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When 32-year-old Darren Wilson began taking his camera to Pentecost-flavored conferences and worship services in 2006, he was driven less by blockbuster aspirations or hard-hitting journalism than wanting answers to personal questions, like, "Should I believe my Aunt Patsy and Uncle Bob?"

Wilson shooting in Africa

The two said they had received gold molars ex nihilo during a prayer meeting in which jewels the size of Oreos fell from the ceiling and gold dust randomly began showing up on people's clothing. Moreover, Aunt Patsy and Uncle Bob claimed the unexpected gold gift was the single event that led to their marriage's restoration. While Wilson had no reason not to trust his aunt and uncle, the report just didn't fit his "grid." Sure, he had been a Christian his whole life, attending American Baptist churches while growing up in Monroe, Michigan—just not that kind of Christian.

"I come out of academia, where everything is thought-based," says Wilson, a film professor for nine years at Baptist-affiliated Judson University in eastern Illinois, and founder of Wanderlust Productions. "My faith was all in my head. I was firmly in the camp of those who have to understand why God does everything he does."

Still, because Wilson believed God could give Christians gold teeth if he really wanted to, Wilson kept filming—first at other suburban Chicago services, then at larger, well-known U.S. churches, and finally all the way to Mozambique and Bulgaria. What Wilson meant to be a 15-minute video for use in churches became Finger of God, his first full-length feature film. Finger is in many ways the story of Wilson's journey from "unbelieving Christian" to chaser of the supernatural around the world. In a nutshell, Wilson says, making the film "changed my DNA."

Finger of God first released in spring 2008, then re-released as a 5-disc deluxe edition last November, and has now been shown worldwide since being picked up by Trinity Broadcasting Network. With a barebones budget, no film crew, and no premeditated story arch, Finger serves as an unadulterated glimpse into some of the most dynamic ministries of the global charismatic movement. Most of the film centers on that movement's celebrities, interspersed with footage of healings, prayer, and impoverished people in places Wilson visited. There's Canon Andrew White, bishop of the only Anglican church in Iraq, who matter-of-factly talks about manna appearing in the hands of Pentagon staff; Bill Johnson and his Bethel Church in Redding, California, which sends teens out on Friday nights to talk to whomever the Holy Spirit directs them to; and Heidi and Rolland Baker, a missionary couple in Mozambique, where exorcisms and healings of deafness are all in a day's work. All of this is set to the gorgeous, mystical violin music of Georgian Banov, an evangelist who works with gypsies in his native Bulgaria.

The title of Wilson's film echoes the scene in Luke 11 where Jesus is accused of doing exorcisms using Satan's power. "If I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your followers drive them out?" Jesus asks the crowd. "But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you" (v. 19-20). Wilson himself gets the accusation that what he filmed is actually of the Devil. "I've had a couple people tell me, 'Have a good time in hell,'" says Wilson, laughing. "But most of the time they're not that aggressive. Everyone quotes 2 Corinthians 11:14, 'for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.'"

The first 15 minutes of Finger of God, which focus on the gold teeth, jewel, and manna appearances, are the most challenging, since the miracles don't seem to bear any practical ministry fruit, and are the most targeted when Christians talk about the "excesses of the charismatic movement." Wilson's prescreening audiences reacted to them negatively, so these scenes were almost left out entirely. Wilson's wrestling came to a head with his dad. "My dad asked me, 'Look, do you believe that this is God doing this?' I said, 'Absolutely.' 'Then you have to leave it in,' he said. 'It's not your job to decide what God is or is not allowed to do. It's your job to report what you saw, and let God deal with people who are having real issues with it.'

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