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Speaker 1: Life audio, Doctor Johnson, thanks for joining me.

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Speaker 2: It's correct to be with you.

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Speaker 1: By call. We're talking to doctor Tyler Johnson of come Near.

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Speaker 1: He is the chief impact officer. Come Near is the

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Speaker 1: one that operates that He gets Us ads and they're

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Speaker 1: having another one this year in the Super Bowl. He

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Speaker 1: gets us dot com as the website. Doctor Johnson that

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Speaker 1: I looked at this ad the last few days and

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Speaker 1: I thought it was just amazing, very powerful. For those

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Speaker 1: who haven't seen the ad, what is it going to

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Speaker 1: be about? Give us a preview of this year's He

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Speaker 1: gets Us super Bowl ad.

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Speaker 2: But the ad goes under the title more, which is

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Speaker 2: in a campaign called the Loaded Words Campaign, which is

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Speaker 2: us focus on words and culture that are loaded with

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Speaker 2: meaning but are used in everyday life. So the word

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Speaker 2: in this ad in particular is more, and it comes

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Speaker 2: out of the idea that culture is telling us we

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Speaker 2: constantly have to get more and more and more, and

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Speaker 2: the undergirding reality of Romans twelve one through two of

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Speaker 2: don't be informed of the world, but be transformed by

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Speaker 2: the knowing of your mind. The JB. Phillips translation actually says,

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Speaker 2: don't be pressed into the mold of the world. That

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Speaker 2: be transformed, and so we're really trying to say there's

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Speaker 2: a mold of more that we don't think is congruent

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Speaker 2: with the best for humanity that God would have to offer. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, I think obviously it's a biblical I think also

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Speaker 1: it's kind of an indictment against materialism. As I watch

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Speaker 1: that ad, it seemed to me to be saying that

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Speaker 1: what the world is trying to sell you isn't going

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Speaker 1: to satisfy you. It's kind of like what I think

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Speaker 1: Pascal said that we're always searching for this God's shaped

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Speaker 1: vacuum that only God can feel. And that's kind of

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Speaker 1: what I got out of that ad. It's kind of

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Speaker 1: an apologetics type ad, I thought. And of course the

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Speaker 1: visuals are amazing. It's busy, and at the end it

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Speaker 1: kind of forces you to pause and think about Jesus.

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Speaker 1: Let me ask you a question that critics ask when

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Speaker 1: this subject comes up. Because super Bowl ads are about Jeep.

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Speaker 1: I've never bought one. I guess there's so expensive. Why

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Speaker 1: spend all this money on a Super Bowl ad? This

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Speaker 1: is I think third or fourth year before he gets us.

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Speaker 1: Maybe you can help me figure out the date there,

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Speaker 1: But why not spend that money somewhere else? Why a

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Speaker 1: super Bowl at that's the fourth.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we like to say what is it worth to

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Speaker 2: raise the public conversation about Jesus? Period? The question back

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Speaker 2: to many of those critics is what would it be

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Speaker 2: worth to raise the public conversation about Jesus? Period? And

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Speaker 2: then to do it in a way that makes someone

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Speaker 2: kind of tilt their head, like at the end, we

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Speaker 2: hear this a lot that people go, I see this

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Speaker 2: amazing ad, and then at the end it's like, that's

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Speaker 2: a Jesus ad, which then creates this moment where somebody

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Speaker 2: begins to contemplate or create conversations around Jesus. And that's

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Speaker 2: really what we're trying to do is raise the public

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Speaker 2: conversation about Jesus as far and broadly as we possibly can.

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Speaker 1: What is come Near? I don't know a lot about

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Speaker 1: Come Near, and I'm assuming most people that watch these

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Speaker 1: ads don't know anything about come here. What is come here?

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Speaker 1: That's that's the is it a ministry at organization? What

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Speaker 1: is it?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? So we'd like to say come near as a

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Speaker 2: group of people that are deeply passionate about inviting all

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Speaker 2: people one step closer to the authentic Jesus from wherever

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Speaker 2: they are. So we're working substantially in the creative and

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Speaker 2: innovation spaces to really move people in that direction. And

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Speaker 2: that's where we'll say a lot. We want to raise

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Speaker 2: the public conversation about Jesus. What it be fair to

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Speaker 2: call it a non denominational group. Yes, I think it's

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Speaker 2: a broadly Christian group of people.

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Speaker 1: You're partnering this year, maybe last year as well, but

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Speaker 1: I don't know this year at least with the Bible Project.

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Speaker 1: And it's an organ that The Bible Project produces incredible stuff.

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Speaker 1: I've written about them before. They produce amazing videos that

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Speaker 1: are available on YouTube and other sites as well. Tell

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Speaker 1: me about the partnership there and how that impacts that

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Speaker 1: he gets Us campaign.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so we have a variety of different partnerships. That's it,

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Speaker 2: kind of when we think about a stream or a

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Speaker 2: funnel at different points. Many people we absolutely loved the

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Speaker 2: Bible Project have an incredible relationship with them. Would encourage

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Speaker 2: anybody possible that's looking to learn more about the Bible

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Speaker 2: and the way they say it a unified story that

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Speaker 2: leads to Jesus to jump in. But there's a lot

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Speaker 2: of people even further upstream that just aren't at that

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Speaker 2: point and are just kind of trying to just take

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Speaker 2: one step closer. So that's where when we say one

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Speaker 2: step closer from wherever you are, the Bible Project at

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Speaker 2: a point on a journey is an incredible place to

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Speaker 2: invite people to be in partnerships with Alpha. We have

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Speaker 2: partnerships with other local groups in particular, but it really

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Speaker 2: does span a sense of a journey that there's multiple

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Speaker 2: entry points for different people at times and places, and

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Speaker 2: the Bible Product is one of those places who we

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Speaker 2: like you do, really really appreciate respect and want to

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Speaker 2: have warm handoffs if it's the right place at the

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Speaker 2: right time for people.

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Speaker 1: I guess one thing I'm getting at here is that

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Speaker 1: when people visit that he gets Us website, because people

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Speaker 1: watch the ad at the end of every ad, there's

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Speaker 1: a he gets us dot com website, people visit that

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Speaker 1: ad and the Bible Project resources are on that website,

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Speaker 1: and so I know, you guys get criticized sometimes about

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Speaker 1: why doesn't the ad include this or that? And I've

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Speaker 1: always thought of the AD as kind of being a

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Speaker 1: funnel to other information, and so the Bible Project includes

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Speaker 1: all the information that there's videos on the website about sin,

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Speaker 1: the death of Jesus, and the resurrection of Jesus as well,

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Speaker 1: so all of it's on there. Would you agree with

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Speaker 1: what I'm saying here in that for those who want

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Speaker 1: to know more about Jesus it's on the website.

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Speaker 2: Yes, I do. And we focus very specifically on what

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Speaker 2: we call is spiritually seeking skeptic, and so we really are.

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Speaker 2: If it's a language of funnels real we're really upstream

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Speaker 2: and along that it creates a journey where we make

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Speaker 2: handofs to different people. But everything you said about the

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Speaker 2: totality of the Bible project, in the sense of what

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Speaker 2: we would believe, kind of the framework we're coming from,

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Speaker 2: they do an incredible job articulating huge parts of who

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Speaker 2: we are and what we would believe in the journey

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Speaker 2: we want to see people go on to take one

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Speaker 2: step closer to the authentic Jesus from wherever they are.

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Speaker 1: Let me ask you one more question that is often

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Speaker 1: asked by critics, and they'll say, that's a nice ad,

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Speaker 1: but why not include the full Gospel? Why not include

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Speaker 1: the Romans Road? Why not have it be a sixty

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Speaker 1: second ad saying everything Billy Graham would have said, and

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Speaker 1: that would be wonderful, of course, but why not do that?

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Speaker 1: What do you say about that?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I would just say it's not that we would

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Speaker 2: be against that, but the approach we're taking is just

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Speaker 2: a different approach, and we really are trying to take

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Speaker 2: cues from the authentic Jesus. And it's very rare that

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Speaker 2: Jesus ever had a full moment of what we would

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Speaker 2: call a you know, you mentioned Roman, a Roman's Road

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Speaker 2: type of approach, so that there's a very human centered

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Speaker 2: how do humans move through a process in particular, And

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Speaker 2: so we really do feel like the moments in the

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Speaker 2: roles that the ads play in particular, which we're trying

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Speaker 2: to do some more stuff other than this, but the

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Speaker 2: role that they play in particular is to create that

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Speaker 2: you know, kind of tilt to the head, like what

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Speaker 2: is there more work to incite the curiosity, to make

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Speaker 2: people take one step closer with a real focus on

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Speaker 2: the spiritually seeking skeptic.

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Speaker 1: If you enjoy today's interview, please make sure to subscribe

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Speaker 1: and share the episode with a friend. A big thanks

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Speaker 1: to the team at Life Audio for their partnership with

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Speaker 1: us on the podcast. If you go to lifeaudio dot com.

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Speaker 1: You will find dozens of other faith centered podcasts in

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Speaker 1: their network. See you next time,