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Petra’s Schlitt & Hartman Talk New “Beyond Belief” Movie

Petra’s Schlitt & Hartman Talk New “Beyond Belief” Movie

Last updated on: August 31, 2026 at 8:19 pm by DeWayne Hamby

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Petra’s Schlitt & Hartman Talk New “Beyond Belief” Movie 2026-08-31T20:19:40-04:00 DeWayne Hamby

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Driven by the music of Petra—the legendary Christian rock band with more than 10 million records sold, four GRAMMY Awards, and ten Dove Awards—the new film “Beyond Belief” brings one of the genre’s most iconic sounds to the big screen, with classic tracks woven throughout a story of faith, loss, and calling.

Bob Hartman (left) and John Schlitt. Images courtesy of Collide Media Group.

Officially endorsed by Petra founder Bob Hartman and lead singer John Schlitt, the film, directed by Johnny Meier and produced by Joe Sanders, David Aaron Stone, and Sharon Oliphant, stars Carson Lueders—whose massive digital following introduces these iconic songs to a new generation—alongside James C. Burns, Debby Gerber, and Libby Smallbone.

Hartman and Schlitt recently spoke to “Reel Faith” about their reaction to the film and reflected on the band’s pioneering run in Christian music.

Bob, I’ve talked to John a lot through the years. I’ve interviewed you once or twice, but John knows I am a longtime Petra fan from my teenage years all the way to my mid-50s. So, it’s an honor talking to both you guys. I appreciate all you’ve done.

John Schlitt: We just appreciate your time, my friend.

This “Beyond Belief” movie—most people don’t know if they’re not a Petra fan like me—but I have a copy of the original “Beyond Belief” movie. This is a second one. That was a pretty groundbreaking project you did back then. The album came out and then you strung all those videos together with drama. What did you think when somebody approached you about this one?

John Schlitt: Well, we did tell them, “We had a movie called ‘Beyond Belief’.” He says, “Oh, it’s not a movie about Petra. It’s a movie using Petra’s music,” and we said, “Well, that’s cool.” And it’s different. They’ve done a pretty good job of trying to make it very clear that it’s just using Petra’s music. But even now, we’re talking to you to let people know that there’s a difference.

It’s not like a sequel or a remake of the other one. This is a brand-new story. So, the involvement in the movie is mostly your music, even though you make cameos in it, right?

John Schlitt: Yep.

Bob Hartman: That’s correct.

How much of the music of Petra is in it?

Bob Hartman: I didn’t even count the songs. I think they said maybe seven songs.

John Schlitt: Yeah, it’s basically wrapped around Petra a lot. In fact, it got to me. I was almost getting embarrassed. It was like everything was Petra, but it worked. We’re not used to having that much attention in something that isn’t on the stage. But it worked well, and we were very honored to be part of that. It was strange to us, but we loved it. The cameo was actually a lot of fun, and I think it added a lot of humor to the movie. They represented the music well. It helped the movie, and we saw his vision after it finally came together. We were never quite sure what he was talking about. We did read the score as far as how the movie went, and it looked good. It looked very Christ-centered, and we weren’t disappointed.

Good, good. Well, the cool thing is it does introduce your music to new generations too, and we saw that recently with “Stranger Things,” which used this old ’80s music from Kate Bush, and then all of a sudden everybody’s into Kate Bush. So I’m hoping that’ll happen with this movie. Even the song is just a timeless song. It’s very cleverly written. The lyrics are good. I mean, it’s just so meaty.

John Schlitt: Yeah, I can say that because I didn’t have anything to do with the writing. I actually do some secular things, and when I do, I do “Beyond Belief.” And the band that I use are all secular guys, and they play every kind of thing. It’s a collection of different secular songs that are all big hits, and “Beyond Belief” is the one song they have to go back to because they say, “This is a complicated song.” And it’s so funny. I’m the one guy after—you’ve got guys from Boston, guys from Journey. They come and say, “Hey, John, can you come? We need to work on your song again.” I say, “I know it’s not an easy song to play.” That’s sort of the structure. Petra has never been a simplistic thought as far as the music theme. The music is very upgrade, first class. The words are so important and so directed to what we believe in that it’s always timeless. The hardest part for us now touring is what songs do we play? Because Bob and I are so responsible doing that and it is tough to figure out what song you leave out. With our new tour coming in, we have four new songs from our newest album, and seriously, it was not easy to figure out what we’re going to do with all the other songs we need to make sure are in.

What’s the one song that if you didn’t do it, they would run you out of town if you didn’t play it?

John Schlitt: “Beyond Belief.” It’s synonymous for Petra. I mean, it’s synonymous for Christian rock. If we didn’t do “Beyond Belief,” we might as well leave the stage.

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Have you been surprised by people who’ve come to you and said, “Hey, I listen to Petra,” even though they’re from maybe a whole different category than you are?

Bob Hartman: I think that the lyrics that are Christian and biblically-oriented are something that are universal. I mean, we’ve always felt that, and we’ve always seen that with our songs. And it doesn’t matter if we put those into a ballad type of song like a “Grave Robber,” or we put them into a rock song like a “He Came, He Saw, He Conquered.” They still have the same kind of effect, and we just try to fit the type of music with the message. That’s all we’ve done through our career, and we think it’s worked for us, and we hope it keeps working.

John Schlitt: As far as other artists coming up and saying, “It’s not our style, but we love what you do,” actually, we get more of that from our meet and greets and people coming up. They say, “I don’t like rock, but I like you guys,” especially older folks. I’m serious. Most will say, “My kids played it, and I wouldn’t let them. Finally, they told me to listen, and I did, and now I’m a fan.” But they’re not a fan of our music style, because it’s not theirs. But they love what the message is, and Bob’s always done a great job of doing hooks that are very listenable. And once you start listening to those hooks and listen to the message, it’s a no-brainer.

Bob, the songs that you’ve written—I just don’t know that it’s humanly possible to have done what you did. It has to be the Lord who inspired you musically and lyrically. How many songs would you estimate you’ve written over the course of Petra?

Bob Hartman: Oh, it’s probably 250-300. I don’t know. There’s some I’ve written that never got recorded, that were kind of thrown away and forgotten, and probably for very good reasons.

John Schlitt: I’m just happy that there are still ideas there of things to communicate that might be meaningful to someone. I was totally shocked that we have the new album called “Hope.” That was five new ideas, five new structures, very relatable, just very classy. In fact, one of the reasons we didn’t have an album in 20 years was every time Bob said, “I just can’t do it anymore,” and just all of a sudden out of the blue, this movie was part of the inspiration. This movie and a documentary you haven’t even seen yet was sort of the inspiration. He got into a rhythm again, and it was exciting to see. Also, us doing our anniversary tour that’s been on for like three years was sort of an inspiration. Every time we have a meet and greet, they say, “Yeah, you gotta do another record.” We look at each other and say, “No, that’s not going to happen.” But it did.

It’s a great record, and it’s got a mix of styles on it, like normal, and great lyrics to it too.I just appreciate you guys. It’s just such an honor to talk to you guys. I was 16-17 years old in public school, walking around the campus with Petra in my earphones, just trying to be a devout Christian and having this soundtrack that kind of fed my faith right in the middle of an environment that wasn’t always easy. So it’s just an honor to talk to you. Thank you for all you’ve done for me and for so many other kids like me, and adults and everybody.

John Schlitt: Thank you, DeWayne. We’re so glad we were able to be part of your life, my friend.

“Beyond Belief” is currently playing in theaters. Petra’s new album “Hope” is available on digital music outlets.

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