Alex Kendrick quotes:

Well, certainly, even separate from what our culture is going through, kids have different personalities and different natural bents and skill sets that they seem to come pre-programmed with. One of my two sons is very athletic. The other one is into social skills and humor.

So, the next film won't necessarily be modern-day Albany, Georgia but we're grateful for the films we've made (with Sherwood). The church is an amazing church. We're gonna grow as filmmakers and invest in the next generation of upcoming filmmakers and try to duplicate what we're doing.

So, my brother and I, over the last two years, went back through Scripture and pulled every (passage) we could in relation to parenting children, guarding their hearts, teaching them, loving them, being patient. And then we worked through 40 principles and wrote The Love Dare for Parents.

The Love Dare for Parents really came from an ongoing response from people who went through the couple's book asking us to do the same for children. It's been a long time coming after a couple years doing this. But we're excited that it's now hitting shelves. We learned a lot going through the process of writing it, so we can't wait to see what happens.

When we go to different areas and look at doing period pieces and movies shot in other states and locations, even overseas, it's hard to carry 1700 volunteers from your church with you to do that. And so, we knew that there were going to be growing pains at some point.

As far as Love Dare for Parents goes, you can download the book. You can buy it at bookstores...We're really excited about it and believe that it's going to make significant impact for parents.

We made four feature films with Sherwood Baptist. The wonderful thing was the church (members) volunteered. It was an awesome atmosphere of attitudes. The hard part was (that) all four of the first feature films we made take place in modern-day Albany, Georgia. We know that not all of our films going to be (set in) modern-day Albany, Georgia.

Your attitude is like the aroma of your heart. If your attitude stinks, it means your heartâ??s not right.

The Song is a gritty, realistic, and powerful film. The acting and production quality are excellent, and the story is captivating. Although not for children, the story is a good reminder to adults of what really matters!

As we all know, we're all highly influenced by the atmosphere that our parents create when we're growing up. And, if we do that the right way, that carries on to the next generation.

Love is the most important ingredient to any meaningful relationship. It is fundamental to true significance. Your quality of life is directly tied to the amount of love flowing in you and through you to others. Though it's often overlooked, love is infinitely more valuable than riches, fame, and honor. They will pass away, but love remains. You can be fulfilled without these, but not without love.

There was on section in First Corinthians 13 that talks about (showing) patience, kindness, politeness, how can I demonstrate forgiveness to my children and more fully enjoy them as they're growing up and vice versa. And so, each of those has a day's journey. There are 40 days that people will go through in applying these biblical principles for their kids. We spell them out in layman's terms so it's really easy to grasp a principle.

We dare them to apply a principle for 40 days to their kids. They don't have to be 40 consecutive days...Already people that even tested the book for us had amazing responses from their kids.

Well, at the end of our movie Fireproof, we released a book that my brother Stephen and I wrote called The Love Dare. It was for couples. That book had a much larger impact than we expected. As a matter of fact, if I could use the term "overwhelmed," we were. The book went on to become a New York Times bestseller and sold over five-million copies and is now in 28 different countries and languages. So, we were blessed and just surprised at how well that did.

As our kids are drawn into, you know, Facebook and twittering and having their own cell phone and iPod and all those things , all of those things will take up as much time as you give them. What our goal is is to help them find that natural balance so that the things of our culture don't just steal their hearts and their minds and just consume their lives.

Well, Kevin Downes is the producer of Mom's Night Out. He was a fellow actor with me in the movie Courageous. He plays my police partner and we have been friends for several years. He came and helped me on Courageous and said "Would you come help me on Mom's Night Out?"

We have little bits of comedy throughout our films but this is like a full-on comedy. I had great time. It was fun to do a comedy and see a lot of the people I worked with on our previous films and meet some new actors. It was a good experience for me.

We're seeing that God's word and His principles do work. They may not work overnight but they are powerful and when we apply them in the way He shows us to apply them in life then we're going to see positive consequences.

As you show these principles over and over , it becomes engrained into how we think. And, when your kids see that, they begin doing it to their siblings. And so we've seen that as well. Many of these aspects I already knew as a parent but, as I study them more, there are more avenues that I can apply in my own parenting and I'm seeing how my kids are watching how I (interact) with my wife and (with) each of them and I watch how they (interact) with each other.

People are looking at possibly doing some documentaries and also we have the first four films that will stay out there for the years to come. So, yeah, Sherwood Pictures will be around and my brother and I are certainly supporters of that. We can't wait to see what God does not only locally there at the church but what he has for us down the road as well.

So, what we do in Love Dare for Parents is walk through the principles that help you win the hearts of your children and find that balance as a parent. As we all know, parenting can be wonderful and exasperating at times. So, we walk through the principles of demonstrating love to your kids in the most appropriate and healthy ways. We learned a great deal doing it and we believe the readers will too.

What we want to do is make sure they're not totally kept from what's going on in the world. We don't want to seclude them but, at the same time, we want them to have wisdom and discernment to make wise decisions - to protect them through the love of the family and the value that we have in one another and in the Lord and our time in Scripture. Finding that balance is not an easy task but it can be done.

I have six kids - four girls and two boys. I'm amazed that growing up in the same house, same parents with the same exposure to the same things that all my six kids can be so different. I see that as their (being) designed by God.

So, what I am learning to do is (to) learn each of their personalities - to study them, to learn how their natural bent is. Is it toward intellectualism. Is it toward athletics? Toward humor? Ministry? What makes each of them tick? And can I help them blossom in their areas of strength and win their hearts in doing so? So, that's one challenge in doing that.

The second challenge is to make sure that, growing up in this culture, they have a healthy view of life and God and Scripture. So, that's my other challenge. So, finding that balance is certainly no easy task but it can be very fulfilling. So, that's part of what we talk about in this book.

I flew over to Birmingham and did half a dozen scenes or so as a pastor in the film. I had a great time. I look forward to seeing the final version. I also am good friends with the Erwin Brothers who are co-directing and producing the film with Kevin. They also helped with Courageous. It's kind of a small little family in this arena and we love helping each other out.

We also want to invest in the next generation of filmmakers. There have been hundreds of these filmmakers that have called us saying "Can we intern with you? Can we mentor under you?" And we want an opportunity to do that, as well. So, for those two reasons, we talked with our pastor and he gave us his blessing to kind of launch out and grow the movie ministry that we have.