Jesus Film Project and The Church of the Nazarene Celebrate Two Decades of Collaborative Missions
OLATHE, Kan., Aug. 23, 2017–August 2017 marks the 20th anniversary of the JESUS Film Harvest Partnership, celebrating a strategic collaboration between Jesus Film Project and the Church of the Nazarene to make Christ-like disciples in the nations. For the past two decades, JESUS Film Harvest Partners have spread the gospel to all corners of the earth using tactics including evangelism, discipleship, leadership development, pastoral training and church planting.
“Our involvement with the Church of the Nazarene has been one of the most rewarding partnerships of any in which we’ve been involved,” said Paul Eshleman, former Director of Jesus Film Project. “I think it’s because of the heart of the people of the Church of the Nazarene to go where nobody has gone before, to send their missionaries to the most remote spots on the face of the earth.”
In May of 1997, Eshleman reached out to Louie Bustle, who then served as Director of World Missions for the Church of the Nazarene. The two sat down to discuss combining the forces of their organizations to create an unprecedented impact on the mission field. The idea was simple: Jesus Film Project had the projectors, films, and training, while the Church of the Nazarene had the manpower to take the films across the globe to share Christ with the nations. It was a natural fit.
By August 1997, the two organizations had created the JESUS Film Harvest Partners which initially planned to mobilize 200 teams to present “JESUS” around the world.
The partnership far exceeded this goal. Since January 1998, its efforts have resulted in over 77 million evangelistic contacts and more than 15 million decisions for Christ.
Today, there are more than 600 teams sharing their faith in 48 countries. Additionally, the partnership has expanded to include 16 additional like-minded, Kingdom ministries, such as Cru, the Billy Graham International Film Ministry, e3 Partners, Faith Comes By Hearing and International Board of Education.
Together, each provides evangelistic resources, discipleship tools, and training to Harvest Partner teams working full time in evangelism, follow up and church planting. Volunteer teams from the US help to deliver equipment, spending a week in a foreign country presenting the film and praying with team members.
Lana and Bill Wolfe from the Jesus Film Project serve on the board of Nazarene JESUS Film Harvest Partners. “For twenty years it has been our joy to provide ‘tip of the spear’ languages specific evangelism tools in the heart language of each people group for every Harvest Partner team,” said Bill. “We see it as multiplying Kingdom impact.”
For more information about JESUS Film Harvest Partners, including ways to give to the missions effort, visit http://www.jfhp.org.
About the “JESUS” film: Based on the Gospel of Luke, the “JESUS” film was sponsored and financed by Campus Crusade for Christ (Cru). It is the most accurate depiction of the life of Christ ever produced. After five years of painstaking research, “JESUS” was filmed in 1978 at over 200 locations in the Holy Land. The cast included more than 5,000 people and nearly every word spoken by Christ is taken directly from scripture. “JESUS” can be watched for free at jesusfilm.org or by downloading the Jesus Film Project app, available free of charge on IOS and Android. For additional information, visit Jesus.org.
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