In a summer full of movies we’ve seen before in some form, “Bad Counselors” is nothing more than a novelty: a movie with a faith-based message disguised as a frat farce, complete with PG-13 yocks and a cameo from an “American Pie” alum. Well, “masking” may be unfair. Chris Dowling’s film is earnest in its attempt to draw specifically Christian life lessons from a family story of sons forced to grow up, and it’s fairly light on the attacks on the Bible compared to others in its cinematic church. Still, it can’t help but feel like some kind of zucchini bread movie: healthier than it looks, in the way of candy devised by parents to smuggle plant-based content to their children, but ultimately also less fun.

After a limited theatrical run through Fathom Entertainment, “Bad Counselors” may find its widest audience on VOD, with a long afterlife, perhaps, in youth church groups not unlike the one depicted in the film. Crossover potential is limited, unless the recent Prime series “Every Year After” makes protagonist Matt Cornett enough of a star to make his fans curious.

Cornett’s affable on-screen energy goes some way to balancing out the more unsavory aspects of his character Grayson Fuller: an alpha jock from a college fraternity introduced as he smoothly navigates his way through a pantsless Zoom interview for a high-level finance internship. The interviewer is impressed, though he’d probably be less so if he saw Grayson callously hazing the frat’s new pledge, or drunkenly going out on the town with his best friend Tyler (Ramon Reed). The two have enough fun and so often that local police officer Montgomery (Missi Pyle) knows them by name; However, when any particularly irresponsible revelers cross the line, they are given a sentence of community service.

Good job, the night before, Grayson and Tyler accidentally stumbled upon a worship session at a megachurch, mistaking the flashy flashing lights and loud music for a normal nightclub, one of the best jokes the movie makes at its own side’s expense. There, eager volunteer Becky (McKaley Miller) tries to recruit the two non-believers as counselors for the church’s summer camp, an idea that, in the cold light of day, suddenly seems like a good one to Grayson. Film Law conveniently turns his long sentence into a week of work at the cheerfully picturesque Burning Bush Camp, where supervising pastor Tom (Chris Klein) sportingly overlooks his dubious childcare credentials and eccentric prayer style. What can go wrong?

It’s a potentially fun setup for a kind of culture clash comedy. While Tyler feels comfortable in his new sober environment, Grayson is mostly bewildered by the rituals and regulations of organized Christianity, and he’s also not much of a fan of children, least of all Patrick (Brayden Gleave), the anxious and awkward misfit whom he’s assigned as a mentor.

But “Bad Counselors” takes pains not to make Burning Bush seem too absurd, which, while fair, rather limits its comedic possibilities: There’s little irony or mischief in a movie where all the characters are good at heart, and there’s not much conflict either. What tension there is revolves around Grayson’s growing crush on goody-two-shoes counselor (and Tom’s daughter) Jenna (Brec Bassinger), which arouses both jealousy and suspicion in impeccable youth pastor Dallas (Nathan Gamble, delivering the film’s sharpest, most dimensional turn).

In any case, everything goes more or less happily for everyone involved, and Grayson finally decides to abandon “the things that are trying to replace God in our lives.” There’s even a bit of interpretive dancing to haunting Christian rock to make the point — by which point “Bad Counselors” has abandoned the laughs entirely. If all of this has you wistfully recalling the sarcasm and satire of the millennial Christian youth portrait “Saved!”, it’s safe to say you’re not in this film’s congregation, and that’s okay. Still, it’s intriguing to see faith-based cinema adopting new forms and approaches, and flirting, however briefly and cautiously, with danger.