Barna to Chair New Christian Multimedia Production Group
by Natalie Harris
July 20, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A new group headed by Christian researcher George Barna plans to be the vanguard of a new kind of multimedia entertainment. As the new chairman of Good News Holdings, Barna says he hopes to see the company influence the next generation of youth through positive-value movies, books, television, magazines, mobile cellular service, and other media.As a dynamic, new multimedia provider, Good News Holdings hopes to compete with other major media providers to offer entertainment and services to increasingly media-oriented and technology-savvy generations. The entertainment group's objective, Barna notes, is "to be the forerunner in a new genre of multimedia we are calling spiritainment."
Studies have shown that people, particularly young people, "absorb an amazing degree of their values, beliefs and lifestyle practices from the media content to which they are exposed," the researcher and cultural analyst notes. "Most of that media is based on worldviews that do not honor God," he says, but "Good News will produce media of many types ... to raise spiritual questions and draw people closer to God and his truths."
But while the multimedia group does intend to make Christian content and values integral to its offerings, Barna says he does not want to see Good News labeled or classified by the world as a Christian company. His hope, he explains, is that it and its productions will compete with its secular media counterparts because of the superior quality of its products.
The researcher believes the spiritual relevance of the new multimedia group's productions will be an important factor. "There are a lot of great ideas out there that I think are going to be able to cause people to have things to talk and think about," he says -- "things that will drive them back to scripture without hitting them over the head with it; things that will enable them to really question their own faith and take it a level deeper."
That, Barna says, is what he and the rest of the "unique team" behind Good News Holdings want to do, particularly for young media consumers, to "begin the dialogue by giving them stories that really cause them to stop and think about what they believe and why." The idea, he elaborates, is to combine strong stories with high-quality production in a way that "challenges the mind, captures the heart, refreshes the spirit, and pleases the Lord."
The first feature film Good News Holdings plans to release, Barna notes, is Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, an adaptation of the novel about Jesus Christ by Anne Rice. Beyond that, the vision for the multimedia group is a big one that the researcher says can only be realized with the presence, guidance and empowerment of God.
Natalie Harris, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is an intern/news reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
