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<\/a>The new adult course\u00a0animate.Faith<\/em><\/a> is a welcome breath of fresh resource air\u00a0for Christian pastors, teachers and small group leaders in the contemporary church. Featuring seven of the leading voices of Christianity today (Brian McLaren, Shane Hipps, Nadia Bolz-Weber and Bruce Reyes-Chow to name a few), animate.Faith<\/em> presents seven conversation \u201ckick-starter\u201d videos, animated with compelling cartoon-like graphics, on the central questions of the faith such as God, Jesus, Salvation, and the Bible.<\/p>\nProduced by the innovative publisher\u00a0Sparkhouse<\/a>, a division of Augsburg Fortress Press, the video resource also includes the option of a facilitator guide and illustrated personal journals for small group members.\u00a0According to Tony Jones, Patheos blogger<\/a> and senior editor for the series, animate<\/em> has exceeded the expectations of the team in terms of sales and positive feedback.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been pleasantly surprised with how enthusiastically pastors have embraced animate,\u201d <\/em>says\u00a0<\/em>Jones. \u201cI knew it was good, and that it was unique in the market, but you never know how it will be received till you put it out there. I\u2019m really gratified at how much people have liked it.\u201d<\/p>\n What inspired the animate<\/em> series? And who\u2019s behind it?<\/strong><\/p>\n There\u2019s a whole team of us behind it. I\u2019d say that, on a macro scale, what inspired animate is that Augsburg Fortress Publishers, like all mainline, legacy denominational publishers, can see that the climate is changing. Publishing is changing and mainline Christianity is changing. Sparkhouse is an attempt to respond to those changes, and animate is our effort to provide a resource to congregations across the spectrum of American Protestantism.<\/p>\n What does animate<\/em> offer that sets it apart from other adult learning resources?<\/strong><\/p>\n Well, we think it combines great theology with great aesthetics. It seems that too often, centrist and progressive Christians have to hold their noses when they use adult resources \u2013 either the theology is not to their liking, or the product looks and feels crappy. We knew he had to invest in both a great video treatment and in the top Christian thinkers of our day.<\/p>\n Who were you creating animate<\/em> for<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n Basically for all congregations across the expanse of American Protestantism. If you get two standard deviations out from the center, you\u2019ve got your hardcore liberals and hardcore conservatives \u2013 this will probably not appeal to them. But from everyone else, animate has gotten rave reviews.<\/p>\n A central piece of the animate<\/em> resource is the almost cartoon-like art by Paul Soupiset<\/a>. The illustrations are exquisite, elegant, whimsical and absolutely engaging, and carry through the videos, the facilitator guide and the personal journal. The whole package becomes a work of art! Why did you decide to incorporate art into the resource, and how did you choose Soupiset?<\/strong><\/p>\n Two things I knew I didn\u2019t want were 1) a video with a professorish person in front of a bookshelf, and 2) a workbook with fill-in-the-blank answers. I\u2019m friends with Paul, and I\u2019ve worked with him on several products, so I knew that he and his colleagues at Toolbox would provide us with animations on both the videos and the Journal that would make this resource unique.<\/p>\n What was the creation and production process like for animate.Faith<\/em>? What was gained by your collaborative process and what was a challenge?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Well, it\u2019s a challenge whenever you\u2019re trying to coordinate the schedules of seven popular Christian speakers. They\u2019re on the road a lot already, but we knew that we wanted to get them all in the same room. That day, in December, 2011, we called our \u201ccreative jam,\u201d and each of the presenters read their scripts aloud to the group, and then got feedback from everyone else.<\/p>\n I imagine getting folks like Brian McLaren, Nadia Bolz-Weber, Bruce Reyes-Chow and Mark Scandrette in a room together is just a little <\/em>bit of fun. How did you select your \u201cvoices\u201d and what was it like bringing them all together?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n It was fun, for sure, like debating with Lillian Daniel about what she should wear to her video shoot. There were also very serious discussions about the content in each script. It\u2019s daunting to read your script to a group of your peers \u2013 people you greatly respect. In fact, it was that opportunity that I used to pitch the concept to each of them.<\/p>\n The 100-page Facilitator Guide<\/em> is an incredible asset to this series. Why did you feel this resource was so important, and worthy of such detail?<\/strong><\/p>\n Without the standard fill-in-the-blank workbook, we knew that small group leaders would need a little extra guidance. Our Journal, full of Paul\u2019s sketches, comes very intuitively to some people, but others struggle with how to incorporate their own doodles and thoughts with his. The Facilitator Guide gives leaders some help in getting their people to engage with the Journal.<\/p>\n What has the response been thus far to animate<\/em>?\u00a0 What are some of your favorite stories of how it\u2019s been used and to what success?<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ve heard stories of the standard uses \u2013 in many church groups \u2013 to some unconventional groups like a Mothers of Teenagers group and a group in prison. For me, the most gratifying aspect is introducing my friends \u2013 Nadia, Bruce, Brian, Mark, Lillian, Shane, Lauren \u2013 to people who were previously unfamiliar with them.<\/p>\n Do you have a favorite video from this first animate.Faith<\/em> series?\u00a0 Or a favorite story from the production process?<\/strong><\/p>\n That\u2019s like asking about my favorite child! My favorite moments tend to be on the set of the video shoots. By the fifth or sixth time through the script, everyone gets a bit loopy \u2013 you can see some of those moments in our bloopers reel.<\/p>\n You\u2019ve just wrapped the second animate<\/em> series on the Bible. Tell us a bit about who\u2019s involved in that one, and what the conversations are about.\u00a0 And \u2014 what\u2019s next after that?<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s a great line-up: Phyllis Tickle, Jos\u00e9 Morales, Rachel Held Evans, Eric Elnes, Nadia Bolz-Weber, Jay Bakker, and Will Willimon. To get all of these people in the same room for a day was, as you might guess, electrifying. We\u2019re just wrapping up all of the video edits now, and it\u2019s looking great. Animate.Bible will be available in July. Next, we\u2019re working on a third animate course dealing with the practices of the Christian faith. We\u2019re just now lining up people to appear in that one.<\/p>\n Read an interview with animate<\/em> illustrator Paul Soupiset here.<\/a><\/p>\n For more on animate.Faith<\/em>, visit the Patheos Book Club here<\/a>. And here\u2019s a video trailer for the series: \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/media.patheos.com\/Images\/PChPT\/PChPT_TonyJones_bio.jpg\")
Jones talked with us earlier this week about the inspiration for\u00a0animate<\/em>, the creative production process and what it was like trying to wrangle seven of the most popular Christian speakers together at one time in one room.<\/p>\n