For a long time, Christians weren’t quite sure what to do with rock and roll.

The guitars were loud. The style felt worldly. And when bands like Petra began pairing that sound with explicitly Christian lyrics, not everyone was convinced the two belonged together.

Petra kept playing anyway.

Over time, the argument changed. Artists like Petra helped widen the boundaries of what Christian music could sound like.

Filmmakers know a version of that tension, too. Certain genres can feel more naturally suited to Christian storytelling than others. But maybe the better question isn’t whether the form is Christian enough. It’s what you choose to do with it.

This week, we’re turning up the volume on Petra, the new film carrying their music to the next generation, and what their story might have to say to filmmakers willing to work outside the expected lines.

Walk the Line follows Johnny Cash from his early days in Memphis through the fame, addiction, and complicated relationship with June Carter that shaped his rise. It’s a great music biopic, but our editor-in-chief remembers seeing another side of Cash at a Billy Graham Crusade, where the Man in Black sang and spoke openly about God transforming him into the Man in White. The film doesn’t really get to that chapter, which reminds us that even the best films only tell part of the story.

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Set in the 1980s, Beyond Belief follows Andy, a teenage rocker with big dreams and a love for Petra. Then a mysterious voice tells him to “run,” turning that ambition in an unexpected direction. The first feature film built around the band’s songs pairs a coming-of-age story with themes of grief, purpose, and figuring out what you’re really being called toward. The Petra connection may be the hook, but the story is aiming for something bigger than nostalgia. Opens August 28th in theaters.

WHERE TO WATCH →

Our editor-in-chief, Ian Eyre, still remembers his first Petra cassette in the 1980s. At the time, that little tape carried more baggage than you might expect.

When Petra formed in 1972, Christian rock was still a contradiction to plenty of people in the church. Founder Bob Hartman has recalled preachers speaking out against the band, Christian bookstores refusing to stock their records, and believers picketing their concerts. In a 1985 profile, The Washington Post noted that Petra had even been accused of being demon-possessed.

The band kept turning up the volume.

Their 1977 cover of “God Gave Rock and Roll to You” made the point about as clearly as possible. Petra took Russ Ballard’s song and rewrote its verses around their faith, pushing back on the idea that a guitar riff somehow belonged on one side of the sacred-secular divide.

They weren’t the only ones testing those boundaries. A decade later, brothers Nikolai and Peter Pankratz, whose family had escaped the Soviet Union, formed Christian rock band Ruscha and brought another unlikely story into the genre.

Petra kept going. More than 50 years and millions of records sold later, the sound that once made some churches nervous has become part of Christian music history.

Now that legacy is finding a new life on screen.

Beyond Belief takes Petra’s music and the Christian youth culture of the 1980s as the backdrop for an original coming-of-age story. Hartman and longtime frontman John Schlitt even make an appearance. As Hartman recently reflected on that era, there was still plenty of anti-rock sentiment coming from church pulpits.

That makes what comes next especially fitting: a band once kept at arm’s length by some churches is now helping inspire a film that’s finding a home in them.

The results are in! 100% of you voted for “Creative control” in last week’s poll: What matters most when building something of your own?

Getting a movie into theaters is one thing. Getting the right people into the seats is another.

Intrigue Films, the production company behind Beyond Belief, is approaching that problem by looking somewhere faith-driven films already have a built-in audience: the church.

The film’s church outreach strategy gives congregations several ways to participate. They can organize group tickets, book an entire theater, or, if there isn’t a theater nearby showing the film, bring it directly to their church through the Faith Content Network.

The team also created a free Church Ministry Guide with discussion questions, Scripture connections, small-group ideas, and resources for families and student ministries. The idea is to make the film useful beyond a single screening.

That reflects the principle behind the P.R.O.V.E. Method™:

The takeaway isn’t simply to find more screens. It’s to know who the film is for, meet them where they already gather, and give them a way to carry it further.

_{*Plumb News is not affiliated with “Beyond Belief” or Intrigue Films and does not receive compensation for featuring it. We’re just highlighting it because we believe projects like this deserve support.}

“Sing unto him a new song; play skillfully with a loud noise.” – Psalm 33:3 (KJV)

There’s something refreshing about how direct that is. Make something new. Make it well. Don’t be afraid to make some noise.

For filmmakers, it can be easy to spend so much time worrying about the message that the craft gets pushed aside, and certain genres on the fringe get forgotten. But how a story is told matters, too. The choices that feel unexpected, strange, or even a little risky are often the ones that make the work stick.

That doesn’t mean being different just to be different. It means bringing your full imagination to what you’ve been given and resisting the urge to sand off every edge.

Faithful work doesn’t have to play it safe. Sometimes honoring what God has given you means pushing it somewhere new.

Until next time,

THE PLUMB NEWS TEAM