Reaching the Next Billion Through Heart Language Digital Media

Miheret Eshete: Hello everyone, thank you so much Jeff for the introduction and you guys are doing amazing work. I am so, so encouraged to see all these people all over the world coming as the army of the Lord to spread out what God is doing. all over the world together online and in the virtual space. Today, I'm going to share with you, as Jeff said, what God is doing in Jesus Field Project. Our mission is very clear. We want to partner with the body of Christ through heart language media. So everyone, everywhere. can encounter jesus so our vision is really reaching everyone everywhere for the last 45 years we have been serving the body of christ with one of our classic jesus film movie which was made in 1979 and The fact is, even today, God is using that movie, which was made in 1979, to transform people's lives. And today I will zoom in to share with you what Jesus said in the New Testament. He told us to go and make disciples of all nations. And I personally believe the next billion... New believers are going to encounter about Jesus or encounter Jesus through their mobile phones, which they carry. Right now we have about 8 billion people in the world, but we have more than 8 billion mobile devices. And I like to take a short poll. And Andy, if you are ready, if you can show the poll for people to encounter. As we start this presentation, I'd like to know, like, you know, how it keeps you feel to share your face online. So let me let me hear your voice on this. Thank you for participating on that. I saw a number of polls already. Jeff was running and I'm very encouraged. Most of you who are on this virtual digital missionary conference, you are already experiencing or experimenting some form of evangelism and discipleship. So let's continue. You know, in the first century, Apostle Paul knew how to use all available technology for him. And for him, it was the Roman road system. So on the left side you are seeing, you know, Paul's map. That's like, you know, he traveled on foot to different places to share about Jesus. For us in the 21st century, it's all the social media. So I don't need to spend more time there because a number of speakers shared about that. This is the digital strategy or the digital product and media suite of Jesus Film Project. Most of you may be aware of our Jesus Film application and we create a number of short films. You will find them on the app and we are very active on YouTube with almost 2.7 million subscribers and also one of the new tool uh we are we developed and we believe is going to really empower the body of christ for digital mission is next steps we will talk more about that and if you are also looking into a website form we have a streaming service we call it the watch page if you go to jesusfilm.org watch uh you'll find that and as i'm speaking here on the online stage uh my friend and colleague uh stuart freeman he's speaking on the vr space we are also looking into what god is doing already a community of people who are gathering on different public and private vr space and jesus film is taking action uh to capitalize on that of course ai is the new addition to our suite and it's it's impacting everything we do let's start with the story recently i was traveling and uh i was i just arrived in washington dc and uh i was very in a hurry because i had a speaking engagement that day so i i grabbed a uber And my Uber driver, he was from Afghanistan and he lived in the US for about 20 years. And, you know, we talked about his Tesla. He was driving Tesla. We talked about about charging and different issues. But our conversation shifted when he asked me this question. What are you up to in Washington, D.C.? So I told him about, well, I am here to speak about Jesus film. By the way, you said you are from Afghanistan. Have you watched the Jesus film? I'm sure I have it in your language. When I said that, he was like, no, I don't think we have any movie in my language. I don't think you have that. So quickly, I just opened my Jesus film up and looked for Afghanistan and looked for his language, which was Pashto. And I started playing a clip. when i said that his light lit up his face lit up and he was so excited he was laughing and finally said by the way i love muhammad i love jesus i i read the quran i read the bible so all the confusion came up and we had for about 30 minutes a conversation about who jesus is and how Jesus actually claims to be God how he is different and some of the examples even from Quran you know why Jesus was portrayed in some of the Quran verses like a God rather than just a prophet I will not go in detail but in all that conversation I can see his heart was opening and softening and he wants to hear more and I told him like I can give you this up and if you if you want give me your text message which he did so I texted him and as I was leaving his Tesla this is where I was so shocked he said hey when do you go back when do you go back to the airport I said I'm here just for one day I'm going back tomorrow and he said Do you mind if I can come tomorrow and take you to the airport so we continue the conversation? I never had that kind of scenarios with other Uber drivers. I said, yes. He came back the next day and we continued our conversation. And at that time, because we already did a lot of conversation, apologetic conversation with him. At this time, I had the opportunity to share the gospel in full. in his own language and he was as he was driving he was listening to me and finally i asked him what do you think he told me back what he heard in his language in english and thinking like you know jesus is very different so what i'm talking here is the power of sharing the gospel in heart languages that's what jesus film really brings to the body of christ for each believers to capitalize on Then I told him like, what's your decision for the message you said? He said, well, I have to speak with my Imam because you are talking very different things what I know. And one thing I always remember is as he was grabbing my luggage at the airport, he called his son. and told him there is something we have to discuss today. This passenger told me about Isa. So I would love for you and others also to experience this because in everyday life, can be an opportunity to share Jesus and the Jesus Film app is a wonderful tool to do that. And recently I read a book called Is God Real? by Lee Strobel and one shocking and staggering stat there is every second about 200 people are searching the internet asking question, is God real? Who is Jesus? If you calculate that, that is 17 million people are searching the internet. So the harvest is ready. Are we ready to engage with them? And another recent research from Barna, about 49% Gen Z says they are open about Jesus. Their understanding is Jesus is loving. And 46% of them said Jesus offers hope. And about 62% of them, this is like a research from 25,000, a global research of Gen Z, uh uh uh and they are saying you know they they they are very open for the bible so there is a lot of opportunity for us historically and uh maybe let me talk about the current reality of the great commission today we have uh about 450 000 missionaries and mission agencies about 22 million church leaders, pastors, and about 2.4-2.5 people claiming to follow Jesus Christ. These are some of the reports from the State of the Great Commission which Matthieu was speaking earlier on. And all of them, they have some form of process to reach and engage people who are without Jesus. And the big question there is how do we mobilize ordinary Christians in the ordinary day like that they will have the opportunity to share Jesus Christ with others. And that has been a big challenge because if it is only the missionaries and the church leaders, the task before us is impossible to really accomplish. But it takes all of us, all the body of Christ to be mobilized to share Jesus Christ. As we discussed it all today, The reality today is we have to be intentional in how we engage with our digital experience and virtual experiences, because those are some of the tools highly, highly. applicable in today's world so what you are seeing on top of the jesus film products uh god tools is one of the campus crusade or crew tools i highly recommend it for evangelism and also everyson.com i have used it for the last 15 years most of this tool you see i have used them and i have seen people coming to know the lord Another story I would love to share with you, the combination of Jesus Film App and Guard Tools. I was in Wichita, Kansas. Some of you might be joining from there today. And I was using, I just came from Ethiopia, so I was not driving at that time. So I needed to use a bus. And I was in a bus station and I saw a young man. He was hitting the vending machine to get something out of it. doesn't know what to do with it so i just realized why he's hitting the bending machine uh so i i approached him when i approached him he's actually literally from ethiopia and i am originally from ethiopia so i said how can i help you the moment he heard me speaking in his language I still remember how happy he was. Anyways, to make the story short, he just arrived from Ethiopia about two weeks ago and he was taking a road trip. He doesn't have a card and he was someone from the most unreached people group from Ethiopia, my country, and I met him in Wichita. So as a coincidence, our trip was together from Wichita to Kansas City. So we were sitting together and I said, I played a clip for him from the Jesus film Up. in his own tribal language, and he started crying. And by that time, I asked him, like, you know, what his understanding about Jesus. And on Jesus Film Up, you are able to switch into God Tools, which gives you a very simple gospel presentation. And I was able to go with the gospel presentation with him. And in the middle of our journey, crying he came to know the lord he accepted jesus christ as his personal lord and savior so my question to you is just like the famous advertisement what's in your wallet you know the capital one advertisement i will ask you what's in your mobile phone that you will be able to share the gospel to someone you will encounter in everyday life And I highly recommend you to use Jesus Film Up as well as God Tools Together. This is, for example, you know, Easter is coming up very soon. And this is our YouTube page. As I said to you, we have 2.7 million subscribers. Historically, during the Easter week, we get a big... number of people engaging with our content. And what you are seeing is from last year from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. So it shows you every year we are getting almost 50% increase the number of people who are watching our content. and the graph you are seeing is all organic on good friday alone we saw 3.5 million people viewing our content just in a single day and in that week of palm sunday to easter sunday 23.5 million people and you know sometimes when you talk about uh numbers you know you feel like wow that's a large number but what what is that i would love to give you an example what god is doing actually on our youtube uh rose is a medical student from a west african country and uh that country is 96 percent They follow a religion of Islam. And for her to know about Jesus was online. So she was browsing and she found our YouTube page. And in our YouTube page, she found a gospel presentation and she laid herself. to Christ. Nobody helped her. Nobody even told her what to do. She watched it and she made a decision to follow Jesus Christ. She did not stop there. She started searching about our YouTube and she found our website and in our website she found a local contact in her country and she reached out to the couple there. And that is a very difficult place for us to be there in person and do ministry. But what i can tell you today is she went there she had the meeting and our staff members there when they realized she came to know the lord on youtube and jesus film played a big role they are they challenged her to be the volunteer of the jesus film project for that specific country and i had the privilege to meet ross in another country in africa and see what God is doing in her life. She's doing medical school. She's a very busy person, but at the same time, she's our volunteer in helping people find Jesus in her country. So if you have... a YouTube strategy. If you are using YouTube, I have a very good news for you because earlier Matthew was talking about it. Jeff was talking about a lot. He was talking about contextualization. The next tool I'm going to share with you will help you really convert people from viewing on YouTube, just viewing content from YouTube to actually taking different next steps so that they can discover and follow Jesus Christ. next step is one of the new tool we are going to have another demonstration right after my talk but this is one tool we developed the last three four years and we are seeing already amazing results like small churches ministries big churches they are already using it to actually convert you know content consumption into meaningful experiences And it helps people to discover Jesus and follow Jesus. So if you scan the QR code, you are able to explore some of the journeys we already made and it will help you learn more about it. And more is coming about that soon. So let's go back to the YouTube, right? You know, we are seeing a tremendous number of people watching our content. we are also seeing people taking action last year we put next step journeys uh contextualized next step journeys on some of our videos for a test and 50 990 people actually clicked on it This is all organic and they clicked on it on the description section and more than 8000 people actually initiated chat or conversation. So this is a powerful tool for your ministry to be aware of and explore. So the big question today, as I said earlier, is how do we mobilize? all the believers in the body of Christ to share their faith. To do that, I believe, and with Jesus, we believe that Next Step is going to be a big amplifier of our evangelistic efforts. And another maybe two quick stories just to show you. I was flying from Africa to Zambia, no, from Washington, D.C. to Zambia. And, you know, of course, I'm a missionary, so I buy economy class tickets. And I was in economy class and we were about to take off. The hostess came and said, Mr. Meherati Shetty, you are upgraded to the business class. And I said, wow, I'm with my colleague. Can you upgrade us both? She said, I only have one seat. If you want to take it, take it. So I took it and I sat there. And after we took off, someone just came and sat next to me. and this person is a business person you know i'm in a business class and we started talking and talking and finally asking me what i do i told him i share about jesus on digital products and he was curious and he said i had a dream yesterday and i want someone to interpret my dream i went to priest i asked other people and i asked my family nobody was able to interpret a dream for me by the way i don't really see dreams and i have no idea you know how to interpret dreams so i was shocked he said that and but the holy spirit kind of nudged me saying ask him about his dream what is it so i asked him about his dream and he said uh i was just taking a nap and i saw a dream that i was screaming three times the word isaiah isaiah isaiah And I still don't have any idea what that means. And I say, God, what is it? Then he said, it really bothered me because I know I saw a bright light, but the word I heard was about Isaiah and I have no idea. At that moment, the Holy Spirit kind of again said to me, ask him where he is traveling. And I asked him, where are you going? And he said, I'm traveling to a country of Ethiopia. And I am actually sponsoring to build Angel Gabriel Church. So he is from Coptic Orthodox background building a church, but he doesn't have a personal relationship with Jesus. So by the time he said that, I realized what the Holy Spirit was nudging him is about the book of Hidayah. and uh acts chapter eight you know the ethiopian eunuch who traveled to jerusalem he was reading the book of isaiah but he was not understanding so i told him you are trying to find god by building and by giving by doing good things but isaiah the prophet isaiah has already built and already said and prophesied about the Messiah who is Jesus Christ and you are the same as this Ethiopian eunuch who's trying to find God but he didn't understand. So starting from the book of Isaiah all the way to the book of Acts chapter 8 I explained to him. All this explanation was happening on my phone. I was using my phone to explain that to him including the gospel presentation of uh knowing god personally from god tools and at the end of the call it was a long trip he was so touched and he was i would say loudly accepted jesus christ as his personal lord and savior so when we integrate our digital tools into our life Such things happens because God is at work. And I'll finish by sharing this story because earlier one of the speaker was talking about WhatsApp and I thought this will be a great story to share. You know, this is Jared. I met him and I have seen his ministry growing. And his ministry is in the Middle East. And he's using one of our campus crusade or crew ministry called everystone.com. And after he came to know the Lord on the website, he started to sign up for training material. And this was his response. He said, thank you very much. God bless you forever. Please do not stop teaching me. I now understand the concept of faith. Then we taught him about how to share about God, how to talk about God. When he was going through that email series, this is what he said. My eyes are open now through your lessons. I started to teach your lesson on WhatsApp to the new believers. All glory belongs to God. Thank you. Go extra with Jesus. Yared. and he said this study and website continue to bless many lives through me i am reaching muslims on whatsapp i tell you the truth more than 700 people have been blessed through this and now believers around 33 new believers around 33 their numbers are increasing daily At that time, I took the initiative and I asked him, please add me to your WhatsApp group. And I joined his WhatsApp group and I was really touched and I was crying like because they are worshiping, they are leading prayer, they are studying the word of God. They are making altar call and people were making decision to receive Jesus Christ. And nobody was organizing them. It was all organic. And I was able to see all those seven groups. At that time, WhatsApp only allows 100 people at a time. So they keep creating new WhatsApp group to accommodate their need. So God is at work. The mission field is ready and I want to challenge you what is on your phone. I would like to encourage you if it is your will, the Jesus Film app, the short films you'll find, our YouTube strategy, next steps. These are some of the tools you can actually get started today. And if you can scan this QR code, it will help you to get started. And I know God is at work all over the world. And I can imagine, you know, I've been on digital missions for the last 15 years. And I have met so many people who found Jesus online. And now they are serving in church. Some of them are volunteers. Some of them are full-time staff. And this can happen in your personal, in your ministry, in your church. So take your next step. God is already at work and let's join him. And we will be amazed with all the stories we will witness there. Thank you so much. That's great.

Jeff Reed: i don't have him hold on yeah me you don't have me check one two you're back i'm yelling in the microphone and you still can't hear me man that was a great joke and in it well i'm gonna put it back on it's it's better in vr all right yes no listen hey i was just uh i know right now as we were doing that um your your associate um stewart Stuart was speaking. Stuart Friedman was speaking at the virtual reality stage. And a lot of people, they're coming back on right now. And so love us, some of our Metaverse friends, as they're going through that. You know, a lot of the issues we've been having on Ultra Live, we've been having that on Spatial too. I love the fact that we're breaking technology here and overstretching what's happening across the conference. And so great to have them on. Hey, let me... I want to ask... And I love this about Jesus film. Like you're creating, it was interesting, you're talking about a hybrid, you know, hey, we're giving you access to tools that can help you, you know, do ministry in the physical space, in physical mission work and reaching into communities. You're also creating God tools as an example of that. You know, you've got the Jesus film you're talking about being in the back of a Tesla Uber and sharing Jesus, you know, with the iPhone in real time to help somebody. And that's awesome. And then, you know, I know Stuart Freeman, and actually before Stuart started working with you all, I remember I did a podcast with him, I mean, I don't know, a year or so ago, back when I wrote the book on virtual reality ministry. And he was talking about how he wanted to be a full-time missionary in VRChat and was praying through finding someone that could help him. And then Jesus Film came along and did that. And so you guys are engaged in both a a hybrid type model you know that's more practical and then you're also experimenting i know with like roblox and virtual reality vr chat much more on the fringe stuff as well where does the my so my question is really vision to kick this off where does the vision to go back and forth between these two platforms to be to be very practical and also be very cutting edge like it's it's almost surprising that that you can do both talk to me a little bit about that with jesus film what's that like

Miheret Eshete: Yes, thank you, Jeff. You know, at this time, there is no, you know, online and offline lives. Everything is hybrid. You know, our life is interconnected. Yes, and Stuart was sharing about what Jesus Film is doing and his personal life story. By the way, I would love to say thank you to you, Jeff, and The Church Digital. We came to know about Stuart Freeman because of The Church Digital and all the connection here. and one of the things what we are seeing is yes we will continue to develop our website mobile apps for hybrid ministry digital ministry social media ministry but also we are seeing a trend a number of people are already uh in the virtual space so uh jesus film project is making uh a new animated story of jesus this is going to come up very soon so that means uh the more jesus story of jesus is animated that means those assets and those environments you know the first century jerusalem know the capernaum or the upper room all the biblical places we know from the bible they are going to be available now in the vr immersive experience so what we are doing now is as we are excelling in the existing technology but we are also taking like a mission frontier approach we have to go to where people are and people are in the vr chat a number of people are there so we are building environment we are building assets we are building ministry opportunities evangelistic discipleship ministry opportunities where we can model as jesus film then pass it on to churches and ministries to actually grow that uh ministries so our approach is it's not just to to develop tools of today but innovate the tools of tomorrow because i believe uh xr and vr and metaverse is going to be integral part of how social media is going to be. So we are taking some next steps there.

Jeff Reed: Yeah, I know with technology-wise, you know, Apple's moving away from this type of device to more of this type of device. And I can't wait to see the price point when AR comes in. And, you know, it's going to be interesting how that technology, I mean, yes, it can be used for communication, but how community is going to look, you know, as we get more and more into that. And so very excited. uh about the road ahead and uh i like honestly you know i've told this with you offline i honestly i'm just i love the fact that that jesus film as an organization went so aggressive in digital space i can remember being a high school student in the mid-90s and showing the Jesus film in front of an audience in Ukraine, Odessa, Ukraine, showing it in front of an audience of young students in Moscow, in Russia, doing mission trips and being part of some of the life change that happened. And this is 95. This is VHS tape, right? And so you all have been... on the edge all continually pushing not not staying consistent not being the blockbuster model but but even holding towards more of of of the netflix and constantly adapting with that some of some of your contemporaries have lacked in that space and and and i love jesus film and honestly i love crew's approach towards leaning into this at a global scale and continually pushing forward. And so I want to bring on, we are, I want to bring on Kelly into this. And so Miharet, thank you very much for sharing. Let's go and bring Kelly into this. I know that we are going to be talking about Next, is it Next Is? Is that the software, right? next step next step is and next step dot is and so i'm i'm really excited about that i i did not know about that that's one of the things you guys are doing that was not on my radar and so i i'm listening to to you talking about that i was like oh go to see the software demo and so um all right thank you very much let's go ahead and hand it over to kelly who's going to be doing a screen presentation talking about next step uh dot is okay here you go kelly thank you

— departure log decoded via WhisperX, lightly cleaned for reading —