Two Christian Artists

The other night, I was driving the family home from vacation, listening to some tunes, and of course thinking.  It's interesting that out of all the Christian recording artists, two of the ones who took some of the biggest stands, died early.  There's been much written about how God took them/didn't take them/accidents/free-will over God's hand of protection... and that's not what I want to cover.

Keith Green died in a plane crash in 1982.  At the time, he was what I listened to the most.  I was an impressionable 17 year old and this death hit me like what I guess it hit die hard fans of Lennon in 1980.  Keith took a lot of stands-- and in the budding CCM industry, none shook like when he decided his albums would be for whatever a person could afford.  That didn't sit well with the "business" side of things.

Then there's Rich Mullins.  His death came in a vehicle accident in 1997, one in which his Jeep rolled and he was killed when he was ejected.   Rich was another one who did it extremely different.  Rich setup all his earnings (which there had to be much) into a trust, in which he drew a poverty line salary from.  The rest went to charities.  Here was a famous Christian recording star who would give his shoes away at the drop of a hat.  He lived what he sang about.

Actually, that best describes both-- they lived what they sang about.  I've known some Christian Recording stars through the years, and if you haven't watched "The Imposter," it might come as a shock to you, but there are lots of imposters out there singing one thing/living another.

Now, these two aren't to be idolized.  But Paul did write to "imitate me as I imitate Christ."  So for you budding Christian recording stars, I encourage you to imitate Keith and Rich as they imitated Christ.

So were they perfect?  No.  Keith, through a moment of Ego, led his two oldest children to death, and abandoned his wife and two younger children, depriving them of a father and older siblings.  His Ego moment was to show off the ranch to a visiting family in an airplane, and further that Ego, by carrying an air of invincibility over the laws of nature.  (The plane was seriously overweight).

Rich, fortunately didn't leave  or abandon a family.  A seatbelt might have saved his life.  Or maybe not.

1979

1979.  Jimmy Carter is nearing the end of his presidency.  Us teens are wearing bell bottoms and funky color combinations.  As a church-going teen, I'm listening to cassettes and records (never had but a few 8 tracks-- hated songs being broken up in the middle) from Amy Grant, the Imperials, Dallas Holm and Praise to the harder stuff-- DeGarmo and Key, Petra and even a little Rez Band.  A friend at school introduced me to Keith Green's music and he quickly became my fav over the next year.

A quick side note-- Dana Key of DeGarmo and Key passed away a few days ago.  He produced a lot of music at Ardent Studios in Nashville and we were fortunate to use some of that music on "A Promise Kept."

So the Christian Music industry was at the first stages of massive growth.  Within the next few years after 1979, the record sales, as a genre would overtake Jazz/Blues and start being taken seriously in Nashville.  After 79, it wasn't just a fad that would die out.

So Big Record Business (BRB) took note and jumped in.  Large secular labels started buying the small independent Christian labels.  Budgets became bigger, quality improved.  But Business kills the Ministry aspect and today, it is hard to find (not impossible).  But back then, you had Sparrow being run as a ministry first (thank you Billy Ray) and other labels like "Lamb and Lion" and even Keith Green's own label "Pretty Good Records."

Christian Film is in 1979 right now.  Sony has been buying up some of the key Christian film companies on the distribution side of things.  Fox created Fox Faith, but they've struggled as their strategy of playing it safe by mainly making adaptations of Christian best sellers hasn't exactly worked out.  But Hollywood, like Nashville in 1979, is seeing big dollar signs in the church audience.

So for all those who lament the quality of Christian movies-- don't worry, that will begin to change.  But expect safe messages and production in those movies.  Edgy is going to go away (or be mainly ignored because the indie filmmakers who make it will have no money to do it and will not get any help finding an audience).

I believe you'll start to have some Christian Movie Stars emerge, just like Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith did back then.  It might be the actors, and it might be the filmmakers.  Alex Kendrick is one already.  Rebecca St. James is making strides in crossing over from Christian Rock Star to Christian Movie Star. 

But what worked in 1979 was the engine behind these names.  You might have the odd viral hit, coming up from a groundswell.  But for the most part, the stars of the Christian Film industry might look like a naturally occurring phenomenon, but you'd be surprised how calculated it just is.

You see, even right now, there are huge marketing firms, who look like viral web entities, that make their money by getting paid to promote this Christian movie or that Christian movie star or filmmaker.  Doesn't matter if a film is really good and special-- if that film doesn't hand over some bucks, they won't be pushed in a large organizations Facebook status.  Which is all okay-- it's good business strategy.

I guess the troubling thing is the deception-- pretending to be all about Christian films, but more accurately-- all about the Christian films that have paid to be clients. 

Welcome Christian Film, to the eighties of Christian music.

State of the Christian Film Industry

In honor of the upcoming State of the Union, which will preempt someone's favorite tv show (and I don't know which), I want to discuss the Christian Film Industry.

In 1972, I was still coloring with crayons. But my family bought 2nd Chapter of Acts and Barry McGwire's "To The Bride" double album. The seventies were an interesting time for the new Christian Contemporary Music industry. It was conceived in the Jesus Movement of the late Sixties when all those hippies/musician's got saved. Chuck Girard and Love Song (our second album). Keith Green. And so on.

By 1980, it was getting big. Christian album sales surpassed Jazz as a genre. People took notice. Up to this point, there was a lot of passion to make music, but sometimes lacked know-how. Christian music had a reputation of being second fiddle (pun intended) to it's secular big brother. The music, sometimes, was awfully produced, with lyrics that would make some people cringe. And there were some that stood out.

By the 90's, you had dcTalk, Newsboys and others who took the quality up... Emmy's were won. Secular people again, took notice. By the new millennium, Christian music rivaled the quality of secular music for the most part.

This issue of quality always goes back to money. In 1980, a sale of a Christian album was not going to be anywhere near the mark of a secualr album. So record companies knew they would get a nice return by pouring in money to make it better in the secular market. For the Christian sales, you had to keep it pennies to the dollar in hopes of making a living.

So how does all this relate to the Christian Film industry? Christian movies are where Christian rock music was in 1980. The market isn't there... yet. So people who bankroll these expensive endeavors just cannot afford to open their wallets very big. Sure, there are exceptions. Amy Grant in 1980. Sherwood Pictures in 2010. But for everyone else, it is the time for maximum creativity and resourcefulness. Learning how do do something on a nickel, when the others do it on a dollar, stretches the artist. They either create something really cool and unusual, or they just don't get it done and it looks like a nickel. And, unfortunately, the latter is more common.

Yes, there was once a Christian movie industry. In the 1970's and into the 80's, youth groups would order a 16mm print of a Billy Graham Evangelical Association movie or the like, and show it at a lock in. I still remember seeing an awesome movie in 1985 that way. But with the growth of video cassettes, somehow, the Christian movie industry just couldn't get it done. Sure, there were some who tried.

Two years ago, as I thought about making "The Imposter," I walked through the aisles of LifeWay. The DVD racks were consumed with mostly concert and comedy videos. The few movies were either the Christian Romance stuff (Janette Oak), or Facing the Giants (and the re-release of Flywheel). And there were a couple of classics like Charlton Heston's Ten Commandments and stuff like that.

Today, there is still very little in the way of movies on the shelves at the Christian book stores. But there's more than two years ago. Now you can start to see a few pop up. My prediction is that it will get a lot more crowded. I believe people will start getting Christian movies-- but it will take a little time.

Right now, Christian movie distributors are having to fight this horrible quality reputation. And make no mistake about it, there is a lot of horrible quality Christian Films out there (search the archives of this blog for Pink Slip at the Cheesecake Factory). I hear the modern day film pharisees cry out, "but Dan, you're forgetting God's hand on my film and the power of grace!" Grace, btw, is the chance to do it again and make it right.

So if you were the head of a Christian movie distributor, and you look around, most of the movies that you can pick up to try and sell to retailers and such are pretty bad.

Now some interesting things about the Christian market-- they're very forgiving of production value (quality) if the story's there (like "Flywheel"). However, if you try to make an edgy point, or something that might not be tasty to ingest theologically, you've got some problems. You see, to feed your family and make the house payment, you've got to move numbers of units. So Christian filmmakers will have to make the choice thousands of pastors have to make-- you'll get more sales at a cotton candy stand than a vegetable stand.

Today, the Christian Music industry is clearly a business dominated by a lot of people that I'm not sure are true Disciples of Jesus. Yes, the quality of the music is better. But I'm not so sure that it's Purpose. Will the Christian Movie industry follow Music's lead? Will the films get better quality-wise, only to fall into the morass of candy-coated stories, the entertain and maybe give a few moments of chill bumps, but burn up in the fire of real life?

Will the "art" be created by a bunch of spiritual "Imposters" who tell you what you want to hear so that you'll hit the "order now" button? Hmmmm.

Yes, "The Imposter" hits stores on February 23. I know that God cares for me and will provide for me and my family. yes I do hope this is one way and that people buy it. But I will not change the message to make it more palatable for the sake of sales.

And yes, sometimes I ask God to give me a gentle message maybe this time to share in film. Regardless, my success will not be defined by moving thousands and thousands of DVD units. My success will be defined by my faithfulness to what He asks me to do.

If I ever boast about numbers-- that I have "x number of readers on this blog" or that we've sold 100,000 units of "The Imposter," then it's a sign that I'm walking in the flesh (or Ego). Doesn't mean that I don't look at the numbers-- it might be God's way of providing. But the difference is the word "boast." Which means I find my value in these numbers. I find my success in these numbers. That is flesh. That is Ego. It's why I believe God punished David severely for taking a census.

The Christian Movie industry is new and exciting, filled with possibilities and challenges. It will be interesting to see what the next few years bring. Look for more movie choices... some of them really awful, a few really good. Look for the industry/business types creating copycats of anything that made money (Fireproof taught Sony the value of cross media-- creating a book, CD and so forth).

And if God has given you a story to tell, then go tell it.