Culture & Christianity: The Allen Jackson Podcast - The Power of Family [Featuring For King & Country]

Episode Date: April 6, 2024

When David Smallbone’s successful music company collapsed, he moved his pregnant wife and six children from Australia to Nashville in search of a brighter future. Two of those children were Joel and Luke Smallbone of For King & Country, and their movie, Unsung Hero, documents the true story of the struggles, miracles, and successes their family experienced together. In this podcast, Pastor Allen Jackson meets with Joel and Luke to discuss their family’s story and why they created the movie. “I believe in the power of family,” Luke said. “I think family is more powerful today than it ever has been in the history of the world. But we don't value it maybe as we should. As Mother Teresa said, ‘If you want to change the world, go home and love your family.’ And that's kind of the blueprint—the purpose—behind the film.” Unsung Hero releases in theaters on April 26. Let Hollywood know Christian content matters by taking your family and friends to see the movie on opening weekend.More Information:Unsung Hero: https://unsunghero.movie/For King & Country: https://www.forkingandcountry.com/An Extraordinary Life – the book about Pastor Allen’s parents: https://store.allenjackson.com/category/books/bk130228--It’s up to us to bring God’s truth back into our culture. It may feel like an impossible assignment, but there’s much we can do. Join Pastor Allen Jackson as he discusses today’s issues from a biblical perspective. Find thought-provoking insight from Pastor Allen and his guests, equipping you to lead with your faith in your home, your school, your community, and wherever God takes you.Listen on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/3JsyO6ysUVGOIV70xAjtcm?si=6805fe488cf64a6dListen on Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/culture-christianity-the-allen-jackson-podcast/id1729435597

Hey, this is Pastor Allen. Welcome to our culture and Christianity podcast. I'm really excited about the guests today. You're going to enjoy these guys. It is Luke and Joel with Four King and Country. Many of you know them because of their music. What you may or may not know is they have a new movie releasing April 26th, Unsung Heroes. It's about their family story and their transition from Australia to the States. I'll leave the details to you. It's worth, you want to be there that weekend. It makes a big difference if we actually show up in the theaters. on that weekend that it releases. So make your plans now to be there. But the story is particularly important to me because they're telling about how God moved in their family and has brought forth these amazing voices in our culture on behalf of our faith. And I've been saying to you for a long time

that our faith has to start at our kitchen table. The problems in the White House are nearly as significant as you and me bringing our faith into our house. And the point of this movie, we did not collaborate, I promise. I'm not creative enough to collaborate with those guys. but it is very much driven through that same narrative

that it's what starts at our kitchen table and then our holiday table and then with our friends. That's where our faith is lived out. That's what will transform our country. If you saw the recent podcast I did with Dr. George Barna, I mean, he brought that back up again. It seems like everybody I've talked to lately has a very similar message.

We're coming to it from different places. Maybe it's just the Holy Spirit in his people. But let's start living out our faith in our homes. It isn't easy. The movie will remind us. us of that because it isn't. Being Christ followers is not pristine and clean and simple because we are broken vessels, but the Spirit of God in us takes us to a better place. I think you'll enjoy these guys. Before we get to them, you can listen to the Culture and Christianity

Alan Jackson podcast on Apple, Spotify, wherever you consume or go listen to your podcast. Make sure to follow and subscribe, like the podcast, wherever you're listening. Just a reminder, we drop a new episode every Saturday. I want to give you a personal invitation. We're hosting a conference here on our campus. I've invited several of my friends, Kaylee McAnney, Eric Metaxus, Brandon Tatum. You can go to the website and get all the information. We're going to spend two days talking about what's happening in our culture, but identifying as people of faith what we can do.

The real differentiation in this is we don't want to just get stirred up and agitated. We want to have an action, a set of things we can do when we leave. If we do that, we can make a difference in this season with our faith in the midst of what's happening in our world. I know traveling to Middle Tennessee is not easy. Travel's not easy wherever you go. There's a ticket charge for the conference. We don't want you traveling and not being able to get a seat. It's worth the investment.

We're not doing this for profit. We'll invest more in it than is being demonstrated. But make the investment. My Bible says God's the rewarder of those who diligently seek him. You make the effort to seek God. then I believe he'll give you an assignment that will make a difference in our generation. It's an honor to be with you again.

We are watching on the walls, and if we see evil and we don't use our voice, it says it's on us. Our exercise of our faith in America is at risk. What are you going to do about it? We are called to be advocates for Jesus of Nazareth. In Nashville this April, join us from the Culture and Christianity Conference.

Brandon Tatum, Eric Metaxus, Kirk Cameron, Polly B Stucky and more. Go to lead with faith. Dot Church to register. Okay, guys, you got a new movie coming out. Unsung Hero? Yeah, that's right. Who's idea?

I mean, it's a family story, but who had the courage that? We're going to put our family story on family. If it works, it was my idea. If not. It was actually books. My parents wrote a book, and they got these god-awful pictures

of my brothers, and I've got two brothers when we were kids in the book, which is like just published humiliation that they've spread around. So when I saw that you put a family story on film, I'm like, I'm not going to tell my parents because I don't want them to even get the idea. Yeah. No, no. So if you were to rewind back a few years, my, our family, originally from Australia, our, I hope you can still tell.

Yeah. You Americans have jacked up my accent. Thanks. But born in Australia, my dad was a concert promoter in Australia. And on one particular tour that he brought back, we lost everything that we had. The two didn't go well. And so we lost the house, the car, the life savings. And so dad got a job offer in Nashville, Tennessee, and he thought it would be a good idea to move his six kids at his wife who was six months pregnant. And 16 suitcases. Sixteen suitcases to Nashville. And that's what we did, but as soon as we arrived, my dad lost that job. And so, you know, we're strained on the other side of the world, no friends, no family. We were sleeping on beds, made out of clothes, and didn't have any way for our little sister to be born in hospital, won't always quite sure where the next meal was

going to come from, didn't have a car. And I've told that story or some semblance of that story from stage for a lot of years. And I've had all these people come up and be like, man, you guys should, you know, you should write a book, you know, like your parents did. And the truth is, Joel and I were homeschooled, so we don't read it right very well. And shout out to the homeschoolers. We thought maybe we could make a movie instead. So I called up a producer friend of mine in L.A.

And just pitched in the idea. And it was one of those strange conversations where there wasn't really any convincing. It was like, yeah, yeah, let's do it. But most of the people don't know that when you put something into development in in Hollywood. It never usually gets made. And so fast, you know, fast forward a couple of years,

you know, here we are. The purpose behind it is, is I believe in the power of family. I think family is more powerful today than it ever has been in the history of the world, but we don't value it maybe as we should. And Mother Teresa says,

if you want to change the world, go home and love your family. And that's kind of the blueprint, the purpose behind the film. Yeah, when that comes up at the end of the film, yeah. I'm wiping away the tears and reading. It's pretty emotional, isn't it?

It's crazy. Yeah, there's not very many movies that make me cry. And that one did more than once. So I forgive you. Thank you. I'm sorry. We love hearing forgiveness from a pastor. That's great.

Well, it's Easter weekend. It's built around it right now. Yes. You can't get away from it. This weekend, I got to own it at least. That's good. So it releases, by the time they hear it releases formally in April 26th. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah, it's funny, man. It is a, it's a movie of miracles. Obviously, it's about family. It circles around our mum. around miracles, around moving from Australia to the United States. But there were not only so many miracles on camera, but man, there were so many miracles passed behind the camera.

Like one of them even being the release date. So Lionsgate, Adam Fogelson, who runs Lionsgate, he picked the dates because it was a couple weeks before Mother's Day. And about a week after he'd said, this is the day we're going to release the film on. We were talking to Mum and we said, hey, you know, they've picked the release of the film. It's April 26th.

Then she says, oh, you know, you know, that's our 49th wedding anniversary, right? She sounds just like that, actually. Yeah. And we were like, yes. That's why we did it. It's the holiest white lie ever. We practice forgiveness now. We can be repentance.

Okay, thank you. We've got to spit them on. No, like, even that, so you know this well, that films release on Fridays. and a Friday only falls on the 26th of April every seven years. So it's a one in 2,55 chance that could happen. So it's just a little cool. Like part of the project is rising up,

as kids rising up and calling our mom, our parents blessed. And so even things like that have just made it really, it's kind of been a remarkable journey, not without its sort of warfare even to date, but remarkable journey. I think it's always a battle to stand up and tell the truth. Amen. You know, when it's happening to you, you feel like it's unusual.

But I've had enough birthdays to know that I think that's a part of the assignment. You've got to be willing to push through and overcome and persevere. None of us gets through without that stuff. Yeah. So when I'm watching the movie, I'm thinking, did you get to pick the actors that played you? Like, no, no, they're not cute enough for me. No, well, I mean, we did. I mean, I produced a film.

Joel co-directed it, co-wrote it, and was in it as well. So, yeah, we had a lot to say. I've had a lot to say. But what you feel, what you realize with film is you don't just want someone that, you know, may look a certain way or I know you're joking, but they need to have the essence of what you're trying to figure out. And what was the trick was and the difficulty was our family is, you know, it was six kids, but another on the way. And so you've got to try and showcase what family was like. That's what we were trying to do, really. It didn't really matter that much about how they looked.

We just wanted to make sure they had curly hair because we all do. It's so much of it's about, Luke said the word essence. It's so much more about essence versus imitation, you know. And so we focused on the essence. Luke and I had fun casting ourselves, though, because we were so young at the time. We're pretty ancillary characters in the movie. So we just had fun. Like, I really wanted my characters to be just super annoying the whole time.

Because I was like, this is just, I was sort of annoying kid anyway. But like, let's just really. I thought you said essence, not imitation. Yeah, right. But, no, we. And even down to casting it was another miracle. I mean, this was, we filmed in 2022. So we're still on the back end of the pandemic.

And Hollywood and SAG, they took the pandemic more seriously than almost anyone. And so as a result, we were pretty convicted that we needed to cast someone to play our mom who was Australian and who was a mother. Because we wanted to create sort of a really short bridge from reality to the screen. You just couldn't find them. Because you'd find them. They're willing, but I have another project. They wouldn't have their passport.

Or I don't want to work right now with COVID and everything. Yeah. So I got down to 10, we got down to 10 days before production. And we didn't have our unsung hero cast. And we literally pulled up a list of 100 Australian actors, one of which our sister, Rebecca and James was on. So for a split second, we were like, well, no. That would get real weird.

terrifying and creepy and Old Testament. And then we got to, we saw Daisy Betts and we got on a call with her. We sent her the script. She read it on a Friday. Talked to her on Zoom on a Monday. And she just said, you're not going to believe this. I, I was in Hollywood, Hollywood. I was in Hawaii earlier this year.

And my friend just on a whim was like, you should just get your passport renewed for no reason. And so I've got my passport. And then I was like, well, how are you? She's got four kids. The youngest is three. It's like, how are you going to leave your family? She's like, well, you're not going to believe this. I already had a production going on.

Then my mom and dad were already coming back into town to watch the kids. And so I'll just push that production and I'll just stay a few more. So, you know, read it on a Saturday, called on a Monday. That following Friday, she's on an aircraft from Australia to the United States. Started on the Monday. Another one of those coincidences. You're kind of stacking those up now. Oh, yeah.

So what Rebecca say about it when it's all done and she's looking? That's got to be tougher for her. Because she had a little... I think that's right. I think it was, you know, that the story is... We were always intended on telling a very honest, authentic story, but any honest authentic story is challenging. And if you're going to talk about family, I mean, I always say this.

My family is functionally dysfunctional. And we just really fight for... All families are functionally dysfunctional. Why, we fight for the word functional in front of dysfunctional. You know what I mean? Because that's what's challenging about family. But I think for her, you know, when you're a child and you get pushed out in the spotlight,

I mean, we know how a lot of those stories end. And our sister has not only survived, but she's had to do a lot of, you know, inner work. She's had to do a lot of, you know, forgiving of others. You know, she's had to do a lot of these types of things. And she's overcome. And she's overshy. It's really hard, which is great.

Yeah. Well, the music business is not an easy place, just period. Yeah. Right. And all the change that's been a part of it in the, you know, in the season. you've been in it and I've been around it. I mean, it takes a lot of, you need the presence of the Lord

to process all the things because there's far more rejection than there is applause. Yeah, yeah. And at the end of the day, it's a business. It's a point y'all make out, you know, make very well. And then we stand up in public and we talk about ministry, but we don't behave like ministry when we're not standing on the stage. Yeah.

Far too often. Well, and it's so, to your point, when you loop in the spiritual side of music. it makes it even more complex because you're right, is it ministry? Is it business? How much is business? And I would say that's one of the gifts of actually our sister is

and even our parents modeling for us. I think that they would be very much people like, hey man, if you get up there, I don't care how talented you are. But if your soul is not intact, if you are not doing things to honor your spouse, you know, lead your children well, it's all for not.

And I think for us, we've been better for it because our sister did go and plow ahead, made away in some cases. And look, you know, when we're 12 years old out in the road with her and you are seeing all the things that she's got going on and the commitments and the pressure, it, A, gives you more of a great respect for who she is

and the things that she did. But also, I don't think that we were necessarily thinking that we would do this. But when it did come time, you kind of go, well, I know what I don't want to be. I know what I don't want to do. Yeah, I don't know if you knew that. But we were, dad managed her, manages us,

and we became a cheap labor. So we became the road crew. At like 11 years old, like we were breaking some child labor law somewhere along the way. But it's really where we cut our teeth, you know, background vocals, stage managing, spotlight,

setting up, tearing down. It's nice to be able to say to all our crew guys, like, hey man, I've basically done every single job there. And you would relate to that. I mean, you've built this 40 years from... I've been around here a while. So, you know, I've cleaned the bathrooms and mowed the grass.

painted the sanctuary. But that's good. It adds depth to the story. It does. You know, it'd be hard to do it another way. But I think you do a beautiful job. I don't want to ruin the film for those that are going to get to see it. But I think you're transparency in the way you tell your family story,

that you're not perfect and you did struggle and you had to overcome. And some days you did it with grace and some days you just did it because that's how life happens. And I don't believe stories that are too pristine because life isn't that way. I want to think, speaking of miracles that we had to do, Pastor, because I helped Richard Ramsey, the screenwriter, kind of craft the story. And I should say, it's very much a true story, not based on a true story, not inspired by a true story, it just is. I mean, I remember when we, it was in the middle of the pandemic,

when we all met at a Hampton Inn, we were in the middle of a drive-in tour. We met in Iowa, and we all sat down. Our parents, the screenwriter, some of the producers, and we started sort of breaking the story, as they call it. And I remember Richard, the screenwriter, just sort of hearing all the sort of tenets of the story. And he looked at Dad and he was like, I'm so sorry you had to go through that. But what an incredible story. Like all of these pieces of like his 40th birthday, for instance.

He literally found out that he'd lost everything earlier that day and walked straight into his 40th birthday party. Or we had to start pulling miracles out of the story. Because in real life, if you pray for a. a check to cover your bills by dollars. And a check shows up in the mail that your bill is for $1,200 and a check shows up for $1,208. In reality, you go, well, that's a miracle. On film, you go, well, that's just sort of serendipitous and nonsense. So we had to actually, like, we had to pull miracles out of the story because it started

feeling too sort of... To produce. Pristine, too pristine, yeah, as you said. Yeah, life's not that clean. No. Well, it encouraged me because I didn't know Amy had a tour that didn't do well. So when I saw that, I just smiled.

I thought, well, she had to overcome something. You could just not shout that from the rooftops. That would be wonderful. And shout out to Amy and to Jen Cook. Because speaking of unsung heroes, you know, they're not. Amy's on this inspired by album that we did. We did a new version of Lead Me On. We're on the Huggabee show next week.

I'm so sorry. Be sure Mike takes his meds before you go. I'll tell him you said that. Or maybe he shouldn't see it. He shouldn't be really exciting. I'm kidding. He's a good guy. No new rumors. But Jen and Amy, you know, have seen the film and given it their blessing.

And that was really courageous to them to do as well. Because they could have very easily whitewashed it and said, we don't want this going out. I was a little curious. I mean, for King and Country to call you successful as a bit of an understatement. And so you take down a film project, which makes you vulnerable in a whole new set of ways, took some courage on your part. I mean, other than wanting to tell your family story, why do that?

Why put, I mean, it's kind of your family story. Clearly, your dad had some hoot-spah. Yeah, look, I've said it like this. I think that my, you know, calling in life, I think, is to try and impact people's eyes and their ears, you know. And I think that God has given us a group of people that we get to work with where we're able to actually do some of those things. But I also will say this.

I mean, yeah, you can, I think for both Joel and I, music is a wonderful gift, and it will probably always be what we call our day job, if that makes sense. But you forget that sometimes doing other creative projects feed your day jobs. Yeah. And I think, and the other thing I would say is it's important to risk in life, you know. Yeah. If you don't ever, if you don't ever need a-it-you-hmm. It's got to scare you.

Yeah, and if you don't ever need a miracle, is God ever going to give you one? We needed some miracles on this production. And we're putting ourselves out there. I mean, this film could be a grand failure. But that's not for me. That's not, you know, I've always had to come to the conclusion of, am I doing this because I know it's going to be successful? Or am I doing this because I know I'm being obedient?

I got to trust being obedient first. And whether or not something is successful as not is actually not my... And successful in whose eyes? Like the economy of God versus man's economy are too very different. Well, I'm going to put on my pastor hat for a minute because I think we've lost the notion that our faith demands courage. And I don't think your faith is legitimate if it's not lived out with courage. And for too long, we've sold this notion that you walk an aisle and you repeat a prayer,

and then you go live your life on your terms to do what I want. That's not what being a Christ follower is. We're living sacrifices. So we offer it to the Lord. And when I see you guys do that, step out an arena, risk all those things so that the name of Jesus gets exalted, I'm all in. Don't stop. I heard Tim Keller say once in a sermon that I thought was amazing. He's like, man, if Jesus rose, you know, this is Easter, if Jesus rose from the dead, it's incredibly inconvenient for us all.

Because if you believe it, you have to hinge your life on it. And I think that's where the courage comes in. It's like, no, no, we don't need to be passive. Dude, if this is true, it changes everything. And we need to be reminded of that. I mean, one day we're going to meet the Apostle Paul and all of these characters that we've read about. Yeah. I mean, Paul's beaten to death almost multiple times.

He got pretty good at that. He's disfigured with scar tissue. Yeah. When I see him, I don't want to extend the hand that doesn't at least have a callus on it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, hit him. I think this notion of living our faith boldly and courageously in whatever, you know,

we don't all have the gifts, the creative gifts that you guys do. You know, my dad was a veterinarian. I grew up cleaning stalls. Yeah. So my family gifts look a little different. Smell a little different. Yeah. But we can all live our faith courageously.

That's right. And I think you and your family model that so beautifully. Someone said to me a pair of days ago, he said, I was sitting around the other day. And he's an older gentleman. And he said, hey, guys, what are your greatest regrets in life? And unanimously, they said, I wish they had taken more risks. So maybe this is, you know, to Luke's point, we might. Talk to us in six weeks. We should have done this.

Talk to us next week even. We might be like, I don't know. Abort, aboard, aboard. So best case scenario 90 days from now, what do you want to be saying? Best case scenario, this in hundreds of thousands, if not, you know, millions of impressions later, it puts sort of family back on the map in a new way that moms are able to feel really seen through this. And, you know, and fathers and husbands are convicted and encouraged and feel like they've got a guy that actually walked through some of what they walk through. and teenage girls even who are trying to figure out

who to love and who to be and what to do with their lives that somehow they'll step forward with a confidence of going I'm not alone in this either you know

that the dinner table will be sort of restored you know and that people believe in miracles so that's the sort of that's always been the big hope this is not our story I mean let the record show

this is our parent story this is our sister's story we told the story because by the grace of God we have the opportunity and the influence to be able to tell it but you don't get another shot

at filmmaking when you're dealing with tens of millions of dollars if people don't show up so our Luke's nervous love our hope and at risk of being you know in the economy of man for a moment our plea with you is

our day job as musicians you have years to prove the validity of an album You release different singles, different features. With a theatrical film, and Lionsgate has been kind enough to put this in thousands of theaters across America, you have basically 72 hours. It'll be in theaters for weeks following, but everyone's looking at the metrics of that 72 hours. Theaters are going, did you fill the room? Where are there two people in the theater?

Because if there's two people, I'll put another film in your place. And so the 26th and that weekend of April is such an important weekend. And we feel like even down to other films that are showing up on that weekend. You've got, you know, you've got other films that are really stepping in the direction of sort of, you know, pretty severe sort of sex and those sorts of interactions. And then you've got family. And so we've dubbed the 26th Family Day. You've got Mother's Day. You've got Father's Day.

It's like, all right, let's have a family day at the theatres. Well, one of the questions I hear all the time is, you know, like feel powerless. There's nothing I can do. What can we do? Yeah. So in a very practical way, something people that are listening to this can do is they can be in a theater on the 26th to 27th. It's coming to a theater near you. That's right.

I mean, vote with your feet. That's right. It's all of those things, man. And here's one of the biggest things that moves the needle is if people buy out a theater. And most people are like buying out of theater, there's 500 tickets. Well, most theater is like 50, 60 tickets. Yeah. So, man, if you go, if you go, I mean, how many, you know, I mean, you know, small business are a lot of people,

but a small business. buy out of theater. It moves the needle in such contagious ways because what happens is if you have a film that hopefully moves you and challenges you convicts you

what do you do when you have to go see that movie? Man, you got to go see this movie. So the more people that we can get in the seats and the people that kind of just claim it and yeah, small business saying,

hey man, I'm going to buy out of theater because I want these priorities instilled in my business. You know, I think it's a wonderful thing. So it's all of those things. Passed Alan,

I'm going to offer a guarantee on your podcast. Here we go. For this. if you go see the movie and if you're not impacted by it and if you don't like it put a comment on this podcast

or get on our platforms or my platforms put a comment on there and say I want my money back and I will Venmo you your money back wow and he's never done that before on behalf of the bet

no but and even to that point like even if you can't shop in the theaters like I'm out of town like just just buy it And just buy a ticket. And here's the other thing I would say. I do think you underestimate, we always do. It's the Western world's condition.

We underestimate the power of prayer. We underestimate what can do in the spiritual. The things that we, people always ask me like, where is the power? And I'm always like in the unseen things. That's where the power is. So when you pray, astounding things take place. And, you know, so man, if you can't go see a ticket, man, pray for us. Pray for this film to impact people.

You know, that's my out's our hope. And if it's successful, great. If it fails, great. Because I firmly believe that this is the right, this is the right thing that we need to do right now. Yeah. Well, I would imagine things that you pour time and effort into, but when they're completed, then you have to step back.

And it's in God's hands. And that's, you know, we all say that's a good place, but that's an awkward place. It's easy to say. It's hard to do. When you're living that out. Even in this, it's such a severe thing. Like April 26th, it's like, it's the end.

Like, it's just, there's nothing to be done. It's like this was it. And there's actually a relief in going, like, man, for the rest of this week, and obviously for the four years that we've been developing this, it's been day, there's not a day that we have not thought about this film. There's a release that goes, we did everything. We left it all on the field. Here's a thing, man.

I mean, we're talking to a pastor. Monday, April 29th, we may need some counseling. Yeah. So we'll come down the front of the road. That's awesome. I'm excited for you. So you're doing some pre-release showings in churches and places across the country? Yeah.

You're even on the road with a lot of them. I had someone come up to me. I was like, hey, so like, how many times have you shown this thing? I was like, guys, if you knew how many times, how many speeches I've given before screenings, how many. This is the first time Pastor Luke said any of this stuff. I've never heard it before. I'm looking back. Even in the church, you get lightning.

No, yeah, we've been in, look, we were with Rick Warren last week and we're with, you know, South East. I'm not the only pastor you've talked to about this. I mean, oh, wait, stop. Although we haven't done podcasts with any other pastors. No, we haven't. That's true. True. You're the first.

That's true. Very good. Podcast pasta. So you're our guinea pig. The pastur. He's calling all this pasta, buddy's fake. Just don't do it. Just don't even bother them.

Maybe he's the risk why we just go on. They'll call them. Well, I'm proud of you. And I love the message. And I like the courage. And I was really impressed with the transparency of it. Because I think there's a powerful temptation to rewrite our stories. One of my favorite parts of the Bible is that all of our heroes have flaws.

And there's nobody in there that the story's not told about. And when I hear Christians stand up, because I've been married 63 years, and I've never been mad at my wife, I think either you're too stupid to be aware or you're lying to me. Because life comes with challenges. And while there's a very triumphant message in the story that you tell, you let us walk through a little bit of the struggle with you. And even from the perspective of the kids, I love that. You pulled the family into it.

They're not pointing your finger at us. You get to feel a bit of what you felt when you were in that age bracket growing through all those things. And I think that's powerful for the families to get to see it. Thank you. That was one of the strangest things about it

was Luke mentioned that I acted and I played out dad in the film, you know. And I've dubbed it a very expensive therapy session because it's like in all seriousness there was something really profound about we experienced this from kids looking up at our parents. something really fascinating about me, roughly his age now, looking back down and taking on that,

okay, six kids, one on the way, no insurance, no furniture, no job, other side of the world from everything that you know is safe, and how to navigate. The empathy that I feel for him and for our family and for our mum is really unlike anything that there was a before and after, you know, that 30, days of production shifted something in me. In writing it, it changed my head, but in presenting it

and performing it, it changed my heart. And so I'm, I'm really, we're really proud of it. You know, it's an adventure film. It's a 90s film. It's a nostalgic film. It's a good 90s music in there, right? You got Michael W and Jesus Jones and Lenny Kravitz and Rod Stewart and so on. Amy Grant, as we mentioned, Striper. But the heart of it is, it's a family film. And, and that's what we're hopeful for, too. something that we do with the freaking country is it's an invitation from 2 to 82 you know and that's what we want this film to be. We want you to be able to feel safe and comfortable to bring your kids and your grandparents and everyone in between and have a bit of a, you know, like I said, a family day at the theaters. Absolutely. So what's next? More movies?

Man, I mean, look, depending on how it does, I think that we'll always probably try and be in that space to a degree in what regard. I think that remains to be seen. Obviously, where there's always, there's a whole new inspired by album that goes along with this film that we've done a bunch of covers on. So there's always plenty of music to come. But we'll go out on the road in the fall. And then, you know, we may need to take a moment. You know, one of the things I've been joking about lately is this film's about unsung heroes and, you know, being an unsung hero in your family, the last thing I want to be is a hypocrite. I need to be an unsung hero on my family.

You know, I need to be someone who's around to, you know, someone said this the other day. I was like, parenting is not about sitting down with your kid and like, you know, get your stuff together. Parenting is about when you're side by side, what are the conversations that take place? And there's only really one way to be side by side is to be around, you know. It's one of the rare occasions that I think that quantity over quality is actually essential when you're talking about raising kids. having a family. It's like the quantity is the quality. And so yeah, so we'll, we'll, we'll figure that out. But yeah, it remains to be seeing all the next things. We'll get through April 26 and we'll come back for another podcast. Yeah, I'll look forward to it. You're going

to get past April 26. It's a good film. And it's a powerful story and it's a needed message. You know, there's a, I mean, you don't have to have any discernment to know there's an assault on the family right now. Yeah. But when you're describing family, I'm thinking of it in terms of the family of God, too, because all those same things are true. That's right. And we're watching the unraveling of both of those. Our nuclear families, but we're watching the unraveling of the family of God. Because we don't think we need to be together anymore.

We can be isolated and watch it on our screen and be mobile and more nimble. I'm at the beach, but I'm still doing Jesus with my friends. And we need a little bit of a re-centering. And I pray. I believe God will use your film to help us do that. That's awesome. So thank you for your courage, for your transparency, for putting a little of your family out there for all of us to laugh and cry. with and talk about.

It will be a blessing to the body of Christ. April 26th, unsung heroes, Lionsgate films, in a theater near you. Don't just fill your car, buy out the theater. I like the idea. I love your smile when I said that.

Absolutely. Luke's going big, man. You can tell us the last week because he's swinging for the fences now. We've been quiet for Jesus long enough. Let's go find some courage. That's right. That's good.

You know, we're not, I don't, When we get to heaven, we don't want to get there and say, I was the timid one that occasionally whispered boldly for Jesus. That's right. That's good. I want them to know we were here and who we were representing for. So I appreciate you guys giving us the chance. Looking forward to hearing some of your music today.

Yeah. Don't grow weary. Because I know when you put yourself out there, you're going to take some shots. It's inevitable. It goes with it. And it means your family's going to get scrutinized and there will be pushed back. It just happens. So don't grow weary.

Thank you for standing up. My guest, Luke and Joel Smallbone. for King and Country. The movie is Unsung Heroes. Don't miss it. April to 26th. It's important those first three days. God bless you guys.

Thanks for having it. You know, all right, I stepped into this whole podcast world because I wanted the opportunity to talk about some practical things we can do as people of faith. Today's is simple. What we can do is be in the theater

when that movie releases that weekend. Take your family. Maybe you get your friends and several families go together. They talked about buying out a theater. I don't know, that's up to you and your circumstances. But our willingness to step into the public square and be counted as advocates for the Jesus narrative

wherever we're given that opportunity, that's the difference maker. I promise you, the public narrative is driven by the observations of the people that stand above it. And if they see us responding with courage and boldness and participating in these faith-based movies, there'll be better stories to. in our theaters, on our televisions, wherever we receive our content.

So I appreciate your prayers and your Bible reading and your church attendance and you're watching Christian podcast. But let's show up in the public square as advocates for Jesus. It makes a difference. Hey, thanks for joining me today. Before you go, please like the podcast and leave a comment so more people can hear about this topic too. If you haven't yet, be sure to subscribe to Alan Jackson Ministries YouTube channel and follow

the Culture and Christianity podcast on Spotify. Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Together, let's learn how to lead with our faith and change our culture. I'll see you next time.