We far too often forget that only three years ago, government officials in the United States and other Western nations were closing churches, restricting the activities permitted during worship services, and threatening ministers with imprisonment. “The Essential Church,” a feature-length documentary made by Grace Productions and starring Grace Community Church Pastor John MacArthur, seeks to bring those harrowing memories back to the forefront of the nation’s mind.
The film, slated for release this weekend in select theaters across the country, draws the viewer back into the chaos which emerged during the lockdowns. Against a backdrop of devastating government mandates and social upheaval, the two-hour and six-minute film recounts decisions that every churchman in the West will instantly recognize: how to properly apply biblical principles about the church and the state to unlawful public health mandates, whether to comply with the mandates in light of such realities, and how to approach church members and leaders who would rather continue masking, social distancing, and conducting services online.
Viewers will see MacArthur, as well as Canadian ministers Tim Stephens and James Coates, biblically answer those questions in reluctant defiance of the tyrants who attended race riots and opened casinos while keeping congregations shuttered. They will see how believers around the world rallied when the elders of Grace Community Church publicly declared that “Christ, not Caesar, is head of the church” and reminded themselves that they “must answer to the Lord Jesus for the stewardship he has given to us as shepherds of his precious flock.”
The heroes of “The Essential Church,” beyond the shadow of a doubt, are indeed MacArthur, Stephens, and Coates: three shepherds whose boldness and zeal were kindled as wolves in the civil government mercilessly preyed upon the sheep entrusted to their care.
Each recalled the immense grief induced in their hearts as they preached to camera lenses and empty sanctuaries in the early days of the lockdowns. They shuddered as they described the harrowing weeks during which they were prevented from caring for the isolated. Unlike thousands of other pastors across the West, at least one of whom was rebuked in the documentary for using his massive platform to support churches remaining closed, the three ministers decided to reopen their churches and risk legal prosecution rather than allow the ministry of the gospel to remain stifled. Stephens and Coates paid dearly for their boldness as they were torn from their families and compelled to spend several weeks in prison.
The viewer will walk away from “The Essential Church” with the sense that each of these three men, in the words of the prophet Jeremiah, have “a burning fire shut up in their bones” that compels them to fulfill their ministries no matter the personal cost. Their answer to civil authorities seeking to improperly restrict these ministries, in the words of the apostle Peter, was unwavering and emphatic: “We must obey God rather than men.”
Much of the documentary details the legal battle between Grace Community Church and various authorities in California, as well as the Protestant reformers whose examples Grace Community Church followed rather than comply with unconstitutional mandates. Viewers are reminded that many court proceedings, as well as the underlying issues which led to the lockdowns, are far from resolved, and that more persecutions are likely to emerge as darkness descends on the many Western cultures which once considered themselves Christian.
May the Lord Jesus Christ always appoint shepherds with the fortitude of MacArthur, Stephens, and Coates, especially as the flock prepares to stand firm through dark days.
