one Easter season:
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“‘You’re not gonna believe what this church is doing on Good Friday. We’re having an actual crucifixion.’”
Ramsey nodded in disbelief.
“No way. And so we looked it up. And it was false. He misinterpreted the advertisement, they were only having a Passion Play. But what struck me is that the craziness so to speak of, and it was really the gimmicks, the gimmicks that churches would go have gotten so extreme,” said Ramsey.
Christian author David F. Wells wrote The Courage to Be Protestant: Truth-lovers, Marketers, and Emergents in the Postmodern World —published in 2008. Wells talked about evangelicalism in our contemporary Western context through the lens of five central themes—truth, God, self, Christ, and the church. If you attract people with big eyes, with these big gimmicks, then you just to keep them by doing bigger gimmicks.
“Is the Gospel Enough?” | When Marketing Is the Focus
Guy Sides (Ramsey’s) character in the film has written books, they’ve become bestsellers, and so it all conferences around the country. He becomes disillusioned with what we call “the marketing machine” — the many whistles and bells and how it all obscures the Gospel.
Sides basically planted the church with Pastor Skip, played by Michael Monks, (known for “End of Watch” in 2012). The church has grown to become a megachurch. “And they’re both nationally known pastors, bestselling authors, that type of thing. But they’ve just taken different views,” Ramsey pointed out.
