{"id":5890,"date":"2025-09-06T11:36:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T11:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/5890\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T11:36:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T11:36:09","slug":"light-of-the-world-begins-a-30-year-mission-to-share-jesus-with-the-world-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/5890\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Light of the World\u2019 begins a 30-year mission to share Jesus with the world \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

For roughly three decades, animator-director John Schafer idly searched for an opportunity to get involved in making a film about the life of Jesus. <\/p>\n

Back in the 1990s, Schafer said he felt a divine nudge to spend his filmmaking talents on sharing the story of Jesus\u2019 ministry. He mostly shelved the prompting, waiting for the right opportunity to present itself. <\/p>\n

Four years ago, the idea for the newly released animated movie \u201cLight Of the World\u201d was presented to Schafer and former Disney animator Tom Bancroft over coffee by Brennan McPherson, the president of the nonprofit ministry Salvation Poem Project. <\/p>\n

Schafer took the project as the opportunity he\u2019d been waiting on since the \u201990s. He serves as director of the film, alongside Bancroft, with McPherson as a producer. <\/p>\n

\u201cLight of the World\u201d \u2014 which debuts in theaters this weekend \u2014 tells the story of Jesus through the eyes of his youngest apostle, John, which categorizes the animated feature as a \u201ccoming-of-age movie,\u201d McPherson explained. <\/p>\n

\"\"“Light of the World” is a new feature film from The Salvation Poem, which tells the story of Jesus through the eyes of his youngest apostle, John. | The Salvation Poem <\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to make it really fun, entertaining and engaging for audiences, but also stay true to their key scriptural beats,\u201d Schafer said. \u201cWe made this movie for everyone to see, whether you\u2019re a believer or whether you\u2019re not a believer.\u201d <\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cIt\u2019s fun, and it\u2019s a different take on on Jesus. … We really went into the human side of Jesus. So you see him joke around, laugh, smile.\u201d <\/p>\n

But the animated movie is just the tip of the iceberg. It\u2019s a kickoff project Salvation Poem Project hopes will guide a 30-year global ministry. <\/p>\n

Salvation Poem Project, a nonprofit media ministry, was founded by Matthew McPherson, who solely funded the $20 million animated movie. Profits made through the theatrical release of \u201cLight of the World\u201d will not go back to McPherson, but toward future ministry projects. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the proceeds from the theatrical launch will be reinvested and go back into ministry. None of it will line private pockets,\u201d Brandon McPherson said. <\/p>\n

Leaning on the hopes that \u201cLight of the World\u201d will be a box-office success, the money raised from ticket sales will begin a cycle of funding for Salvation Poem Project\u2019s ongoing mission \u2014 to share stories about Jesus with the world. <\/p>\n

\"\"“Light of the World” is a new feature film from The Salvation Poem, which tells the story of Jesus through the eyes of his youngest apostle, John. | The Salvation Poem <\/p>\n

Salvation Poem Project has ambitious plans for the money earned by \u201cLight of the World.\u201d One goal is to translate the animated movie into 500 languages, so cultures across the globe can access its message. <\/p>\n

The nonprofit also aims to create free mini games and free children\u2019s curriculum programs, and to produce a variety of uplifting movies and television shows. <\/p>\n

But the primary objective right now is to get \u201cLight of the World\u201d in front of a global audience.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Light of the World\u2019 is really a 20- to 30-year project for us … it\u2019s an ongoing mission,\u201d Schafer explained. \u201cMaking the movie was really hard, but the bigger task of getting it seen by everyone around the world in so many languages. That\u2019s the big task.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jesus through John\u2019s perspective\"\"“Light of the World” is a new feature film from The Salvation Poem, which tells the story of Jesus through the eyes of his youngest apostle, John. | The Salvation Poem <\/p>\n

Creating a piece of religious entertainment that\u2019s impactful for both children, adults, religious cultures, nonreligious cultures and everything in between is a daunting objective the Salvation Poem Project took upon itself. <\/p>\n

The organization decided telling the story through the eyes of a young John would make the film\u2019s message more accessible. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew we wanted to tell the story from an intimate, personal point of view, because we didn\u2019t want to tell the story from Jesus\u2019 perspective. That\u2019s been done before,\u201d McPherson said. \u201cWe wanted to show an actual, intimate point of view of someone who was profoundly changed by Jesus\u2019 ministry.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cLight of the World\u201d was written primarily for viewers with no concept of Jesus, or hold misconceptions about Jesus, Schafer noted. He added that the film offers a great entry point to Christianity for those who don\u2019t know anything about Jesus. <\/p>\n

Since it was also written as the launch of a 30-year ministry plan, Schafer said using 2D, hand-drawn animation would give the film an enduring quality. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted (\u2019Light of the World\u2019) to stand the test of time,\u201d Schafer said. He believes 2D animation has an \u201cenchanting\u201d and \u201ctimeless\u201d feel to it, that won\u2019t expose its age over the next few decades as obviously as some modern animation techniques can. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we have with all across cultures is these children\u2019s story books, they have this painterly feel or illustrated feel,\u201d Schafer said. \u201cAnd so if you find something that\u2019s common with all of us \u2014 you make it more familiar. And so we could do that with 2D animation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finding space in the growing faith-based genre<\/p>\n

Within the rising flood of faith-based media, such as \u201cThe Chosen,\u201d \u201cHouse of David\u201d and other projects, \u201cLight of the World\u201d will still make an impact, its creators believe. <\/p>\n

But making an impact is not about competing with other faith-based projects. There is plenty of space for all the Jesus content, Schafer believes. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe complement each other. We\u2019re not competition. We\u2019re trying to further the one kingdom,\u201d Schafer explained. \u201cThis is God\u2019s timing. This is his orchestration.\u201d <\/p>\n

Still, \u201cLight of the World\u201d stands out in the sea of biblical movies. Its being distributed for nonprofit, it\u2019s told in 2D animation and tells the story of Jesus through John\u2019s perspective, which McPherson believes has never been done before. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have several different goals, but the main goal is impact. We want to know that this is actually changing people\u2019s lives for the better,\u201d McPherson said.<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cWhen we set out to make this, we wanted to make a film that clearly showed the beauty of Jesus to people who\u2019d never even heard his name before, in a way that they could understand, grab a hold of and say, \u2018I see why you love Jesus.\u2019 And to give those people an opportunity to to learn more about him and to decide to follow him themselves, if they so choose.\u201d<\/p>\n

When does \u2018Light of the World\u2019 come out?<\/p>\n

\u201cLight of the World\u201d debuts in theaters nationwide on Friday, Sept. 5. It is rated PG. <\/p>\n

Watch: Trailer for \u2018Light of the World\u2019 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For roughly three decades, animator-director John Schafer idly searched for an opportunity to get involved in making a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,7643,409,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-5890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-faith","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}