Director's Blog

 I have been hesitant to write this post, but through the urgings of my wife and a few close friends (who are usually right about such things) I am going forward with this.  I am not a man who jumps on every word I receive, but when something gets three, four, five different, unrelated confirmations, I tend to sit up and take notice.  So here it is.  I submit this to you for your prayer and consideration.

At 4 am on Wednesday morning, February 10, Chicago had an earthquake.  My wife and I were awakened by it, and our whole house shook.  It happened at exactly 4 am, and also happened to be 4 days before the release of Furious Love.  Not only is this a pretty rare occurrence for Chicago, the epicenter of the earthquake just happened to be a mile from my house.

Later that morning, I began to receive emails and phone calls from people I trust, people who have proven themselves to me, over and over, as accurate hearers of the Lord.  They were all telling me the same thing: this was no ordinary earthquake.  This was a prophetic sign from the Lord that a great shaking of His church, of the world, is coming.  

I have a group of people I refer to as my "ring of fire".  These are people to whom I submit myself–they are my spiritual brothers, fathers, and mothers.  They are spread around the world, and are some of the most extraordinary, humble, God-fearing people I have ever met.  They also care about me in a very deep way, and don’t give a rip about how I can advance them or their ministries.  They just want to stand beside me and lift me up in prayer.  I mention them, because they began to contact me as well, and they were all telling me the same thing: that God had been waking them up at 4 am for weeks!  They had never understood why…until now.  

Robbie Dawkins, who is in Furious Love, called me and told me that God woke him up just before 4 am that morning and said, "I want to tell you something."  10 minutes later, his house was shook to its foundation by the earthquake.  The Lord then spoke to him and said, "The earth groans for the sons of God to reveal themselves." 

Now, do I think that the imminent release of a movie caused this earthquake?  I’m not ready to go there yet, but the sheer amount of words I’ve been receiving are certainly giving me pause.  God is getting ready to do something extraordinary, and if this little donkey can be of some assistant to Him, then it is the greatest blessing of my life to play even a small part.  

Later in the day, I received a copy of a prophetic word spoken by Kim Clement back in 2008, when he prophesied that there would be an earthquake in Chicago, and that God would be bringing forth righteous media.  Hmm…

What does all this mean?  I have no idea.  I am a little nonplussed, intimidated, and humbled at the moment.  Part of me wants to just bury my head and let this firestorm pass, while another part of me doesn’t want to miss a thing.  I started this process just wanting to make a really good movie about God’s love.  As I continuously learn, though, God’s plans for us are always bigger than we could ever imagine.  

Please join with me in prayer for God’s love to truly shake the very foundation of unbelief and passivity.  Pray that He use this film, and the tens of thousands who are about to see it, to storm the gates of hell and reclaim that which was lost.  Pray for the revolution of love to begin.

 We premiered Furious Love at Bethel Church, in Redding, California last night.  2500 people (1500 at the church, another 1000 online) were the first to see the fruit of our 2 year labors.  I’ve never had a more special night in my life. 

Last night my sister had a vision after the film.  She said she saw a train breaking through a wall and leaving a station, full speed ahead.  The train was empty, and with the release last night, it was heading out into the world looking for people to get on the train (of God’s love).  

So with the pre-premiere having just occurred, I wanted to open up this blog to anyone who has seen the film to share your experience of watching the film.  Tell us what God did to your heart.  How He changed or affected you.  What did you think about His Furious Love?

I’m sitting here, getting ready to head off to California to show Furious Love to thousands of people for the first time in a couple of days, and I guess I’m prone to ponder what is about to happen.  At this point, most pastors who are showing the film to their churches have already seen the finished film, and I wanted to take a moment to speak to those pastors before the world premiere on the 14th.  If you’ve seen the movie, you know what is in store for your congregation; how many of them will not just see, but truly experience the awe inspiring, powerful love the Father has for them.  As we’ve already seen in our test showings, many people are completely overcome by the experience.  Many are crying for days afterwards.  

This may be so obvious that it doesn’t even need mentioning, but I have felt a tug at my spirit lately, and I feel like the Lord wants me to say something to you.  So I’m just going to be obedient and say it.  Hopefully it means something to you.  

I feel like the Lord is saying that how you, as the leader of your congregation, react to this film, is going to define the focus of your church and your congregation in a mighty way.  I don’t think it’s a mistake that the Lord told us to release this film in churches first, because I think He’s got big plans for his bride.  People ask me what I want this film to accomplish.  It’s simple.  My hope is that the bride begins to put on her makeup for her bridegroom.  That she starts to make herself beautiful to him once again.  And what does the bridegroom find most attractive in his bride?  That she loves the lost.  Loves each other.  Loves him.  With all her heart.  

I have no idea what the focus of your church has been.  I don’t know what you want your church to look like.  I don’t know if you’re supposed to lead your congregation in repentance for lovelessness, or if you’re supposed to pray for every person there.  I don’t have a clue what God wants the leaders of His church to do after this film.  But I do know He doesn’t just want everyone to be dismissed, have a safe drive home.  And I do know that you have been made the leader of your congregation for a reason.  

Mine is simply a word of encouragement.  Ask the Father this week, what do you want me to do?  If there’s one thing I’ve learned from making these crazy movies of mine, it’s that when I need to know something–whether it’s where to go next or what to film next–all I have to do is ask.  

He always answers.  Every time.

 For those of you who are not near any showings of Furious Love on February 14, you can tune into ibethel.tv on Feb. 7 at 6pm Pacific time to catch the world premiere of Furious Love at Bethel Church, in Redding, California.  This event will be free for everyone, but will only be available to watch for 24 hours after the live event itself.  There will also be a offer to pre-order the DVD at a discount during this broadcast (the DVD will be released sometime in May).  

So for those of you who are bummed that it’s not playing anywhere near you, there is hope still!  And since it’s available for 24 hours, you won’t even have to miss the Super Bowl (great scheduling on my part!).

 11 days until the premiere of Furious Love at Bethel Church, in Redding, California.  (Super Bowl Sunday–what was I thinking!?)

18 days until the film is released to the world.

I can hardly wait.

A couple of weeks ago, less than 100 people had seen the film, and most of them were pastors.  Even so, I received reports of at least 3 people having accepted Christ as a result of seeing this movie.  I can’t wait until 250,000 eyeballs have a chance to experience the awesome spectacle of God’s radical love for them.  

It’s a weird experience sometimes for me, because we’ve worked on this film for nearly two years, and I’ve poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into it to, watched as my family sacrificed their time with me so I could complete this thing, and have had my own faith stretched and tested to the point of being completely overwhelmed.  Obviously I have a lot invested in this film and the impending release, but without question the most rewarding aspect is going to be the testimonies and the stories of God’s grace and mercy that will inevitably pour in once people see it.  Don’t be afraid to share those stories with us, or think we don’t care.  Those stories are life giving to us, and in particular to me.  I’ve alway said that I cannot foresee making another film as important as this one (until, I’m sure, the final film in the trilogy begins!), and sitting back now, with the film out of my hands, I can only look forward to God’s spirit moving over His people as they see, many for the first time, what His love for them actually looks like.  

Churches continue to pour in at the last minute, which is great for us, but is stretching our distribution company to the brink.  If you’re still waiting for your materials, bear with us.  They’re pulling 20 hour days at this point trying to keep up with the demand.  

As for the rest of you who are just waiting to see the film, please begin praying for the 14th of February.  Pray for God to begin even now to lay the groundwork for a true revolution of love in His name.  If we are to love others, we must first know that love ourselves.  My hope and prayer is that this film will help every one of you to know, truly and deeply, how much He cares for you.  Making this showed me that, and it has branded me and changed me forever.   

 Well, it’s taken us a while to get our act together, but we’ve finally managed to get the Deluxe edition of Finger of God (5 DVDS) up on Amazon.  So if you prefer buying from there, it’s now available to you.  And all your Prime members get shipping for free!

Enjoy!

 We’re nearly a month away from Furious Love hitting the world with a giant, wet kiss from the God of Heaven, and I am just now realizing that, despite the hype that’s starting to build around the movie’s release, very few people actually know where this movie came from and how it came about.  For those of you who care about such things, let me explain:

The last thing I filmed for my first feature, Finger of God, was the scene where Heidi Baker was trying to pray for the gypsy woman in Istanbul but had to battle with the interpreter the whole time.  On our way back to the hotel, I nearly had a nervous breakdown because I was convinced that, although I had 100 hours of footage from two years of travel, I had nothing of importance to make a movie with.  Heidi decided to have the team we were traveling with pray for my wife and I that night, and in the process, Heidi came over to pray for me herself.  

Now, keep in mind that the last thing on my mind at the moment was any kind of a sequel or follow up, at that moment I was very doubtful I’d even be able to put this first movie together.  I was very certain that no one was going to be interested in it anyway, but again, I was doing this because God asked me to, so, you know, whatever. 

When Heidi began to pray for me, it was pretty normal stuff.  Bless him, show him what to do, etc…  But then, right in the middle of it all, she got…uncomfortable.  Maybe distressed is a better word.  But she was obviously seeing something in the Spirit that disturbed her.  She finally spit it out:

"Darren, I don’t know what this means, but it’s what I’m seeing, so I’m just going to say it.  I see you actually filming the occult.  I see you going into dark places and exposing the darkness.  The Lord says you are to go into the darkness to show the light."  

Did I have any clue at that moment that she had just revealed to me the Father’s desire for my next feature?  I had a suspicion, but it’s not like those words made everything crystal clear.  Plus, that was my second movie.  Right now, I was wholly concerned with my first one!

A few months later, I was in Toronto to film a pick-up interview with John and Carol Arnott.  While in the service that night, during worship, out of nowhere the main idea for this film was…thrown at me.  That’s the best way I can describe it.  It hit me so hard I fell back into my chair.  I grabbed my notebook and scribbled as fast as I could.  I knew it was going to be called Furious Love (I had heard the phrase on the drive up to Toronto from a quote by GK Chesterton in Brennan Manning’s book, The Ragamuffin Gospel).  I knew I was to go to dark places and film.  I knew I was supposed to show the world that there was a spiritual war going on.  But most of all, I knew I had just been given permission to put God’s love to the test.  

For the next two years, I planned, filmed, prayed, and through bits and pieces, the movie came together.  It was crystalized until I actually went into the editing room and put the thing together (a process that was both the most intense experience of my life, the most spiritually grueling two months of my life, and contained the most intimate moments I have ever had with the Father).  

I think it’s important for people to realize, especially people who may be looking to go out and do the kinds of things we’re trying to do at Wanderlust Productions, that for both of our films, the idea did not originate with me.  I simply caught what the Father threw at me.  It’s much easier, I have found, to walk in His favor and blessing when you’re working on direct commission for Him.  I spent my whole life trying to be successful with my own ideas, but it was only when I finally gave up my own ego and just asked Him for an idea, asked Him what He wanted me to do, that my life was completely turned upside down.  

So there you are.  Furious Love was born out of a near nervous breakdown in a restaurant in Istanbul, when a fearless blonde lady from California prayed for a scared little boy and revealed the spark for his destiny.  

In one month, you guys get to see the story God has created.  I can’t wait for you to see what He has up His sleeve…

 Click the link below to access a Google map showing all the current locations around the world that will be showing Furious Love in February.  Please contact the venue director for more information and to reserve your tickets.  This is not the complete list by any means, and more churches are pouring in to sign up every day, so keep checking as we’ll be updating this every 3-4 days until the premiere.  If you don’t see a showing anywhere near you, get on your pastor to sign up!

Click here to see the locations showing Furious Love in February

 In a few days we should be posting a Google map showing where all of the showings of Furious Love will be taking place in February.  And don’t worry, we’ll keep adding to that as churches continue to sign up.

But I also realized that there may be a few people who are wondering where I’ll be when this movie hits churches all over the world.  Well, let me tell you…

First of all, the premiere of Furious Love (meaning the very first time it will be shown publicly) will be taking place at Bethel Church, in Redding, California, on Feb. 7.  I’ll be there and it should be one heck of a party!

As for the 14th, when the rest of the world sits down to watch it, I’ll actually be at two showings, both of which are in the Chicago area.  

The first will be at a really cool theater called the Arcada Theater, in St. Charles, Illinois.  You can check out the event and pre-order your tickets at www.gotlifechurch.com.  My entire crew and I will be at the show before the curtain goes up, and I think we’ll be answering questions and saying hello to everyone.

We’ll then head over to the Paramount Theater, in Aurora, Illinois.  We’ll be there after the film ends, and will probably be doing the Q & A thing as well.  You can order your tickets for that one by calling 630-585-0077.  I’m not sure when the start times are for these, but I’m guessing the Arcada show will start around 6 pm, and the Paramount will start around 8 pm.  

These are two very cool theaters, and we’d like to pack them out if possible.  If you want to see Furious Love on a big screen the way it was designed to be seen, either of these would be a great way to go!

Hopefully I’ll see you there!

Darren

 You would think I wouldn’t be surprised anymore, but as with all things concerning God, I continuously am.  We are in the process of putting the finishing touches on a film that has literally consumed my life for the better part of two years.  I’ll be writing shortly after Christmas when it’s completely done and will, I’m sure, ruminate poetic about the entire process, but for this blog I wanted to talk about just how amazing of a marketer the God of the Universe really is.

Like I said, I shouldn’t be surprised.  I watched him take a weird, controversial video made by a nobody with no money and no real idea what he was doing–who just threw it on Amazon to see what would happen–and turn it into an underground phenomenon, selling over 60,000 copies (and still going strong) and seen by millions of people around the world.  He did all that, mind you, with no help from me.  My job consisted of simply answering my phone every now and then as some connection He made behind my back finally found it’s way to my cell phone.  I watched in amazement how I naively walked up to the TBN booth at a trade show in Vegas and told them I had a movie that they’d never heard of, but it was selling lots of copies without me doing anything, and how they asked for it, showed it to the top brass, and worked an easy, seamless deal to broadcast it globally for the next 3 years (I mention it was easy and seamless simply because I have heard horror stories of just how uneasy the broadcast world can get).  

I didn’t market the movie.  I didn’t publicize it.  But God did.  He thought it up, made it, and ultimately distributed it.  I was the middle man…

And here we are now, two years almost to the day of having released Finger of God, and I have one, final screening of Furious Love before we can finally call it a wrap.  In the meantime, God birthed in me the idea to turn churches into movie theaters.  Instead of trying to get Hollywood to let us (being Christian filmmakers) join their club, then gnawing on the scraps they throw back to us, we’re going to start a new model.  A model based on fairness, as well as sound business principles.  Churches show our films, and they reap the benefit financially as well.  The church gets the same take on the gross profits as my company does.  It’s a simple bartering deal: you show my movie, get more people to watch it than I ever could, and you get rewarded in the process.  I get a much higher return, meaning we can continue to create high quality films that look to show the heart of the Father to the world.  

But we need, of course, to get the word out.  Heartstone Pictures (my church distributor) is doing a wonderful job of working tirelessly to promote this movie.  But I continue to sit back in amazement as God moves in the hearts of men and women to come on board and promote this movie.  We have entire denominations coming on board, over 15 countries and counting, and national groups that contain thousands of individual churches all coming together to tell the churches under them that yes, indeed, this is a film they need to show.  I started out wanting to make a movie about the loving, all consuming heart of the Father, and I think we’ve succeeded in doing that.  It is now becoming more and more apparent that God intends to give an unprecedented number of churches the right to show His heart to His people.  

As of this writing, we are closing in on 20,000 churches who are going to hear, over the next few weeks, their leadership endorse and promote Furious Love to their networks.  That is astonishing.  

It is also a testament to the power of simply trusting in a God who wants so badly to co-labor with us.

Go to www.furiouslovethemovie.com to find out more, see the trailer, and catch a sneak peek of the new film!