Come Sunday

Carlton Pearson (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a star in the Pentecostal world in COME SUNDAY. A charismatic and sincere African American minister, Bishop Pearson has been able to successfully integrate black and white parishioners in Higher Dimensions Church, his large, thriving Tulsa house of worship. Pearson’s congregation, like other “mega-churches” in 1998, has a major presence on television and a national following, and it functions as a carefully maintained business run by one of the community’s most loyal members (Jason Segel). Things take a dramatic turn when Pearson, highly moved after watching newsreel footage of the Rwandan massacre, hears God’s voice. Though the Pentecostal doctrine clearly delineates that only those people who voluntarily commit to being saved by Jesus Christ will find a permanent home in heaven — all others will be sent to hell — the God who speaks to Pearson has a different message. Innocents, like the Rwandan children, cannot possibly be so easily abandoned. The more Pearson opens his mind and his heart to a compassionate God, the more he becomes certain that other innocents, including “sinners” who are gay, non-Christians, and any who have not asked for salvation, will still have God’s and Jesus’ love. Pearson’s sermon expressing these transformative views sets off a calamitous series of events, which culminate in an intense face-off with the Pentecostal hierarchy, including Pearson’s lifelong mentor, Oral Roberts (Martin Sheen).