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World's most successful film celebrates anniversary

 

 

 

What is the most successful film in history?  If the answer to the question is based on the amount of money earned at the box office, the usual answer is Titanic.  It sold enough tickets in the US to earn $600 million.  If the numbers are adjusted for inflation, Gone With the Wind moves past Titanic to take the #1 spot.  But if success is measured by the number of people who have seen the movie, both are eclipsed by a modestly budgeted film that celebrates its 30^th anniversary this year.  The name of the film is Jesus.

 

Using the Gospel of Luke as a “script,” the film released to a modest box office and marginal reviews.  But the film has gone on to have a thirty-year run that is still going strong today.  That is what the film industry calls “legs"!  As Jesus celebrates it’s 30^th anniversary, it holds a few records that might never be broken.

 

I spent the last few days at a briefing by the staff of The Jesus Film Project held at The Homestead in Hot Springs, Virginia.  During this time I learned how the film has performed over the last thirty years.  The film has had over 5 billion people attend screenings.  Yes… the word is “billion”, not “million"  Given that there are about 6 billion people on the planet, that is an amazing statistic.   Like Titanic, that number includes people who have seen the film more than once.  Taking multiple showings into consideration it is estimated that at least 3 billion people have seen Jesus at least once. 

 

Of course, there is more to the success of the Jesus film than mere numbers of viewers.  After its initial run, the film became the property of Campus Crusade for Christ, which began to use the film as a tool in their ministry.  Most of the billions of people who have seen the film have seen it for free!  It has been taken into some of the most remote areas of the world in order that cultures and people groups that are non-literate can have the opportunity to know the story of Jesus.  I saw clips of teams with portable generators, film projectors, and portable screens rowing up rivers deep in the Amazon in dugout canoes to take the film to some remote village.  This scene has been repeated all over the world. 

 

In order to make the story as comprehensible as possible, the film has been dubbed into over 1,000 languages.  This is another record.  The goal of the Jesus Film Project is to get it dubbed into at least 1,500 languages, which will make the film available in what the group calls the “heart language” of over 95% of the people groups of the world.

 

If you are not familiar with Campus Crusade, the parent group of the Jesus Film Project, it is a Christian evangelistic ministry committed to fulfilling what the Bible calls “The Great Commission”.  This refers to the challenge of Jesus to his disciples to “go into all the world and make disciples of all peoples.”  In my opinion, no group in the world has taken this commission more seriously than Campus Crusade.  Through the efforts of getting the story of Jesus to billions of people, it is estimated that over 200 million men, women, boys, and girls have come to faith in Jesus.  Working in partnership with multitudes of other Christian ministries and denominations the film has played a part in starting 1 million new churches in 190 different nations.  The combined multitude of services these churches have provided to their communities is mind-boggling.  Let’s put it this way; the Jesus film has changed, and is changing the world. 

 

So what’s next for The Jesus Film Project?  Most recently a version of the film using newly shot footage, edited into the original, tells the story of Jesus from the perspective of Mary Magdalene.  It is called Magdalena.  It shows the way Jesus treated women with love and respect.  The new version is receiving wide acceptance and use in areas of the world where it is giving women who are marginalized and abused new hope.  A version designed for children has also been released and the use of the film, and pieces of the film, are finding their ways through many new media vehicles to computers, smart phones, and other wireless devices.  A new generation is discovering the film.  One can only wonder at the world-changing power a new version of the film, with the kind of production values young people around the world look for in film, could have on the next generation.  Happy 30^th Jesus film!  And congratulations on being the most successful film in history.