Faith in the 21st Century: What would Jesus watch?

March 23, 2005

BY DAVID CRUMM

FREE PRESS RELIGION WRITER


Get ready, because this is not a typical newspaper story. This is news about a whole new style of communicating faith.



The deal is this: Some guys in Grand Rapids figured out a hot new way to package practical spiritual messages as DVD movies that give you an inspirational jump-start in 12 minutes or less. Most people have never heard of them or the odd name they've chosen for this line of films: NOOMA. But they seem to be on the verge of taking the religious publishing world by storm.What's the evidence that they're onto something big? Well, the Grand Rapids religious publishing giant Zondervan now is partnering with them to ship the first 10 DVD movies, subtitled in seven languages, to hundreds of Christian bookstores around the world in the next couple of weeks. And for the next wave, Zondervan will aim the distribution at bigger retail chains, said John Topliff, a company marketing vice president.



"We've got a very aggressive marketing plan," Topliff said. "We're getting great feedback. Our reps have been asking retailers about NOOMA since December, and we're getting 100 percent high enthusiasm from stores."



That's not the only research Zondervan did before jumping into this partnership with Flannel, the tiny Grand Rapids company that produces the DVDs. First, Zondervan executives took a look at Flannel's books.



What'd they see? Wow, a publisher's dream.



Or, as Topliff put it, "We based our decision on the sales traction that NOOMA already had demonstrated through amazing Web sales. And, from what we're seeing, they aren't locked into any single age demographic. It's more like they've tapped into a mind-set demographic."



Big time.



Flannel flew under the radar of mainstream religious denominations. What Flannel was doing didn't show up at all in the kinds of magazines and newsletters that most clergy read. But, in two years of word-of-mouth promotion, its Web site racked up sales of 100,000 copies, at $10 per movie, to customers across the United States, Europe and Asia.



Zondervan is repricing them at $12.99 each. For the extra three bucks, customers get a 32-page, full-color booklet with each movie that summarizes key scenes and lines.



OK, so this is big.



What's one of the movies like?



Well, in "Bullhorn" (also known as NOOMA 009 of the 10 films available), a nerdy evangelist in a white shirt shows up on screen photocopying hellfire-and-brimstone tracts and packing up a bullhorn as he prepares to shout at people on street corners.



But wait. There's a second preacher in this movie, a very different kind of clergyman who shows up in the next scene, sitting on a wooden bench on a city street in a T-shirt and sandals. His name is Rev. Rob Bell. At 34, he looks like that cool guy in Verizon ads with glasses and spiky hair. In real life, he's pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, near Grand Rapids, a hot new church for twentysomethings. He talks straight and fast about a loving kind of God who accepts everyone "just the way they are."



Back to the movie. Bell talks into the camera, as if addressing the hellfire preacher in the first scene, and says: "Bullhorn guy, I don't think it's working. ... I think it's making things worse. I don't think this is what Jesus had in mind."



Churches shouldn't look for new members "like they're notches on somebody's spiritual belt, because they're not," Bell says. It's those ideas that give millions of young people the "perception that being a Christian is lame."



No, Bell says, the whole point of Christianity is to experience God's love, to love one another and never to scare or threaten people.



The movie ends there.



There's nothing in it about right and wrong. And there's nothing in any of the 10 NOOMA movies about women's rights or gay rights or abortion rights or any of the hot-button issues in the evangelical world.



Each movie is all about a specific, plain-and-simple spiritual topic. "Bullhorn" is about the need for acceptance. Other films are about Christian approaches to promoting forgiveness, overcoming rejection or soothing stress.



It's a way of preaching that brings more than 11,000 people to services at Bell's church each weekend and it's the core idea behind these little movies in which Bell stars.



Oops. Sorry. Nobody stars in a NOOMA.



"Anybody who works with us has to agree: no credits. This is not about making anyone famous," said Tom Rinks, at 42 a former marketing executive who joined Bell's church and wound up hiring a small staff of twentysomethings to help form Flannel and produce these movies.



"This is about packaging spiritual help you can get on demand, whenever you need it, wherever you need it," he said.



No, wait. That's not really how Rinks talks. Newspapers almost can't capture the fast, urgent way these guys deliver their version of straight talk about faith. Spend a couple of hours with them and it's obvious that the core of their language revolves around two 3-letter words:



God and NOW -- and they really stress that second word.



So, here's an unedited quote from Rinks that illustrates how both he and Bell really talk:



"Like, you've got to understand this about us and what we're doing, dude! Get this: We're not these obnoxious bullhorn Christian guys, OK? We're about NOW and a God-slash-Jesus who's here NOW. OK? We know that people really want a religion that will help NOW. People can't wait until 11 a.m. Sunday morning and then wind up hearing some boring preaching about tithing. They want to hear about God's love. And the thing is that they can't go get that NOW at most churches. Waiting around just doesn't work anymore. Churches can't do this 24/7. You know what I'd find if I drove over to my church right now? Some guy vacuuming the floor! But NOOMA's there anytime."



Then, he paused for a breath.



Phyllis Tickle, a Tennessee-based author who is a leading expert on religious publishing, said, "What Bell and Rinks are doing is brilliant, and I'll bet this is absolutely going to work. It'll work because it's portable, accessible, quick and it's geared to the real emerging needs of the church population.



"What we're hearing here is the new generation of top preachers. This is the way they'll sound."



Sorry, that's more marketing talk. And attention spans are short. Readers can check out the Web site, www.nooma.com.