From Film to Faith

Recently at the University of Texas, I trained 3 students how to share their faith through discussions about short films.

Justin, Josh, and Blake where excited to learn a new way to begin conversations to share Christ. I showed them the film “La Búsqueda,” a Global Short Film Network film, discussed with them how to ask questions to follow up the film, and then how to transition to sharing the gospel with the viewer(s) of the film.

I only had one iPad with me and we wanted to split into to two groups so I had Justin quickly download the new Jesus Film Media App where he could easily access the film. I also wrote down questions for “La Búsqueda” from the GSFN website for Justin and Josh to take with them. The training and downloading only took about 10-15 minutes.

An hour and half later we came back together to share how God had been at work and the conversations that had taken place.

Justin and Josh were the last to arrive and were beaming with joy. I loved Justin’s attitude as he talked about encouraging Josh that even after approaching a few students who were too busy to talk, that “all Jesus asks is for us to follow him” and so they decided to keep sharing. The next person they approached was a student named Nick, who was finishing up lunch and agreed to watch and discuss “La Búsqueda.” Justin then opened the Jesus Film Media App and showed the film to Nick on his phone.

While discussing the questions about the film, Nick shared that he grew up going to church but had no idea how he would explain the gospel to a person if he were asked. It turns out that he had never before heard the gospel, which they found out after sharing Romans 6:23 with him. Nick said he had never heard the Gospel explained so clearly in a way he could understand and said he wanted to pray and receive the free gift of eternal life. Hopefully, these students will be meeting with Nick to do follow-up tomorrow. Praise God for his faithfulness in using creative tools and willing laborers to draw people to Himself!!