"Machine Gun Preacher" reflections

I watched the movie "Machine Gun Preacher" over the past couple of days.  The movie is by Relativity Media and released in 2011, and is based on the book Another Man's War written by the subject of the film, Sam Childers.  (It's currently available on Netflix to stream if any of you have that service and decide you want to watch this for yourself.)

Sam is a former gang member, and so the movie chronicles his past that includes drugs, alcohol, and
violence--the film contains a lot of swearing in keeping with the character of Sam's life and the environments he frequented.  For these reasons, it's definitely not a movie for younger audiences.

The following video includes some of the movie footage, Sam's personal testimony, and Sam talking about their ministries in East Africa and in the United States.



This movie, if only 1/2 true (knowing that movies of "true stories" often take creative liberties for the effect of entertainment), is full of deep-discussion worthy material.  I encourage people to watch it and talk about all sorts of things, depending on what strikes you--and there's bound to be a lot to just start you talking.  Here's a few:

• this movie portrays what many people coming back from a mission/service experience feel and struggle with when returning to their "normal" lives after encountering poverty or injustice.  Zach Langford once talked with me about this as he was reading Michael Frost's book Exiles, in which he calls this the "liminal state".   This liminal state is that disorienting, in-between time--it's a crossroads moment in which you have to choose what you will do (and, as a result, who you will become) after such experiences.

• the "vision from God" moment, in which Sam Childers "hears" that he is to build a church in Pennsylvania, and an orphanage in South Sudan; and the first setback when Sam Childers' wife (portrayed by Michelle Monaghan) tells him to get back up and rebuild it.

• the self-destructive zeal.  I have a quote in my Bible that I believe I heard from Andy Stanley, "Is the work I'm doing for God destroying the work of God in me?"  It's an important reflective quote for those of us who give our lives serving others because we can be guilty of rationalizing our own poor time-managment, decisions, and lack of family time.  Childers is so consumed with the work he's doing in South Sudan that it could easily have cost him his family--it did cost him a friend, and then he turns and blames God.  Not only is this worth discussing from a "ministry (or service) health" standpoint, but where is the accountability in Childers life?  Who can question him/challenge him as well as encourage and defend him?

• then there's the whole "does the end justify the means" debate, which is where the movie closes.  Childers himself appears in a brief video clip during the credits (at the end of the Golden Globe nominated song, "The Keeper").  This video clip is of the picture/video playing to the side of the movie credits and includes Childers' question "does it matter?" (video timer 3:40 - 4:15).

If you watch and discuss it, I'd love to hear what you think and how you feel -- honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about how Sam Childers pursues this calling.  But I love the grace and vision factors, the sacrifices and God's use of the imperfect; I resonate with the frustration, and I have to pause and consider my own accountability structures, too.  I don't think that this is a great "movie", but it's a great story that can make the stories of our own lives better.