I suppose some may wonder why a pastor would partner with the rest of these radicals in order to build the next streaming media giant? I mean, aren't pastors supposed to preach the Word, shepherd the flock and wax their halos?  

Of course, that's my calling (except the halo thing). I have long been bi-vocational and sometimes tri-vocational. If you have a problem with pastors being bi-vocational I'd love to talk to you sometime about why you are wrong.  

Frankly, the Church has been negligent in her duty to encourage and enable the creatives in her midst. Where the Church has encouraged them, she has encouraged them to crank out sub-par stuff meant to make it easier for Christians to evangelize or preach a sermon (scriptural and necessary works in their right context). Or they have been encouraged to jump into the Christian market which has so many rules they make Pharisees look like amateurs.

The Church has also failed to understand the importance of new technology and is, at best, about five years late in using it. Whether it's an issue of an eschatology which only expects the worst from anything new, or a pietism that views tech as a distraction from the real work of preaching the gospel (failing to recognize the opportunities to actually preach the gospel USING said tech) — the result is the same — a sort of Ludditism that views tech as the enemy rather than the tool it is to accomplish what the Scriptures expect in passages like Isaiah 9:6-7.  

We need to make Christian art and tech great again.

It is as if we have forgotten about the role of the printing press in the Reformation. Not only did the printing press give the Reformers the tools to print Bibles, it also gave them the tools to print sermons, theological volumes, and political treatises. Little things like the wide distribution of the Ninety-Five Theses. Calvin's Institutes. The catechisms and confessions. Publications that changed the world, which explain why you have multiple copies of the Bible in your home and why you live in North America and not in Europe.

It also gave Christian artists a tool to spread the Christian worldview. Painters like Albrecht Durer could reproduce their work as engravings on copper and reprint them as prints or in books. Do a little research on the relationship between Durer and Luther. Rather than being enemies they were friends. And neither one of them tried to do the job of the other.

Preachers preach sermons. All Christians must evangelize. And artists should make art that is beautiful and glorifies God. God is not best glorified with poor evangelism tacked on to the end of a poor film even if its profit margins are large. He is greatly glorified when artists make the best art that they can and preachers preach the best sermons that they can. Develop your craft and stay in your lane.

We are pretty early in this process, but I suspect one of my roles at LOOR will be educating pastors, on one hand, and guarding the freedom of the artists on the other. In short, I expect to catch flack. That's OK. When you catch flack you know that you are over the target.

Bombs away.