Proclaim 17 Case for Christ

One of the things I love about coming to NRB, particularly in recent years, has been the opportunity to see what is going on on the front edge of Christian filmmaking. And Christian films are getting better and better every year, and we have an opportunity here at NRB to see how this craft is evolving and how stories are being told and how God's using these movies to impact millions of people. And tomorrow night, we have set aside our, our main session for a feature film premiere. I actually had an opportunity, uh, 2 weeks ago to be among the first audience to see the movie that is going to be released in theaters in April called The Case for Christ. And we're going to get a chance tomorrow night to see that film as well. I can tell you This is a quality film that tells a compelling story, and we have Greg Gudorf who is here with us tonight from Pureflix, and we're gonna ask Greg to come on up on the platform and talk a little bit about this film. And Lee and Leslie Strobel are here with us tonight as well.

Greg.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Good evening. My name is Greg Gudorf of Pureflix.com. For those of you who I haven't met yet, and there are many, I lead the digital side of the Pureflix business. Our PureFlix.com video streaming business for consumers has been called a Netflix for Christians. Welcome to this NRB opening session where producers, studios, actors, broadcasters, distributors, and agents all gather. Sort of an Oscars without the envelope kerfuffle. You know, we get— come to NRB to focus on the things that bring us together, not those that break us apart. This week you will meet dozens, if not tens of hundreds of people and companies from around the world. And the world will tell you, "Ah, it's just a bunch of competitors at a trade show." But at this trade show, we come with one goal: to proclaim our faith through the worlds of entertainment and media. If we really want to make an impact, though, we must become much better collaborators than competitors in this world. If collaborators— if collaborators as believers harness the power of our craft. We can touch hearts and minds and move people in ways we can't imagine yet. And now it's my pleasure to introduce a man whose books and talks have already touched hearts, millions of them. A man who not only sought the light but wrote about it. His book, "The Case for Christ," is Pureflix's newest movie. We'll screen it here at NRB. We'll bring it nationally to theaters beginning April 7th. Now a warm welcome, please, for Mr. Lee Strobel.

Thank you so much. It is great to be at NRB. Actually, it's great to be anywhere. I gotta be honest with you, after what happened to me at Little Rock. I went to Little Rock to speak at a charity event and a pastor picks me up from the airport where he's driving me to the event. And along the way he said, "Hey, I told a young woman at our church, I said Lee Strobel is going to speak tonight." And she said, "Oh, the guy who wrote The Case for Christ? Is he still living?" So I'm glad to be anywhere, but especially here at NRB, especially to show you something we're very proud of, and that is a film based on my book, The Case for Christ. Leslie and I trusted Pure Flix when they came to us and said, "Let us make a film of your story." And that trust turned out to be well placed. They have done a tremendous job with this movie. It's a story of our lives. I was an atheist, legal editor of the Chicago Tribune, trained in journalism and law. Leslie was agnostic, but then through the influence of a Christian friend, she becomes a follower of Jesus, and that made me very angry. And so the film very honestly portrays this marital discord that happened as I tried to get her out of this cult of Christianity and began to investigate the evidence for Christianity to try to win her back. And then, turns out, the evidence was stronger than I thought, and I ended up coming to faith as well. It's a true story. And the movie is not a documentary about the evidence, although the evidence is in the film. It's a love story. It's a marriage story. It's a story of a father and a son. It's a story about faith. It's a story about perseverance and prayer. It's a story about big city newspaper. And it's a story about a spiritual journey with, golly, a terrific cast in this picture made— written by Brian Bird, terrific scriptwriter. Faye Dunaway is in it. Erika Christensen is in it. Mike Vogel. We have Academy Award winners, Golden Globe winners, Academy Award nominees, Tony Award winners in this film. So we are so excited about its potential to encourage and motivate Christians, but also a film that they can confidently bring their nonbelieving friends to, where there will be no cringe factor, where they'll have probably the most important moment of that evening at the film won't take place during the movie. It'll take place after the movie in conversations that happen between Christians who took a risk and invited a non-believing friend when they get together at a coffee house and talk about what they just saw. So, yeah, I'm an evangelist at heart. I know Barry McGuire is an evangelist at heart. And most of you are evangelists at heart. I just want to see people come to faith in Christ. And I believe that a lot of people will not read a book, and they may not go to church, but they'll come to a movie theater. And so we want to show you just a little taste of this film, just a 60-second taste. Tomorrow, 7:00 PM, we'll show it to you. You'll be among the first people ever to see it. It's 7:00 PM right in, I think, Salon H, Ballroom H. And then I'm also speaking at the pastor's track tomorrow, and I'll be around tomorrow night as well to say hi. So let's show that, the trailer for The Case for Christ.

I've spent my entire career as a journalist uncovering the truth until the day my wife presented me with the biggest story of my life. The Case for Christ. From that moment on, I set out to prove to her and to the rest of the world that they were wrong. And what happened next changed me— forever. Woo!

Tell you what though, it is sad to know that those fashions from the '80s were not completely destroyed, isn't it? I mean, something should have been done. Lee was telling me, by the way, that the director of this film had an opportunity to screen it last week for a group of unbelievers, and they loved it. So I'm excited for The fact that this movie is coming out the week before Easter, great opportunity for us to not only get involved, take friends to go see this film, but also to encourage our audiences, our congregations, our friends and family to get out and pack the theaters and bring their neighbors and friends and say, "Let's go see this movie and then talk about it afterwards."