Jesus did not sit His followers down and tell them everything, beginning to end, Genesis to Revelation – this is it, everything you will ever need to know.
I often wish He had; it would make life and ministry so much more straightforward! Much to the confusion of His followers, He did not pull back the curtain and reveal everything all at once. Maybe He knew we wouldn’t be able to comprehend the fullness of the Kingdom of God if He did!?
Instead, He revealed the Kingdom of God in segments, portions if you like. At times, through teachings, stories, analogies, and real-life experiences. At other times, through miraculous signs, signs that pointed to somewhere!
Jesus gave people a glimpse. And a glimpse is a powerful thing.
A glimpse sticks with you, like a scene from a scary movie that replays in your mind when you close your eyes at night.
A glimpse makes you look again. When I met my wife for the first time, I couldn’t help looking at her again and again.
A glimpse prompts questions, evokes reactions, and elicits a response.
The more I consider the imagination, power, and effectiveness of Jesus’ communication, the more I am challenged, and, at times, slightly discouraged by my and the church’s contrasting approach.
Jesus compelled people to take notice, to listen, and to move beyond themselves, sometimes at great cost.
As someone who is a regular communicator in the church, we preachers and teachers often stand behind lecterns and pulpits, reading our notes to the people, wondering why we are not having the same effect.
This challenge has lived in me for many years.
About 10 years ago, I began exploring how I could learn from Jesus’ approach to communication and become more intentional in my own. I recall one Sunday morning, when I taught from Luke 5 about the miraculous catch of fish. I remember marveling at the idea that the same water that was on the left-hand side of the boat with no fish present was on the right-hand side a few seconds earlier as the boat likely drifted.
As I considered this well-known story, aware that most of my listeners were likely familiar with the passage, I wanted to bring it to life. To do it some justice, remembering its incredible effect on Peter and the fishing community he was part of.
It was then that I had an idea.
Instead of reading the text from behind a lectern, I arranged for a 22-foot boat to be positioned in the middle of our gathering space. I then sat in the boat, read the passage, and gave the message from the boat – and something happened! The story came alive. People saw it, pictured it in their minds, imagined the scenes, and were captivated by the text in fresh ways. Something changed in me that day. Something stuck.
As I considered what had happened, the seeds of a bigger idea were being born.
I have always known that a large percentage of people are visual learners. I was also aware that our predominantly one-dimensional approach to communication in church was at times lacking (dare I say, dull?).
The word “glimpse” kept coming to me, aware that when you glimpse something, it has considerable power. In brief, I wanted my communication to provide people with more than just information; I wanted to show them something.
Back to school for a moment – anyone remember Show and Tell? Show and Tell is timeless, from children to older people, sharing their lives and experiences. We all have a story.
The journey of being more intentional with the use of visual props and stories added to my teaching richly. And fortunately, our church was open to my peculiar ideas, from building a fire mid-sermon (which I didn’t light) to hiding tiny mustard seeds under every chair in the room for people to find mid-message.
However, there was still a problem, and it’s a problem you likely face in your church as well.
No matter how much effort, creativity, and inspiration I put into my messages, by definition, they were only heard (and seen) by those in the room. I know we have online audiences too, but they, like the majority of the people in the room, already believe.
Again, we have a problem.
The gospel message cannot be contained in the church. Consider the scene in John 20, when the risen Jesus appears to his disciples. They are in a room with locked doors. Jesus breathes on them, promises the gift of the Holy Spirit, and sends them out.
The gospel must travel beyond the church. I hate the idea of being a communicator for an already convinced crowd where the church becomes a club for members, returning to the room Jesus sent his followers from, with doors locked to the outside world.
Enter Mikey! Mikey arrived in our city to study film at university. Mikey is a unique person who sees things that others miss. Through his incredible skill with a camera, he captures moments and then shows them to people in a masterful way. He is not only skilled in his profession; he is an artist.
Through church, Mikey and I connected, and a friendship was born… a friendship that has lasted many years and so many adventures! Mikey and I both shared a passion to tell others about Jesus.
One evening, we were bouncing ideas around about church and communication – then the idea happened. What if we created short films that were highly visual, with intentional language, so they made sense to people outside the church and were aimed at people’s phones? The more we thought about it, the more the idea came to life. The best ideas often do that.
Everyone has a phone. And most of us have embarrassingly high screen time. Modern culture consumes online content at an insatiable pace. In many ways, this wasn’t a new idea.
Jesus always took the message to the people. For too long, we, the church, have waited for the people to come and hear the message.
What would we call these short, highly visual, show-and-tell style films? Glimpse. The vision was simple.
We believe we have seen something. We want to show it to others.
We knew other faith-based films existed. But most of those were teaching style, aimed at churches and small groups. We wanted to reach beyond the church, to those on the outside, and we wanted to give them a Glimpse of the good news of Jesus.
Our early films were a lot of fun, with plenty of learning along the way. The creative process is littered with surprises and incidents – some adding to the end result, while others serve as a humble lesson.
Interestingly, ideas have never been in short supply. We’re nearly 40 films in now, and while the duration of the films has changed – reduced to fit modern short-form appetites – the original idea continues.
We create short films that provide people with a glimpse of the good news. All films are released on YouTube and Facebook.
Measuring success is a subjective task. If numbers mean anything, the view count can be encouraging, with over 1 million views last year alone.
However, for Team Glimpse – because it is a team – hearing stories of people asking questions about Jesus and finding faith are the real success stories. We love hearing feedback from churches that tell us they haven’t seen somebody make a decision for Jesus for a long time, and then they started sharing Glimpse films with their community through simply encouraging their people to send a text with a link to a short film, and now people are asking questions and coming to faith.
Some of our best-received films are:
- “Clay,” which explores the beauty in brokenness.
- “Life before death,” exploring the subject of the power of salvation in this life and the life to come.
- “Boxing gloves,” wrestling with anger and the impulse to fight back.
All Glimpse films are available on our YouTube channel and Facebook page.
Where are we today? Recently, Glimpse has broadened its wings. In response to various requests, we are adding resources to equip people to share their faith. These resources accompany the Glimpse films and provide easy conversation starters that anybody can use.
We also create small-group resources, again, working alongside the films.
In early 2026, we will release training videos with the vision of equipping and inspiring people to share their faith.
While these additional initiatives broaden Glimpse, the vision remains the same: We believe we have seen something. We want to show it to others.
This ministry was featured at the NEXT Ventures Pitching Deck at Exponential Global 2025 and received a grant. For more information about NEXT Ventures, please visit https://exponential.org/ventures/.
