End of the Spear the Beginning of a Journey

Mart Green has a strategy for changing the world. It goes something like this: Tell great stories.

Seven years ago, Green sat in a Wal-Mart parking lot, listening to a tape of Steve Saint and Mincaye, a Waodani Indian, talking about loss and reconciliation. Saint’s father, Nate, was the missionary pilot speared to death in 1956 along with four other men: Jim Elliot, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, and Pete Fleming. Mincaye was one of the killers. He later came to Christ through the continuing missionary efforts of the families of the victims, and eventually became a father figure to Saint.

Green wept as he listened again to what was already a familiar story. At that moment, he knew he had to make it into a movie.

The history of these young missionary martyrs is beloved and has been often retold in evangelical circles, and it became a bestseller twenty-five years ago in Elisabeth Elliot’s Through Gates of Splendor. We were captivated by the wholehearted faith of these men, and by Elisabeth’s reckless abandon, going back with young Valerie to live among savages. There was passion and sacrifice here—and, somehow, it had the pull of romance, of great love.

And Green, who had never even been to the movies, was going to take one of our favorite stories to the world.

DREAMING BIG
Green isn’t a guy to aim low. His father is founder and CEO of Hobby Lobby and was listed on the Forbes 400 last year. Green’s professional experience is in the family business, running the successful chain of Mardel Christian and Educational Supply stores. So when he set out to make End of the Spear, he was determined to do it in a big way. “We set high goals,” Green says. “We set a goal to win the Super Bowl the first year out.” When I first talked to him in December, he was hoping to open in the number one spot and bring in $20 million the first weekend.

For an independent film without a distributor, that goal was fairly unreachable. But the movie turned in a performance that should be enough to make Hollywood notice. It broke the box-office top ten—opening on January 20 at number eight in a more-than-respectable twelve hundred theaters. Green expects to make $11 to 12 million in the initial theater run.

Every Tribe Entertainment, Green’s production company, also produced a documentary. Beyond the Gates of Splendor was distributed in advance to more than ten thousand churches to help generate interest in the film. In it, the five widows (two of whom have since passed away) talk about the young men they loved, their awkward proposals and boyish humor. They recall what it was like to watch them all leave for Waodani territory, to talk to them on the radio and celebrate their contact with the Indians, and then hope against hope in the silence that maybe somehow at least one of them would make it out alive. Steve Saint, Mincaye and other Waodani Indians also share the story from their point of view.

Though both the movie and the documentary have their hiccups, it is significant that End of the Spear was a respectable theatrical release with production values well beyond what most expect of Christian films. Gone are the days when the arts were viewed as something that Christians should avoid. Green is helping to usher in a new era, and hoping the stories he tells will be not only captivating in their own right, but also of great value in the kingdom of God.

A STRATEGY BUILT AROUND STORY
One of Green’s favorite sayings is, “This book is alive.” He signs his emails with it, and he was in the process of producing a series of TV commercials centered around that saying when the idea of the movie struck him. What better way to convey this truth than to tell a great story that showcased the Bible’s life-changing power?

The way he figures, Jesus did most of his teaching in stories. Green recounts Mark 4:33-34 from The Message: “He was never without a story when He spoke. When He was alone with His disciples, He went over everything, sorting out the tangles, untying the knots.” That model of telling stories to the masses and explaining them in greater detail to an inside circle became the basis for Green’s strategy.

Each movie Every Tribe produces will be preceded by a documentary to detail what really happened. After theatrical and DVD releases, the films will be followed by Bible-centered curriculum produced by another organization Green helms, Bearing Fruit Communications. Green expounds on a theory he is admittedly still formulating:

Movies are great for entertainment, and their purpose is to raise questions. Documentaries are great at education. Their purpose is to provide answers. The curriculum—I say the idea is engagement. The purpose of that is to prompt action.

While the curriculum will be tailored to a Christian audience, Green hopes that this cycle of documentary, movie, and curriculum will create a funnel that will be pulling people into dialogue with the Word and relationship with God.

CHRISTIAN FILMS AND FILMMAKING CHRISTIANS
There are several models of filmmaking in the Christian world. Dozens of filmmakers in Hollywood are contributing to thought-provoking mainline films. There is also the Left Behind strategy. The latest movie in that series, Left Behind: World at War, made headlines by skipping theaters altogether for what it called a “church theatrical premiere.” Thirty-two hundred churches across the country licensed the movie from Cloud Ten Pictures and showed it to their congregations.

Green’s model is different and almost strikes a balance between the two. He wants to produce specifically Christian movies, yet he hopes they’ll garner a wide following in mainstream theaters.

In another contrast to the Left Behind model, End of the Spear is lacking the “sinner’s prayer” scene. The gospel is present, but in the background. This has caused some concern in the Christian world, but Green had strategic reasons for making the film this way. “We really felt like the purpose was to reach a broad audience and to raise questions about what it means if what the Bible says is true,” he explains. “It’s the difference between the gospel being said and the gospel being lived. I want the gospel to be there, I just want the faith lived out.”

Green hopes his films will help people begin their faith journey: “I think getting saved is a process. And so the movie is a starting point, and the point to bring people around the table, to tell a great story, in a way that is respectful of the audience.”

THE FUTURE
The next Every Tribe project will focus on the story of an African girl who lost her mother to AIDS. The goal is create awareness and help to put a face on the eight thousand people per day who are dying as a result of this crisis.

Green thinks a continual stream of movies like this could change the world. And while he’d love to see one come out every month, he’s just hoping the next movie from Every Tribe will take two years instead of seven to produce. “I hope The Passion of the Christ and the Narnias of the world inspire these twenty-one-year-olds that want to get in this business to get in it,” he says.

Citing another of his favorite verses in Scripture, Green appeals to Mark 4:11, which talks about the value of stories in “creating readiness, nudging [people] toward receptive insight.” Listening to him, you can’t help but pray his strategy works.

Freelance writer Lori Smith writes for Publishers Weekly and Washington Post Book World. She is currently working on a memoir about her journey following Jane Austen’s life through England.

“Embracing Enemies: End of the Spear,” BreakPoint Commentary, 17 January 2006.

Catherine Claire, “Resisting the Revenge Reflex,” BreakPoint Online, 17 January 2006.

Alex Wainer, “Light of the World, Camera, Action,” BreakPoint Online, 6 January 2006.

Lori Smith, “A Love to Tell the Story,” BreakPoint Online, 12 December 2005.