Filmmakers Say God Was Their Co-Producer

But however much they attribute its success so far to divine intervention, the church leaders also made some critical practical decisions and strategic alliances.

To get "Giants" done, the Kendrick brothers called in five film professionals to manage lighting, sound, assistant direction and other technical matters. Those five ran a "boot camp" for volunteers from the church and then offered their services at cut rates.

"They just didn't know what they couldn't do, or weren't supposed to be able to do," says Bob Scott, director of photography for the movie, who has also worked on "Friday Night Lights" and "Gridiron Gang."

Once the film was done, some distributors said they were uncomfortable with so many references to Jesus. One company wanted to take the film straight to DVD.

But the church wanted a theatrical release and, eventually, Provident Films, which is owned by Sony, bought in, as did Samuel Goldwyn Films, which handled the distribution.

"Facing the Giants" is in many ways a theological fantasy: God answers prayers.

The film's protagonist is a high school football coach who has never had a winning season, whose car won't start and who can't get his wife pregnant.

But then he alters the team philosophy to the biblical -- with Him all things are possible -- and the divine intervention begins.

University of Georgia football coach Mark Richt makes a cameo before the championship game to advise: "You won the big one when you accepted Christ."

Many critics have been savage, condemning the movie for proselytizing and a flimsy plot. (At one point, the wind changes direction to enable a field goal, an almost literal deus ex machina .) A review in the industry trade paper Variety scolded, "by preaching to the converted so heavy-handedly, the filmmakers fumble an opportunity to reach beyond their target demo of devout churchgoers."

Yet it may be that preaching is exactly what will make it successful. The industry considers the huge success of "The Passion of the Christ" a sign of the untapped Christian market. Last month Fox created FoxFaith, which will release as many as a dozen religious films annually. "Love's Abiding Joy," based on the novel about a frontier family by the Christian writer Janette Oke, is showing in four theaters in the D.C. area.

But for the appreciative and tearful crowds filing out of a theater here last week, none of that mattered. What they repeated over and over is that the script seemed so faithful to their view of the world.