Thoughts on Hillsong United’s “THE I-HEART REVOLUTION” Movie

Last night, Hillsong United premiered its documentary film, THE I HEART REVOLUTION: WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER, in theaters across the US and Canada (it will premier across Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa on November 18). I’d heard about the movie a while back and forgot about it until Tuesday night. I’ve been on a business trip in Virginia this week, so I figured I’d see it after work. I’m glad I made the choice to see it.

The event started with a mini-concert and introduction by United – broadcast from Australia. It set the stage for and explained the documentary, which tells stories of justice, compassion, and mercy around the globe – all filmed over the past three years during their concert tour.

Apart from the 30-minute intro, the movie ran about two hours (a little long and sometimes bumpy in the message, but it needed to be). The film was divided into three distinct parts:

1. Stories of injustice, loss, neglect, poverty, – the harsh and terrible realities of life across the globe…the realities that we don’t know about or often choose to ignore.
2. The Hope amidst those realities found solely in Jesus.
3. A call to those who follow Jesus to have a heart like Him, consider #2, and (because of it) take action on #1.

It was a profound film. So much hurt and hopelessness in the world…and we too often turn a blind eye to it.  I (and many around me) couldn’t help shedding tears at given moments during the film.  It is a profound message.

There were so many “amen” moments and phrases.  I found a few of them on Twitter to share:

• Loneliness is the worst form of poverty.
• If what happens inside the four walls of the church doesn’t make a difference in the streets that people travel to get there, then maybe we are missing the point.
• We’ve trained ourselves to look past need.  Injustice and indifference go hand in hand.
• Jesus didn’t die to give us religion, He died to give us love.
• Preaching does not come from the pulpit, it comes from the people of God living their lives out for Him -Brother Andrew
• There’s a dangerous division between sacred and secular… There’s nothing secular, everything belongs to God.
• The church exists for those outside of it. -William Tyndale
• Having seen all this you can choose to look the other way, but you can never say again, ‘I did not know.’ -William Wilberforce (regarding the English slave trade in the 1800s)
• “Nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something”
• You think that all the preaching must come from the pulpit. It’s not true. It comes from the life of those who follow Jesus.
• For too long the church has made a big deal out of small things and a small deal about big things!
• Talk is cheap, put feet to your vision.
• The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.
• The future will be written by the way we respond to moment that’s in front of us.

Driving back to my hotel, my mind was reeling – information overload, conviction of my own apathy, and thoughts of how I can make changes in my own life to “do something.”  (OK – my mind is still reeling)

God has really been working on my heart in this area lately and I needed to see this movie.  I pray that my heart is changed, last night wasn’t a wasted moment, that I would be part of the solution.

Will you be part too?

(If you didn’t get to see the film, I’m sure it will be out on DVD at some point.  I HIGHLY recommend it.)