A third of the world’s 8 billion people have never heard the gospel of Jesus. It’s a staggering fact and one that is behind Jesus Film Project’s upcoming creation of a fully animated JESUS film.
Legacy meets a new world
“Our vision and passion is to give every person in the world the opportunity to hear Jesus say, ‘I love you’ in their heart language,” says Holly Newell with Jesus Film Project.
The JESUS film is the most-watched film of all time. Newell shares that over the past 45 years it has been viewed 11 billion times, and more than 600 million people have given their lives to Christ.
It’s a God-given legacy, but one they aren’t content to sit back on.
“Not long ago, we took a look at the world and its growing population, and we said, ‘We’re doing what God has called us to do, but we’re not doing it fast enough,’” Newell says.
Research led them to two important facts about the world today. One is that the majority of the people who have never heard the name of Jesus live in 12 specific countries. The other is that the world is very young.
“The average age of all the people in the world is 30,” says Newell. ” In some of those top 12 countries of unreached people, the average age is only 18.”
The JESUS Film for the next generation
The new animated JESUS will use much of the audio tracks already recorded in more than two thousand languages for the 1979 film. That means when it releases in December 2026, it will quickly become available for people around the world.
And then? The global Church will step in.
“We partner with over 1,800 different mission organizations. They’re the ones who are doing the hard work of showing the film, doing the follow-up, building the churches,” Newell says.
“So we just want to take this new animated tool, give it to them and say, ‘Go! Go and reach the people that have yet to hear!’”
---
This story originally appeared at Mission Network News and is republished here with permission.