Recently we attended the movie "God's Not Dead:
A Light in Darkness." ( God is Not Dead-- A Light in Darkness ). I would suggest the real problem and lesson from this movie may not be so obvious.
In this movie a church is situated on a public university--there before the university was established. There is controversy over a religious institution being allowed on this public university. The board of the school decides to basically evict the church.
To complicate the matter an unbelieving student throws a brick through the church window in the basement. It hits a gas value. A visiting pastor investigates, turns on a light, and the resulting explosion kills this pastor.
Of course this gives the university even more excuse to evict the church as it is now a damaged facility and clearly a source of violence on campus..Since the church owns the land the university must give the church fair market value (part of the historic agreement between the university and the school). The university wishes to use the land for a new student center, but the real reason is to put to rest the controversy.
The pastor, whose father also was the pastor before him, decides the church on the campus is necessary to serve students. There is a student campus minister whose work and facility is at the church. So..... the pastor decides to file suit to save his church. Much happens as a result. The student who did the deed is overcome with guilt and identifies himself anonymously. The pastor has a public altercation (physically) with him. The student is sent to jail. The pastor mounts a public relations campaign on TV to "save the church". As a result the university president receives death threats. He has a physical altercation with the pastor. The pastor engaged his non-believing lawyer brother to handle the suit. The two brothers get in a verbal altercation centered around their opposite beliefs and the family relationships. The student who did the deed has a girl friend who is wavering in her faith and all she sees is hurt and controversy. Things are not looking good.
So...... what is the heart of this problem and what can we learn from this story. All of the "bad" events stem from the pastors decision that saving/preserving the church on its present location was necessary. His personal agenda to do this led to the altercation between himself and the president. It is also polarized the community and the student body. His attitude towards the student who did the deed was certainly not forgiving. But after all, the student destroyed his church and killed one of his friends.
How are things resolved? The pastor realizes his actions have not been Christ-like. He apologies to the president and to the public at large. He forgives, in person, the student. Because of his change in attitude, the president (previously a friend) and he work out an arrangement for the campus minister to have a place in the new student center. He realizes God is not housed in one particular facility and has no trouble getting help building a new church off campus.
What is the real lesson? When one pursues personal agendas, danger is there---however worthwhile or the "right way" to do a thing they may seem. For.... in personal agendas one can forget that we must "love others as we love ourselves.". In addition, it is the gospel that must be the focus, not a particular project like "saving this church facility" or any other personal or particular "church" related goal.
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