Who knew the New Testament had so much "Frozen" in it? Ross Chandler says that there were two inspirations for the viral video created by his church — the Bible and YouTube.
Chandler, who serves as the senior pastor of First Baptist Church Marble Falls in Marble Falls, Texas, says that, while searching for a creative way to explain forgiveness to his congregation at Easter, he and Technology Director Bubba Stallcup turned to the popular Kid Snippets YouTube series created by Bored Shorts TV for a little inspiration.
“We were watching and were just dying laughing and we thought, ‘I wonder how children would interpret the story of the unmerciful servant that Jesus tells in the Bible,” said Chandler.
So Chandler, who plays Jesus in the video, and Stallcup rounded up a group of church members and their kids and created their own Kid Bible Stories video, based on a parable found in the book of Matthew.
The video features adult men from the church, dressed in biblical costumes and acting out a voice-over of kids — who range in age from 5 to 7 — telling their own version of the story. And, while the basics of the story are there, the tiny storytellers throw in their own material from "Frozen," "The Chronicles of Narnia" and "Snow White," resulting in a hilarious, updated version of the classic bible story.
For example, in the kids’ version, Jesus reminds his disciples that they must forgive someone, “a jillion and twenty,” times, and a servant tells a man who owes him money, “You will pay me a thousand and twenty dollars or you will be thrown in jail,” while in between, grown men lip sync to the Frozen hit, “Let It Go,”
Stallcup says they have been shocked that the video has gone viral, as the video was shot and edited in only 2 days, and was initially intended to be seen only by church members during Easter services.
“The evangelical side of it is almost a byproduct. We wanted to get this point across to our people, but I’ve had people on YouTube saying, ‘I’m an atheist, but I think this is hilarious — so it’s reaching people and that’s great,” said Stallcup.
Chandler says he believes the video is popular not only because it’s funny, but also because the theme of forgiveness is one that resonates with everyone.
“Everyone has to deal with (forgiveness,) and when we come to a place of health where we forgive people who have hurt us — it releases so much grief in our own life. We’re trying to give a different painting of who Jesus Christ is ... and in the future, we plan to create more videos that are funny, but also that resonate with the whole world and are thought-provoking,” said Chandler.