AMERICUS — Ken Bevel lost his father four years ago.

But fortunately, their rocky relationship was mended before he passed away.

If you don’t know him, you may recognize him as Lt. Michael Simmons in the Sherwood Pictures film Fireproof. He is also a part of Sherwood’s latest film, Courageous, which is set to hit theaters Sept. 30.

Bevel, the senior associate pastor of Connections and Major Events at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, was guest speaker at Thursday’s joint meeting of  the Americus Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs as he spoke about the upcoming movie and a little bit about his life.

Courageous is a movie about four law enforcement officers who are at different stages in their lives, but yet all are dealing with fatherhood. Bevel plays the role of Nathan Hayes, and he said it’s a must-see for everyone.

“It is an impacting, life-changing movie that we have to see,” said Bevel, 38. “It’s not just a movie for men, but for everyone. It’s to show us what a biblical family looks like.”

Bevel, a retired captain in the U.S. Marine Corps, has been a part of Sherwood’s staff since 2007. But it wasn’t the easiest road to travel.

Bevel’s father was a drug addict and alcoholic, and that had a big impact on their relationship growing up.

“To be honest, I love my dad, I really do, but there were some areas in my life, some times in my life where my dad wasn’t there for me,” he said. “At baseball games, softball games, football games, he wasn’t there to help me make those big decisions. So, I would say for the better part of my early life, our relationship was ruptured.”

But after joining the Marine Corps, Bevel said things began to change within their relationship, all based on one word: Forgiveness.

“After I started learning about forgiveness, biblical forgiveness, I said, ‘You know, I can do this, I have to forgive my dad,’” he said. “So when I forgave him, he was just coming down off a high, and we embraced, we hugged, and he gave his life to the Lord. And from that point on, we started building our relationship. I’m sad he wasn’t there in those critical times, but God put some people there that helped me to get by.”

In Courageous, the four officers come together as an accountability group to help each other grow and resolve to be better fathers for their families. Bevel said the message is simple.

“Men, let’s stand up and let’s be the men God has called us to be,” he said. “Not by the world’s standards, not by our standards, but by God’s standards.”

Courageous is Sherwood’s fourth film, following Flywheel, Facing the Giants and Fireproof. Bevel said all the money the church has received from the movies has gone back into missions, which included church plants in San Francisco and Baltimore and an 82-acre sports park behind the church’s school in Albany.

He said there could be 500 children or more at the park any given night, and they all need fathers to be “intentional” in their lives.

Bevel is doing that with his two children, Kyra and Kaleb, who are 3 and 1, respectively.

“I have to be very intentional about being a father. What my children are learning, how they are growing, what I’m feeding them, everything has to be intentional about being a father. Every time I look at something, every time I’m going somewhere with them and how much time I’m spending with them, I’m trying to be so intentional.”

Bevel said too many times men try to imitate what they see on television or what they judge to be “good.” He said taking on that mirror of fatherhood is all wrong, and fathers can learn from the movie, but most importantly from the Bible.

“I was doing that for a lot of years, but the movie helped me focus on what does God biblically says about being a father,” said Bevel. “So it helped me focus on those things and when I did, when I was able to focus on those things, that showed me how to be a good father, not just based on what I see in this world, but of Christ’s love for the church and also from God’s love for us.”