How would you respond if you came face-to-face with someone you knew was just minutes away from ending his life? That’s the focus of The Ride, the dramatic thirty-minute movie short by award-winning filmmaker Dallas Jenkins, which will air Tuesday night, December 9th, on Trinity Broadcasting Network, the world’s largest religious broadcaster and America’s most popular faith-and-family channel.
Son of New York Times best-selling author Jerry Jenkins, whose Left Behind book series has sold over 75 million copies and been made into several faith-based action films airing on TBN, Dallas Jenkins has carved out his own niche as a talented filmmaker with such family friendly movies as Hometown Legend, Midnight Clear with Stephen Baldwin, and What If… starring Kevin Sorbo.
It was in his role as director of media at Chicago’s Harvest Bible Chapel that Jenkins produced The Ride. The Chicagoland mega-church, pastored by popular TBN ministry partner James MacDonald, has a strong evangelistic outreach, and the movie short was created for the congregation’s Christmas Eve service a couple of years ago.
“We really just intended it for that service,” Jenkins recalled, “but it somehow ended up getting attention from a number of movie festivals — including some secular ones — where it won multiple awards.” The movie also caught the eye of some A-list Hollywood producers, who are helping to finance and produce the church’s next feature film.
Enthusiastically endorsed by a number of high-profile pastors and Christian leaders for its powerful themes of redemption and restoration, The Ride is set in the dark and lonely streets of Chicago on Christmas Eve night, where a bored and disengaged taxi driver reluctantly accepts one more pickup before heading home to his family. But as the journey progresses the driver becomes convinced that his sullen passenger intends to take his own life. Realizing that he may be the only person standing between a broken, hurting individual and eternity, the taxi driver makes an uncharacteristic decision to reach out to the disheveled and hostile man. The result is a dramatic invasion of God’s grace into the hearts and lives of both men.
“We are excited to bring this unforgettable Christmas film to our viewers all over the world,” said TBN Vice President Matthew Crouch. “The Ride offers a compelling message of hope and redemption for the many individuals around us who are living in despair. And along with it comes a serious challenge to those who know the way to step into that despair with the life-changing message of God’s mercy.”
Tune in Tuesday, December 9th, at 7 p.m. Pacific (9 p.m. Central, 10 p.m. Eastern), as hosts Matthew and Laurie Crouch welcome Dallas Jenkins and actor Kirk Woller (the taxi driver) to talk about The Ride and its growing impact as it is shown in churches and other venues around the world. And invite family and friends to join you in viewing this powerful movie in its entirety on TBN’s Praise the Lord talk show.
source: TheBelleReport.net
