Monday night, Michael Catt, Senior Pastor of Sherwood Baptist Church and Executive Producer of Sherwood Pictures, spoke briefly after dinner to all of this week’s guests about the development of their newest film, Courageous. One thing became clearer and clearer to me the longer Pastor Catt spoke: he leads a very spiritual, prayerful, and passionate group.

He said that after the huge success of Fireproof, the production team took some time to let things settle, and later got together and prayed about whether or not another film was in store for Sherwood Baptist Church. I was surprised. Considering Fireproof was 2008’s number one independent film, I wondered why they wouldn’t see that success as an indication that they should immediately produce another film. Why not strike while the iron's hot? But Pastor Catt told us that he and the other leaders of his church did not want to assume anything about God’s will for their ministry.

After prayer and discernment, Pastor Catt’s team determined that fatherhood was God’s call for their next film.

Not to try and control how the film will succeed, Pastor Catt and the other producers reflected upon how Fireproof took off. Although Sherwood Pictures worked extremely hard on disseminating the film amongst a wide Christian audience, Pastor Catt emphasized that the remarkable success they have seen is solely the work of God and not themselves. “There comes a point when you realize it’s not your lunch anymore,” said Pastor Catt. He is impressed with where a $20,000 film, Flywheel, took his church and its various ministries. Since that low-budget film Sherwood has built a 82-acre sports park, released Facing the Giants and Fireproof, and planted two churches in Baltimore, Md., and San Francisco, Calif.

“Movies are a part of what we do here,” said Pastor Catt emphasizing that The Great Commission is the central purpose of his church. “We don’t want to travel throughout the world and the people in Albany not know who we are.” For this reason Sherwood Baptist Church has delivered extensive outreach to Albany, Ga., and has worked tirelessly to provide opportunities for the entire community, especially for the youth. “Whoever wants the next generation the most will get them,” Pastor Catt said. He explained that the devil is fighting for the next generation and it is the job of the entire church to make sure we fight harder—and win.

Pastor Catt clearly understands the central role prayer and discipleship building must play in an effort like this. If Sherwood Baptist Church continues to work on building up their local community and the Church at large with these tools, then they will likely serve as a guiding example for an entire movement of Christian leaders and fathers as well.