‘War Room’: ‘Raise ‘Em Up, Lord!’

When an opportunity presents itself, leaders take action.

Last Friday, I was privileged to join Pastor Shaddy Solomon and about 100 members of Lake Mary Church to see the movie, War Room.

The movie shocked Hollywood with opening weekend sales of $11 million and it only played on about one-third of the screens as other weekend favorites. This Kendrick brothers’ hit had a budget of $3 million and is on pace to surpass sales of two of their other movies, Courageous and Fireproof, both of which had sales of over $33 million.

Secular reviews of the film are predictably negative but the impact on the kingdom of God will be highly positive. The movie tells a common story of a marriage on the rocks. The couple is caught in the trap of chasing careers and money, and finds a very uncommonly applied solution to their troubles.

Prayer changes lives.

But today’s leadership thought comes from what I was thrilled to witness at the end of the movie. First, the crowd cheered and clapped. It was the ending prayer of Miss Clara (Karen Abercrombie) that brought a powerful response from the crowd as she cries out “Raise ’em up Lord.”

Then, as the movie credits began to roll, Pastor Shaddy jumped from his seat, kicked over my popcorn bag (I had thoughts of a midnight snack) and rushed, arms flailing …

“Wait, Wait everyone, let’s take a moment now and pray for America!”

I didn’t see anyone move. People began to pray with lifted arms for our country. I’ve never seen such a benediction to a movie. Yet, it was powerful, meaningful and instructive. Pastor Shaddy yelled over the closing music for healing to come to America and people yelled back, “Yes! Heal our country!”

The leadership of Pastor Shaddy was further exemplified by his actions outside of the theater. I watched as he bought tickets for people to see War Room. Many of the people he bought tickets for had intended to see one of those escape movies from Hollywood.

War Room is not an escape movie. It is an entrance movie to a new way of living. Pastor Shaddy and I spoke in the car about how many people would go home and begin to build their own war room. He thought Home Depot would be packed!

Of course, it’s not the room, it’s the prayers.

Leaders see opportunity and take action.

“Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thess. 5:16-18).