LUMO Gospel Films

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This is the story of Jesus. This is the story of hope for mankind. This is the greatest story ever told.

OVERVIEW

The Lumo Project is a multi-language biblical film resource engaging us with the life of Jesus through the four New Testament Gospels. It presents four films – one for each Gospel account – where we can experience the story of Jesus and the world of 1st-century Palestine in which He lived. This full-length feature film about the life of Jesus takes the actual four individual Gospel texts as its script, word for word, unedited. Five years in the making, this epic production has been critically acclaimed by leading religious scholars as a unique and highly authentic telling of the Jesus story. Narrated by leading British actor David Harewood (‘Homeland’, ‘Blood Diamond’, ‘Merchant of Venice’), it is based on the latest theological, historical, and archaeological research. With specially constructed sets and the extraordinarily authentic villages and countryside of rural Morocco, it immerses the viewer in the world of 1st-century Palestine, breaking the stereotypical tradition of a Westernized Jesus and His life story by presenting the story as it really happened 2000 years ago.

PARTNERSHIP WITH FAITH COMES BY HEARING

Over 30 years ago, Faith Comes By Hearing (FCBH) president Jerry Jackson received a word from God that the ministry would someday become involved with video production. He wrote it down and stored a copy of it on his computer. In April 2017, FCBH was introduced to Tessie DeVore, president of LUMO—a ministry that has produced beautiful, historically accurate films of the Gospels. It wasn’t long before the massive benefit of a partnership became clear—FCBH and LUMO were parallel ministries working on two sides of the same tapestry! God, the Master Weaver, had put them together in His perfect timing.

In August of that same year, LUMO graciously gave FCBH the right to use their films, so they could carefully overlay them with existing audio-Bible recordings. After one of the films had been dubbed into several languages, a test-run was conducted in Cuba, then they sent its producer, Hannah Leader, a report of the impact that Gospel Films were having there. Her response: “This is God’s moment!” While this has not been a simple process – each Gospel Film must be manually produced by a team of editors to flow correctly with the respective language recording – it is well worth the effort!

By combining LUMO’s compelling cinematic portrayal of the life of Jesus with FCBH’s word-for-word audio Scriptures in the languages of the world, Gospel Films are revolutionizing the way we experience the Bible. FCBH hopes to implement Gospel Films in communities worldwide, starting “watching groups” around the Gospel Film in that community’s language. Since using video together with audio is a natural progression, Gospel Films will be able to provide video-centric urban areas and younger generations a way to engage the Bible like never before. As part of the Vision 2033 goals, FCBH has committed to creating at least one Gospel Film in every recorded language, so that people everywhere will have the opportunity to hear and see the Gospel.

LUMO’s producer, Hannah Leader, who has worked on Gosford Park and Edge of Love, is a Sunday School teacher as well as feature-film professional and this is what she had to say about the films’ development and translation partnership with FCBH…

“I first started to think about filming the Gospels when my church installed a screen and I wanted to be able to show the Bible footage to my Sunday School members: children who were from very diverse ethnic backgrounds. I could only find films for children depicting a very white, blue-eyed Jesus, which seemed educationally inaccurate and didn’t help my children relate to Jesus. I then wondered about which translation of the Bible I should use – I wanted everyone to be able to use the version they knew and loved.”

That led to the ‘voiceover’ concept. I started thinking I would just do short readings for worship and children’s work, but then it grew into an ambition to film all four Gospels when I got funding. “When I started discussing the project with the Bible Societies, I quickly learned just how many different translations there were – so exciting! I don’t think I had ever realized. So of course I wanted the same thing for LUMO: I wanted a thousand languages, because that means that people who have never been able to experience the Gospels visually in their own language would get that chance, and that can be transformational. 

It’s so important for children who learn visually and for those who are unable to read. And by using an actor for Jesus who looks Middle Eastern, it allows everyone to relate to Him and His disciples. “I believe that FCBH and LUMO share a common vision for enabling access to all the wonders of the Word of God as expressed in the Gospels. Biblical illiteracy is a problem worldwide – not just because of functional illiteracy, but also because people have gotten out of the habit of reading and studying the Bible. Using technology with audio and visual media allows us 21st-century access to the Word.” 

OBTAINING GOSPEL FILMS

Gospel Films are provided to our partners at no cost for their ministry purposes. LUMO and FCBH are striving to offer the widest possible access through physical and digital formats, and we are eager to collaborate with partners to determine which methods of distribution will result in an effective and fruitful Scripture engagement.

Bible.is streams all available Gospel Films for online viewing. If you would like to request an available Gospel Film for Watching Groups, just fill out this easy-to-use request form.

If you would like to request Gospel Films for a language not yet in this list (where FCBH has done Audio Bible recording), please contact your FCBH representative or email info@FaithComesByHearing.com.

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