Not just a shack
Church builds replica of building featured in movie about God.
The wooden shanty sitting on the lawn of Wesley United Methodist Church was created to spark the curiosity of motorists driving along the busy street and others in the community.
That’s what the Rev. Ben Williams envisioned when he had the church’s affiliated Boy Scout troop build the structure just a few weeks ago.
The building is a replica of the shack — as in “The Shack” featured prominently in a book and movie of the same name.
A feature film based on the book "The Shack," written by William Paul Young, premiered March 3 in theaters nationwide. It tells the story of a man named Mack who has an encounter with God at a shack in the woods.
Williams, senior pastor of Wesley United Methodist, said the shack replica was crafted to help promote his new sermon series that will explore some of the faith themes highlighted in the book and film. He said he and members of his congregation saw the movie together shortly after it arrived in theaters, and he began his related sermon series on March 12 at the church, 302 E Independence.
The minister said he knows many people in communities around the country are discussing “The Shack” — whether it be positive reflections about the film or negative talk resulting from controversy surrounding it.
“With the movie coming out, I thought it was an opportunity to connect with our culture,” he said.
“I just thought we ought to be part of the conversation.”
Discussing faith themes
Williams remembers that he was adamantly against reading the book “The Shack” when it was released in 2007, after seeing a book review about it in a national magazine.
“I thought it would make me mad,” he said.
Williams said he reluctantly read the book after realizing that “everybody was talking about it,” including the members of the church he led at the time.
The minister said he ended up seeing much good in the book, primarily that it portrays the love of God in a way that is potentially healing for individuals wounded by life circumstances and heartaches. “It’s an incredible thought that the God who wields the entire universe has the ability to listen to me and help me recover from my heartaches,” he said.
When the movie premiere was on the horizon, Williams said he came up with the idea for the building of the replica at his church. He said he remembered that a minister friend at Abiding Harvest United Methodist Church, 4407 S Olive Ave., had done something similar at his Broken Arrow church when the book came out.
The Rev. Chris Buskirk, Abiding Harvest’s senior pastor, said his church built a replica in their sanctuary in conjunction with the release of the book and a related sermon series. Buskirk said his church distributed about 500 copies of the book at that time.
With the movie’s recent premiere, Buskirk said he and church members purchased about $7,700 in prepaid movie tickets to be distributed throughout the community. He said the church already has seen an influx of newcomers who saw the film and wanted to hear his current sermon series entitled “Unpacking the Shack.”
“We’re finding that it’s (movie) really connecting with people, and I think the movie is reaching more people,” Buskirk said.
“We’re giving them Scripture to under gird things that they saw in the movie.”
Williams said much the same thing.
He said his sermon series is exploring themes in the movie such as evil and free will and Lenten season themes like guilt, self-examination and forgiveness.
Not shying away
Both Williams and Buskirk said they are aware of the controversy that surrounded the book and now the movie.
Christians have taken to social media in the past few weeks to share their criticism of film and how it errs from the theology of the Bible. Most notably, Christian detractors of “The Shack” say it erroneously promotes universalism and gives an incorrect portrayal of the nature of the Holy Trinity.
The elders of Henderson Hills Baptist Church in Edmond, one of the more prominent Southern Baptist churches in the metro area and state, created a statement thatincludes a list of doctrinal errors they found in the book/ film and encourages people to avoid the movie. A link to the statement, titled“Before Entering the Shack,” had been displayed on the church’s website homepage, but it recently may be found on by clicking on the “Elders” link. “Warning: Danger Ahead! While a statement from the Elder Council regarding a book other than the Bible is unprecedented, so is thephenomenon of ‘The Shack,’” the statement begins.
Among the elders’ concerns is their assessment that in the book/ film: the Trinity is badly misrepresented; God’s love is elevated while His holiness is ignored; universalism and religious pluralism is promoted.
“Young (author) does not claim that Jesus is the only wayto salvation but the best of many ways. He also claims that Jesus uses all religions to reach people and thatHe has been reconciled to the whole world (meaning that all are saved). To elevate any other way as anavenue to salvation is to reject the exclusivity of Christ and devalue the Gospel,” the statement said regarding the latter concern.
Williams at Wesley United Methodist said he will talk about the controversial aspects of “The Shack,” and he understands critics’ concerns. He said one of his messages will explore with the film says about the Trinity.
However, he said he continues to view the movie mostly about God’s love for people, which is a message that needs to be shared. “The idea that God is this presence that is waiting to clobber people when they do something wrong is the mistaken impression that people sometimes have about God,” Williams said. “Personally, I’m helped more by the people who I know really love me rather than people who all they do is criticize me. I think that is something that Young is aiming at in ‘The Shack.’” At Abiding Harvest, Buskirk said he is purposely avoiding theological debates in his shackrelated messages.
“I think people who are criticizing it are missing a healing work that God is doing in people’s hearts,” he said. “We see it as the beginning of a conversation. It may not be a perfect theological movie, but I don’t know if I’ve ever preached a perfect theological sermon. We’re all making imperfect efforts to point towards a perfect God.”