Christian & Inspirational Presentations

God Only Knows

Joe Camp is accustomed to success. His first Benji movie was the #3 picture of the year. Against all odds, because he did it with no help from Hollywood. His second and third Benji movies were in the top ten percent for the year.

So it came as quite a blow in 2004 when he mounted a new Benji movie that came up short at the box office. A film that Joe believed would send a message to Hollywood that audiences still wanted good family entertainment that wasn’t loaded with bodily excretion humor, sexual innuendo, and violence; family entertainment that not only entertained but promoted positive values.

"I was in such a depression," Joe says. "God was intimately involved in the making and financing of the film. He paved the way. Slammed doors, and opened new ones, always for the better. Critics and test audiences all pointed to great success. The message would be sent to Hollywood that parents still cared. We had been working for seven years! But where was God on opening day? What happened to the message? I was devastated.”

This presentation is riveting, emotionally involving and full of conflict, ever shredding away the camouflage of our resistance to fully trusting God. And yet He’s always there, front and center, proven by Joe’s real life examples, in terms which everyone can understand and with which they can identify.

Years before, Joe thought his life was over when he was turned down by UCLA, where he desperately wanted to attend college to learn to make movies. But God had another plan, another route.  Later, Joe once again felt that all was lost when every distributor in Hollywood turned down his original Benji movie. And, again, God showed him other plans.

God’s plan invariably is about growth and change, often through hardship and conflict, and Joe’s God Only Knows presentation demonstrates the futility of fighting it and the ultimate joy (and logic) of complete trust, a concept that many of us find easy to talk about but difficulty to fully accept.

It’s about real life questions… the despair… the feelings of abandonment… the answers… and the ultimate why. An emotional and spiritual journey that carries the promise of changing lives.

Family vs the Media

Hollywood studios and television networks have been consistently and methodically lowering the bar in terms of what is appropriate in programming and family movies. And, unfortunately, too many parents have handed over the raising of their kids to the media. When you know the facts, this is really scary. Never mind content, there is no other experience in a child's life that permits so much passive intake while demanding so little active outflow as the experience of watching television. According to Jane Healy, PhD, it is well documented that heavy television watching has strong negative effects on the reading skills needed for high-level comprehension. The experience itself, and the experiences missed while watching, pose serious dangers to the actual physiological development of a child's brain

In his book The Epidemic, Robert Shaw, M.D. states, "Because of reliance on the media, our stricken children spend much of their time pursuing entertainment rather than accomplishment. And they derive their self-worth from possessions."

Joe believes that it is an epidemic. The toxic elements of our culture and the absence of relaxed family time have lead to outright abandonment of the traditional values of honesty and effort. The devastating effect of media saturation and consumerism constantly pushes to undermine contentment and increase the urge to acquire. Joe's mission in his presentation is inspire Christian parents to make the hard choices that will both protect their kids and send the messages to Hollywood that can affect change.

For information on booking Joe for a live appearance go to Book Joe

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