Psalm 24:1 “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” A few days ago I posted about how Billy Graham leveraged the cutting edge technology of his day (television and radio) to get the gospel out to billions. Pastors back then felt that Hollywood was the devil’s domain, and didn’t want anything to do with it. But Billy Graham knew that the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. He felt we had to use every tool on this planet to fulfil the great commission. Fast forward and many church leaders’ views on Hollywood haven’t changed a whole lot. Silicon Valley is also known to be one of the least churched zip codes on the planet. But the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. I’ve seen God doing some amazing things in the Valley, and I believe He’s using technology to bring a billion new believers into the Kingdom within this generation. That’s why I got so excited when my friend Chelsea recommended that I watch The Chosen, the first multi season series about the life of Christ. It’s also the largest crowd-funded media project of all time. Their goal is to reach a billion viewers, and they’ve already gotten 117M under their belt! Instead of streaming to Netflix, they decided to create their own app and distribute the show for free. This allows them to get complete editorial control of the content, which they felt was really important for a project like this. Studio execs are notorious for prioritizing mass appeal over “truth.” It also allows the project to reach a broader audience since not everyone especially in developing markets has Netflix. Finally it allows them to leverage their viral hooks and build crowdfunding features directly into the viewing experience. Wow… Billy Graham would have been proud. Jesus would have been proud. Jesus IS proud! Looking back on the project, it makes perfect sense that something like this should have existed a long time ago. The creator, Dallas Jenkins, said something to the effect of “We watch binge worthy shows about stuff all the time. People get obsessed with them. But why isn’t there a show about Jesus that’s worth binge watching? More than anything else, Jesus is certainly worthy of our obsession.” If you haven’t checked it out yet, I’d really recommend watching. It’s definitely binge-worthy, and a hint of how God is using tech and media to get a billion new believers. You can find the link below. Lord, everything in this world is yours. Thank you for giving us permission to use all of it for your purposes. Thank you for your goodness and for your love. In Jesus’ name, Amen. https://watch.angelstudios.com/thechosen