Anything Worth Saying

In the words of Aaron Shust...

Give me words to speak

Don't let my spirit sleep

Cause I can't think of anything worth saying

So is the lament of the lonely blogger. I'm sure Mr. Shust was thinking of bloggers when he penned the lyrics to Give Me Words to Speak.

Give me words to speak

My blog is feeling weak

Cause no one really cares what I've been saying

That's gotta be the long lost chorus that didn't make it into the public EP release of Whispered and Shouted -- a great easy-listening Christian CD, by the way.

Moms' Night Out, my favorite faith-based film of 2014, opens with our hero, Allyson, typing, "I am a mommy blogger… I have 3 followers. Yesterday I had 4, so that's awesome."

Wow, can I relate. Although, according to my tracking software, last week's post reached a few more eyes than normal. Which is a good thing.

Except…

I'm not sure my words were received as intended.

I'm supposed to be sharing in this post some wonderful nuggets of wisdom from the superbly talented screenwriter of Moms' Night Out, Andrea Nasfell.

But…

I wanted to clear up any misconceptions that may have surfaced from my post imploring Christian filmmakers to take risks and raise their standards.

First, I didn't mean to imply that all Christian movies released in the time period between What If… and Moms' Night Out were bad movies. On the contrary, Christian cinema is progressing in the right direction, both aesthetically and message-wise. Yes, there have been Christian movies that fall into one or more categories of too preachy, meandering story, inconsistent acting -- but a similar percentage (probably a higher percentage, actually) of mainstream movies fall into the exact same categories.

I've produced two feature films that definitely fall into more than one of those categories!

It's not my intention to tear down any films or filmmakers, which is why I didn't reference specific titles. Still, specific mentions or not, speculative deduction can bring a number of titles to readers' minds. If that's the case, there's a good chance the reader feels the same way about certain movies. I can live with that.

But… as a filmmaker myself, I know how personal these projects can be and to hear negative comments, directly or indirectly, can spur emotions that debilitate and invoke fear of future failure. I know from experience! And I hate those feelings!

Or they spur anger over the idiot typing them.

Either way, the last thing I want to do is tear down Christian filmmakers. I'm trying to encourage, but I suspect that sentiment may not have been completely evident.

I'm not taking back my plea to make better movies, but I'm not implying that the majority of Christian movies in the market today are bad. I've seen probably 40-50 Christian movies in the last five years and I didn't hate a single one of them. Every one had redeeming qualities that I could appreciate, if not for my own personal growth, for the potential growth they could encourage in other audience members.

And that is the key. If a movie has the power to speak to somebody, anybody, in a way that can improve his or her life, that movie is a worthy tool in God's belt.

I have so much to say on this topic, but I don't know if any of it is worth saying, so I'll just Shust my mouth for now.