Everyday Miracles

With Dave Stone

If there’s one thing Dave Stone wants you to know about him, it’s that he’s “one of these guys who can’t stand hokey Christian movies.”

For 30 years, Dave served at Southeast Christian Church, a multi-campus congregation based in Louisville, Kentucky. After 13 years as senior pastor, he passed the baton to Kyle Idleman in 2019. Dave has participated in faith-based film productions, including Woodlawn and I Can Only Imagine.

“There’ll always be one scene in a Christian movie that just kind of makes me roll my eyes and go, ‘Oh no, I don’t feel comfortable inviting so and so to come see it because of that one scene.’”

Thankfully, that’s not the case with the latest film he’s helping promote. Ordinary Angels, which hits theaters on February 23, 2024, follows the story of a hairdresser who gets caught up in helping a widower whose sick daughter is waiting for a liver transplant.

Ordinary Angels is produced by Kingdom Story Company, led by Kevin Downes, Andrew Erwin, Jon Erwin, and Tony Young. Their previous features include I Can Only Imagine, American Underdog, I Still Believe, Johnny Cash: The Redemption of an American Icon and Jesus Revolution.

In this film, Sharon (played by two-time Academy Award-winner Hilary Swank) finds renewed purpose when she meets Ed (played by Alan Ritchson of Jack Reacher), who has recently lost his wife and is struggling to provide for his two daughters. The film’s climax occurs in the winter of 1994, when an historic blizzard shuts down Louisville just as a liver becomes available for his daughter, Michelle.

The only hitch is they need to get to Omaha, Nebraska, for the surgery immediately. That’s when the story intersects with Southeast Christian Church, where Dave was on staff 30 years ago. Hundreds of people converge on the church’s parking lot and begin shoveling, allowing a helicopter to land and whisk Michelle to the airport to board a plane for Omaha, where she receives the life-saving surgery.

“I was the first person on the scene,” Dave recalls. “I was there more accidentally than intentionally, but looking back, God gave me that opportunity to help people know where to go, what to do to show some leadership in that setting.”

The sometimes accidental nature of showing up to help is a central theme of the film, as people with no relationship with Ed and his family get involved in helping, whether donating to cover medical expenses or bringing a snow shovel to the church parking lot.

“Whenever there’s a community need or crisis, even if it’s not that glamorous or that exciting, if the church shows up, great things happen,” Dave explains. “I think lots of times Christian leaders understand this, but church members think, Oh, because I can’t do something big or because I can’t do everything, I won’t do something.”

Another facet of the story is how God uses imperfect people to make a difference. Sharon, the woman who helps marshal support for Ed and his girls, struggles with alcohol.

“I think lots of times Satan holds us hostage by thinking that we can’t be used until we get our life all together,” Dave notes. “We often hear that as Christian leaders when people will say, ‘Well, I’d like to come to Christ, but I can’t stand hypocrites in the church, and so I’m going to get my act together, and when I get my act together, then I’ll give my life to Christ.’ I want to look at them and say, ‘I you could get your life together without Christ, then what do you need Jesus for?’”

Dave notes that when people get their eyes off their problems and serve others, it makes room for God to do miracles in their own lives.

“There’s a piece of this where Sharon, who’s a part of our church, begins serving and actively diving into helping this family out, even though she doesn’t have her whole life together at that stage. She finds healing through helping.”

In an increasingly polarized time in our culture, Ordinary Angels is refreshing in that it demonstrates what happens when people with differing viewpoints unite around a shared cause. This is something Dave preached on from the book of Acts, but he was encouraged to see it lived out in the story the film portrays.

“In the book of Acts, they worshiped together daily. They shared what they had. They gave to those who had need. There was this unity that they had,” he explains. “And that’s a main theme of the movie: How can we be united rather than divided as communities? And that’s something that’s important for us, especially in this world that we’re a part of with racial discrimination and political polarization.”

Dave notes that more than just a feel-good story, Ordinary Angels addresses serious topics such as why bad things happen to good people, death and addiction. That being said, the film is appropriate for the whole family. With a PG rating, it does not include any profanity, sexual content or violence.

While the gospel is not directly shared in the film, Dave believes that will make non-believing viewers more likely to let down their guard and be open to the broader message of Ordinary Angels.

“What it does is it moves the needle when it comes to prayer, when it comes to service and when it comes to church involvement,” he explains. “And I really think it shows what Jesus wants us all to be in the community.”