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'Jesus' in mail for 2,000 homes

Evangelical groups and businesses are sponsoring copies of a docudrama that flopped in 1979 but has since become a major proselytizing tool.

By MICHAEL KRUSE
Published December 13, 2005

BROOKSVILLE - Jesus is coming.

Some 12,000 homes in the 34601 and 34602 ZIP codes are set to get in the mail this week the movie called Jesus. The evangelical outreach is a local part of the Orlando Campus Crusade for Christ's Jesus Film Project. The Brooksville Ministerial Association is sponsoring it.

"If enough of these things are sent out around the community, there will be a rising interest in the Gospel," the Rev. William Burbury, president of the ministerial association, said one recent morning in his office. "That's our hope."

The 117-minute docudrama was a dud in theaters in 1979. In the quarter-century since, though, it's become one of the most widespread evangelical tools in the world: More than 5-billion people have seen it in nearly 900 languages. The goal, according to jesusfilm.org, is to "reach every nation, tribe, people and tongue."

"Our continued passion is to share the story of Jesus through media, with everyone, everywhere, in his or her own language," project executive director Jim Green said in a company news release earlier this year.

All of this started in Hernando County one day earlier this year when the Rev. Joe Santerelli went to throw out a Jesus film brochure and then . . .

Pulled it back up.

"My hand just kind of stopped," the senior pastor at Hillside Community Baptist Church said this week.

He put it on his desk.

He prayed about it.

"God put a burden on my heart," Santerelli said, "and I said, "Lord, if you want me to do it, I'll try.' "

Jesus originally was produced by Bill Bright, the co-founder of Campus Crusade, who wanted to create an "artistically excellent, biblically accurate" account of the life of Christ, according to the company's Web site.

The movie made only $4-million in theaters 26 years ago. But it was put on 8mm tape, then VHS cassettes, then DVDs, and officials at the Jesus Film Project claim to have converted to Christianity 200-million people.

It has been shown in formerly communist town halls in Russia and on the sides of sheets in villages in Africa and in bamboo huts in Borneo, said Paul Eshleman, president of the project.

In Florida, a group called Vision Orlando sent the film five years ago to every home in Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties - an estimated 600,000 addresses.

In the last four months here in Hernando, Burbury, Santerelli and other members of the ministerial association have raised money from individual donations, local businesses and a dozen Brooksville area churches, including First Baptist, St. John's Episcopal, Spring Lake United Methodist, Christ Lutheran, Faith Evangelical Presbyterian and Brooksville Assembly of God.

The entire effort is going to cost just short of $46,000, just enough to reach the majority of Brooksville and out toward Ridge Manor. Then there will be a three-month followup effort door to door, neighbor to neighbor and over the phone.

"I'm real excited about what's going to happen," Santerelli said this week. "The goal is to have at least 500 people who would trust Christ as their savior during this season."

"I've had people call me," Burbury said. " "How do I get a copy of this? Why aren't you doing my ZIP code?' This lets people know the Gospel is out there and that you have an opportunity to believe."

-- Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report, which includes information from the Orlando Sentinel, the Wilmington N.C. Star News and Time magazine. Michael Kruse can be reached at mkruse@sptimes.com or (352) 848-1434.

[Last modified December 13, 2005, 19:46:25]