Movie Review: All Saints

I saw the preview for this movie on Paul The Apostle of Christ movie I recently reviewed here. 

I always go into these movies with low expectations from an acting perspective because I know that often times low budget movies mean inexperienced actors.  But, with this one there were several experienced actors that added a depth to the movie.

I like movies based on true stories. They let me know only see into a situation that I don't already know about but also deeper into a situation or circumstance that I've heard of.  In this case, we hear of genocide and persecution all over the world lately, but I had never heard about the Karen people from Burma before. 

Here is the description of the movie:

ALL SAINTS is based on the inspiring true story of salesman-turned-pastor Michael Spurlock (John Corbett), the tiny church he was ordered to shut down, and a group of refugees from Southeast Asia. Together, they risked everything to plant seeds for a future that might just save them all.

After trading in his corporate sales career to become a pastor, Michael’s first assignment is All Saints, a quaint country church with a dozen members. It comes with a catch: he has to close the church doors for good and sell the prime piece of land on which it sits. While developers eagerly eye the property and the congregation mourns the inevitable, Michael and his family look forward to moving on to an established church where they can put down roots.

But when the church hesitantly begins welcoming Karen (kuh-REN) refugees from Burma—former farmers striving for a fresh start in America—Michael feels called to an improbable new mission. Toiling alongside the Karen people, the congregation attempts to turn their fertile land into a working farm to pay the church’s bills and feed its newest people.


Jeopardizing his family’s future by ignoring his superiors, Michael must choose between completing what he was assigned to do—close the church and sell the property—or listening to a still, small voice challenging the people of All Saints to risk it all and provide much-needed hope to their new community.


The main thing for me was seeing someone struggling with what God is telling them to do. As a pastor he thought that God was telling him to not sell the church and land and help these refugees by planting and selling the crops. When all his plans don't go according to his plan, what he sees at the end is that God uses this as a way to draw a community of believers together and is still standing today.

God is good all the time, all the time God is good.

My point is that movies like this make me realize that my life is my responsibility to live it well, but at the same time when I sometimes feel like nothing I do matters, it does to God and he can use the simplest thing in our lives to make the biggest waves.