Glenn Eshelman could have been an artist at Disney in California, but instead he turned down the offer, and ended up building Sight & Sound Theatres in Lancaster County – a journey full of hardships. Yet, Glenn’s faith in God guided him to living a life beyond his wildest dreams.
Glenn's artistic talent was nurtured from a young age on his family farm in Lancaster County. With the encouragement of his parents and a Sunday school teacher, he began to hone his gift for art, which later became a beacon that would guide him through the darkest times of his life. The sudden passing of his mother and the upheaval of his dream to become a dairy farmer could have deterred him.
However, these events marked the beginning of a transformation that led Glenn toward his true calling—creating biblical theater productions that would eventually draw millions.
We sit down with Glenn to unravel his inspiring story, from the heartache of personal loss to the triumph of pioneering biblical theater. You'll hear how faith played a critical role in his life, bringing together the perfect blend of creativity and business acumen when he met his wife Shirley, and how the couple's synergy led to mesmerizing productions that have touched millions of lives.
The podcast episode concludes with Glenn offering valuable insights into the interplay between creativity and faith. His journey exemplifies the transformative power of storytelling and the arts in conveying spiritual messages that can touch lives and influence the world.
Links to Glenn Eshelman:
www.sight-sound.com
-Links-
https://www.svetkapopov.com/
https://www.instagram.com/svetka_popov/
Glenn Eshelman could have been an artist at Disney in California, but instead he turned down the offer, and ended up building Sight & Sound Theatres in Lancaster County – a journey full of hardships. Yet, Glenn’s faith in God guided him to living a life beyond his wildest dreams.
Glenn's artistic talent was nurtured from a young age on his family farm in Lancaster County. With the encouragement of his parents and a Sunday school teacher, he began to hone his gift for art, which later became a beacon that would guide him through the darkest times of his life. The sudden passing of his mother and the upheaval of his dream to become a dairy farmer could have deterred him.
However, these events marked the beginning of a transformation that led Glenn toward his true calling—creating biblical theater productions that would eventually draw millions.
We sit down with Glenn to unravel his inspiring story, from the heartache of personal loss to the triumph of pioneering biblical theater. You'll hear how faith played a critical role in his life, bringing together the perfect blend of creativity and business acumen when he met his wife Shirley, and how the couple's synergy led to mesmerizing productions that have touched millions of lives.
The podcast episode concludes with Glenn offering valuable insights into the interplay between creativity and faith. His journey exemplifies the transformative power of storytelling and the arts in conveying spiritual messages that can touch lives and influence the world.
Links to Glenn Eshelman:
www.sight-sound.com
-Links-
https://www.svetkapopov.com/
https://www.instagram.com/svetka_popov/
I got a request from Disney in California to come with them as an artist. I don't know how they found out about me. I know we had a lot of artwork out there. A lot of my photography was out there. We had flyers, brochures. They probably got a hold of one of them somewhere. It was a great offer. Got a hold of one of them somewhere. It was a great offer Back then. That was the ultimate to work for Disney. That was a career, that was a future and that was a dream of everybody's. I prayed about it. I didn't have peace.
Speaker 3:Hey friends, welcome to the Ones who D Dared podcast, where stories of courage are elevated. I'm your host, becca, and every other week you'll hear interviews from inspiring people. My hope is that you will leave encouraged. I'm so glad you're here, glenn eshelman. Welcome to the once a year.
Speaker 1:Podcast. It is such a privilege to have you sitting in the studio today.
Speaker 3:Thank you, so that good. Yeah, so you went from a dairy farmer into now what we know as sight and sound. That attracts millions of audiences to see the sight and sound theater production, and every year you guys put on something really spectacular that attracts millions of audiences to see the Sight Sound Theater production, and every year you guys put on something really spectacular. So I really want the listener to get to know, before they get to know, what Sight Sound is, or for them to know how did Glenn, who was once a dairy farmer, became who we know you to be today and produced some incredible things. So how did it all start? Can you tell us kind of the origin of the story?
Speaker 1:Actually, right now I am doing the sight and sound story, starting from its very beginnings to where it was and where it is today. But it all began on a farm in Lancaster County. I came out of a very conservative home. It was a good home, I said. We did three things at home we worked hard, ate good and went to church.
Speaker 1:But being at home on the farm at a very young age I was captivated by God's glorious world of creation and living on the farm, being out in the fields actually, I was raised with horses, with my father out in the field with horses. I was just so inspired and taken by God's glorious world of creation the clouds in the sky, the fields, the rolling hills, the animals in the barn, a new calf being born, chicks hatching out of eggs and it just really touched my spirit. What I didn't realize was God had given me a gift of art at a very young age and I still am and always was a very visual person. So what I would see through the day. I would come into the farmhouse at the kitchen, sit at the table and I would draw what I saw that day. I had five crayons that my parents gave me and then I would color with those five crayons the sketch that I just drew and I remember begging my parents for that box of 48, and finally one day I got the 48 crayons and I thought I went to heaven. My parents saw this gift in me, which I want to encourage other people as well to do, parents especially, which I want to encourage other people as well to do, parents especially. If my parents would not have seen this gift of art in me, there probably would not be a sight and sound today. But it's so vital that we see somebody else's gift, encourage it and bring inspiration to them. The Apostle Paul said to Timothy stir up that gift that is within you, and the Bible says that your gift will make way for you, it'll make room for you.
Speaker 1:But my parents saw this gift in me at a very young age and they encouraged me to keep on drawing and coloring. At the age of eight they bought me five tubes of oil paint and two paintbrushes. Oh wow. I never asked for them and I still don't know to this day why they got them for me. I had no clue what oil painting was. They gave them to me but by God's sovereign divine grace and mercy upon my life. He gave me a Sunday school teacher who was an artist. The Sunday school teacher saw this gift in me and he said Glenn, someday you got to do something with this gift. He found out I bought and my parents bought me some oil paints, said if you need help in getting started with them, he said I'll be here to help you, which he did, and he was a great inspiration to me.
Speaker 1:At the age of 12, I took off with oil painting. I just loved it and it was a natural gift for me. Age 12, I painted a painting of our home farm. It was a large painting. It was all but five feet in length. My parents were so impressed by it. They said Glenn, you need to enter that into the local farm show. I was only 12 years old of which I did, with no expectation, but I won first prize with that, a blue ribbon.
Speaker 1:But more than that, god was at work in my life back then already and I had no idea. But that was my opening show for becoming an artist. All of a sudden, other farmers started to ask me to paint their farms and I became so busy as a young teenager up until I got married painting farms, that it was a second work for me, along with farming, but my dream was to be a dairy farmer someday. I took the ag course in school. I was very active in agriculture. By the time I graduated I bought 18 registered Holstein cows with the plans of mine to be a dairy farmer. But Jeremiah says God says I know the plans I have for you, plans to bless you and not harm you, plans to give you a hope and to give you a future. And that's what God was already at work at in my life. But how quickly God can change things in our life which become setbacks to us. But God's set ups.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's good yeah.
Speaker 1:So at the age of 20, my mother was 45. She suddenly died. After my mother died, we thought we would go to my grandmother, who lived on the neighboring farm. Six months after mother died, my grandmother died. It was the midnights, the dark nights of my life, but it was how God was about to turn that darkness into his glorious light was something that I had no idea would ever happen.
Speaker 1:So after my grandmother died, my father came to me a couple months later and said the farm that I was planning to take over and farm, he said I'm going to sell it. He said if you want to stay in the dairy business with your herd, you will have to find another farm or you will have to find another place to buy for your cows. Through all that turmoil, I decided to sell my herd and all of a sudden, the vision that I had and the plans that I had was working for was all gone. It was no more. Working for was all gone. It was no more. So what happened with that was I went back to the gift that God gave me and really dove into painting. By the time we got married I became a full-time artist, painting mostly Lancaster County farms, painting mostly Lancaster County farms. I became so busy painting Lancaster County farms that I had no time to do anything else.
Speaker 3:No time for dairy farming.
Speaker 1:Exactly, I wasn't even thinking about it anymore. I would go out in the field and sketch these farms, bring them back to my art room to paint, discovered I forgot a collar, I forgot how many windows were in that house or that barn. Bought my first camera to reference what I was painting. I fell in love with photography as much as I was with art, because they're both of the same nature, especially, again, god's world of creation, all of nature. And being a farm boy, I was doing a lot of photos of farms and agriculture. 1965, a lady from our church called and said Glenn, I know you have a lot of outstanding slides, scenic slides. Would you be willing to show them for a family night at Hostetters Banquet Hall in Mount Joy for our church? I turned her down. I remembered as a boy when missionaries used to come to our church with their slide shows and I was so bored I would lay on that bench, fall asleep and want to go home and I told my wife, shirley, I will not do that to people.
Speaker 3:You didn't want to be that guy who bores people.
Speaker 1:Exactly. Let me rewind the tape for a moment. 1960, when my mother died and I was going through this very difficult time, I met my wife Shirley. I met her at a roller skating party a church roller skating party and we really not only clicked off on skates, we clicked off with each other Right after my mother died, her mother. I was dating her only for a short while. Her mother was a duplicate of my mother. They looked alike Really. They were wired alike, they acted alike Wow, that's interesting. And all of a sudden she became my mother. So God had provided a mother for me, but out of all that darkness that I came through, God gave me a wonderful wife and he gave me a person who was the missing part of me.
Speaker 1:I was a creative, the artistic one, she was business, detailed and numbers very detailed. She was business, detailed and numbers very detailed. So what I didn't have in my life, god gave to me, knowing I'm going to need that in the future. We're opposites in many ways. We laugh about it, saying I'm the throttle, she's the brake, but it works. And both of us know how to push on our pedals pretty hard. And I often tell her without my throttle you'd have gotten nowhere in life, but she's quick to remind me without my brake you would have went over the cliff and crashed. Exactly right, it takes the both to make a successful journey, that's right. But she became that helpmate to me Not artistic, but she has a good eye, she's a good critic and even with my art she was not negative about it, but she had some good pointers of how I could improve it.
Speaker 1:So what happened was, with that slideshow that I was asked to do, shirley and I decided, yeah, we'll do it. So we said yes. And not only did we say yes, we're going to do it different than just a slideshow. So we wrote a script scripture, poetry, put some music to it. Went to Hostetter's Banquet Hall that night no title, no intent to ever show it again. Hostetters banquet hall that night, no title, no intent to ever show it again.
Speaker 1:With one projector, shirley was dropping the needle on a turntable 33 RPM records. I was reading script, she was reading script. She was holding a flashlight. I was clicking the projector to. About 100 people had no clue in the world that that was our premier showing for sight and sound. From that, people started to ask for the show. So we made it portable, we gave it a title To God Be the Glory and it exploded. And soon we were traveling and traveling with this show. Then we added a second projector. Back then there was nothing like a dissolve unit, so we made our own dissolve unit. We were dissolving from one projector to another. It was great. And then we added three projectors, four projectors, and soon we were traveling from Maine to Florida with four tables on the road, six operators, and as far west as Colorado and New Mexico on the road, six operators and as far west as Colorado and New Mexico, 1972.
Speaker 1:I was coming home from Philadelphia from a slideshow on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. At this time I was also called to the ministry in the Church of the Brethren. So I was preaching in the Church of the Brethren. It was a plural ministry, non-salaried. Six of us preached, took our turns, but we took care of all the church affairs weddings, funerals, everything. So not only was I preaching and with slideshows, we also started a wedding photography business and we became known as the wedding photographer of Lancaster County. People were booking us six months on ahead. So now we were into slideshows, preaching, wedding photography, portrait photography, raising children. We had four daughters.
Speaker 1:So what happened was I was coming home in the turnpike, I was weary, I was tired. I had a wedding that morning, had a slideshow in Philadelphia that night. I was scheduled to preach the next morning. That's a lot. It was a lot, and I remember I looked up to heaven and I said, lord, this is not my cut of the cloth. I'm not somebody to just live on the road like this. I'm a farm guy, yet I enjoy what I'm doing, but I still love my paintings of farms and scenic photography of farms. And the Lord said to me by his Holy Spirit, not audibly, but in my heart. He said, glenn, did you ever think of having the people come to you rather than you go to them? I said no, I never really thought about that. It's a good idea, though. So I came home and I said to my wife I said God just gave me a word. I'm coming home tonight. I'm going to see if we can't rent an auditorium for next year. Do a special show? Invite the people to come to us rather than us go to them.
Speaker 1:We rented the Lancaster Bible College 1973. The gym auditorium it was. It was a large place of seating. We put a show together entitled the Wonder of it All. It went from creation to revelation in the Bible and we did something like that was never done before. We took 15 high-intensity projectors with an 80-foot screen this was IMAX before there was IMAX and did this show and there was nothing ever done like it and it just was so accepted.
Speaker 1:Every show sold out. We played it for 10 weeks when school was out that summer and in those 10 weeks it played to over 30,000 people and it proved to us people. And it proved to us people would come to us. And not only did it prove that, it provided enough of seed money for us to buy three and a half acres of land down along 896 when tourism was just starting in Lancaster County of where we built our first auditorium 750 seats, opening it in 1976. That was the beginnings of putting the Bible on stage. We started there with multimedia shows. 1985, I produced the first all-live stage biblical production entitled Behold the Lamb. It was on the life of Christ and that show was just so accepted it exploded. It was really the launching rocket for Sight and Sound. We were selling that show out a year on ahead. Wow.
Speaker 1:And it was the first time that we put the Bible on stage which we're doing right now. That was the beginnings of putting the Bible on stage which we're doing right now. That was the beginnings of putting the Bible on stage, of what has made sight and sound so popular today. Now I would like to share with you and your audience how this all came into being, this vision for putting the Bible on stage. When we went to the Lancaster Bible College, I was looking for a title for this organization, for this ministry. People ask me all the time are you a business or are you a ministry? We are both. We are a ministry that needs a business and we are a business with a ministry. It works beautifully, it's incredible and it has proven to be a very successful way of living one's life spiritually and in the natural. So while I was looking for a name for this organization, this ministry, I had a lot of natural names written down. I had peace about none of them.
Speaker 1:One morning I was in the scriptures reading where Jesus was with his disciples, and the disciples said to him Master, why do you teach in story form? Why do you do your preaching, your teaching, in parables? Here's what he said In seeing they don't see. Sight, in sound they don't hear. We're talking of their ears Because he said, their hearts have become hardened and thus they don't believe. And when I read that I thought there it is. That's exactly where we are today. So many people have Bibles, they have tapes, they have all the information, but they still don't see it, they still don't hear it because their hearts have become hardened.
Speaker 1:So I looked at that a little bit further and I thought oh, wow, that's not only the name, that's my vision for what I'm going to do. He staged his sermons with his parables. He took whatever he could get his hands on, be it a lamb, soil, a pearl, sheep, you name it and he staged it right in front of them, illustrated it to them, and here's what he said. Thus, in doing, their hearts were opened and they believed. And I said, lord, if it worked back then for you, why could it not work today? That's where my vision for sight and sound and the name came from. It was totally biblical, scripturally driven, which I'm a strong one on that. I believe very much to get as much of my direction, information as possible from God's word, because it's absolute truth and it will not fail you.
Speaker 3:I love that. It's the power of storytelling and Jesus did it well and there's a lot of storytellers who even you know, in the just the secular world, who bring Jesus as an example of how he was one of the best storytellers that ever lived.
Speaker 1:Absolutely was. Nobody could match him and still can't. So our job is to put the Bible on stage. We got the easy part. The story's already been written, we put the visual to it and I, being a visual person, it's my cup of tea. I love to do it. People often ask me I still do a lot of painting. I have an art gallery and over the last 15 or more years I have painted nothing but the life of Christ, the life of the Lord Jesus, and I say all the time it's endless, there's no end to what you can paint, of putting the Bible on stage. And now I put the Bible on canvas and it's still a powerful tool. It's the working of the eye gate and the ear gate together that gets to the heart of somebody I know.
Speaker 1:So many people that come through the auditorium say we have a very unique setup at Sight and Sound. When I designed the theater for Sight and Sound, I designed it with a wraparound stage. We have a 300-foot wraparound stage in our Millennium Theater today, which seats about 2,100 people. But Doa, the wraparound stage provides an experience for the people that we hear it all the time saying oh, I thought I was right there. I'm right in the midst of it, when we did Noah, the production of Noah, act 2 opened with the interior of the ark and the interior of that ark was a 300-foot wraparound of the interior with over 300 animals in the ark. Wow, and you were there. And it was always the moment, doa, we always got either a large applause, a standing ovation when the curtain went up and people were sitting in the ark Wow, incredible moment.
Speaker 3:Wish I would have seen that one. We just seen Daniel, which was spectacular. Thank you Spectacular, and I love what you just said, that the ears and eyes are a window to our heart. Absolutely so. Those are the two powerful ways that we are able, through storytelling, get to the heart of the matter.
Speaker 1:That's so true, and we live in an age today where seemingly that works more so than ever, even than when I began doing this back in the 70s. So it's become not ancient, it's become more effective and more powerful than ever before. So I changed my pulpit. I went from preaching in a Church of the Brethren pulpit to making the Sight and Sound stage in my pulpit, which reaches the world today. I would like to rewind the tape here back to the day we got married.
Speaker 1:Shirley came from a farm as well as I did. We were both farm kids, both conservative homes. The day we got married I'll never forget this there was no color photography yet, it was all black and white. But the photographer took a picture of Shirley and I together on our wedding day and both of us for some reason had our hands under the white Bible that she carried that day. She carried a white Bible with white roses on the top and our hands were under that Bible. When that picture was taken had no clue Somebody couldn't have pounded that into us that someday those hands are going to take that Bible, that Word of God, and send it into the world. It's the workings of God in one's life when you take the gift that God has given you and you put it into the hands of the Lord Jesus, he will feed the multitudes.
Speaker 1:I painted a painting of Jesus feeding the 5,000, actually 20, 25,000. Fed them all day or taught them all day, Was healing all day. Came to the end of the day and Jesus said send them home. It's late in the day. Looked at Philip and said but before you send them home, give them something to eat. Philip said with what? We don't have that kind of food, nor that kind of money. Found a little boy who had a lunch with five loaves and two fish in that basket. He took that lunch, he had that little bit, and put it into the hands of Jesus. Jesus fed the multitude, the multitude. The little boy on the painting is me. In that basket is five loaves, two fish, five tubes of paint, two paintbrushes and it's me putting that basket into the hands of Jesus.
Speaker 1:The reason for painting the painting was this when you take the little bit that you have, so insignificant, so small, you put it into the hands of Jesus. He will feed the multitudes, he will increase it and he will do the miraculous with it. With God, all things are possible and I have seen him do that over and over again in our lives. I've often said the Bible says do not despise the day of small beginnings. And we are very humbled, my wife and I, as we look back to our beginnings, of how it all started, basically with nothing, and where God has taken it. Today we say all the time, all that we are and ever hope to be, we owe it all to Him. And when people look at us as the founders, the owners, we're quick to reflect one other thing the people that God brought around us.
Speaker 1:Sight Sound employs over 800 people at this point. We have a theater in Branson, Missouri, exactly like the one here in Strasburg, Pennsylvania. We employ about 250 people there. The rest are employed in the Strasburg Theater area with production. But we look back and we realize how God brought the right person at the right time with the right giftings for the right season to help bring us to where we are today.
Speaker 1:And you know what God does. The Bible says he orders the steps of the righteous. He has taken us a step at a time. It started with one employee, then two, then four, five, until we are today to that number of 800, plus until we are today to that number of 800 plus. And we look back at all those people that God surrounded and brought in. And the beauty of this is they all have different abilities and giftings and at Sight and Sound, that's one of the beauties of that organization. We are the body of Christ, but we are many different members and each member of the body, the human body, plays a different role, a different part, and so does each person at sight and sound.
Speaker 1:Our mission statement at sight and sound is this it is to sow the word of God, present the gospel of Jesus Christ to all of our customers through live theatrical stage productions and be wise stewards of our God-given talents and resources. And we look at that army of people there at Sight and Sound, each playing their role in a different way, but when it all comes together on the stage it's like an orchestra. We're all playing a different instrument, instrument making a different sound, but when it comes together on the stage it's one beautiful sound and glorious picture of the Word of God and the wonderful God we serve and the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's so powerful. I would say high. 90% of employment at Sight Sound, if you would ask them. They are there because of the mission statement and what is so beautiful about that?
Speaker 1:We are a for-profit organization. We are a for-profit organization. We pay our employees well, they have great benefits. We have some of the best technical people, some of the best artists, some of the best people in the world at Sight Sound, and it is wonderful to be able to have a two-fold ministry which I designed from the beginning.
Speaker 1:Our ministry, first of all, is to our clients who come in the doors to experience a sight and sound story on stage. Our second ministry, our second fold ministry, is to our employees. So it is wonderful. We hear it all the time. Somebody is with 800 people. You always have somebody going through a difficult time in life and it's wonderful to be coming. You can come into that auditorium any morning, walk into any department and you will find them praying as a first thing in the morning, and not only they for the are they praying for the thing they have to do at sight and sound that day. They're praying for their fellow worker, who's worker, who's going through a hard time that day, who needs help, who needs wisdom, who needs strength, who needs joy, who needs peace. It's a wonderful two-fold ministry and I would encourage that to any business person today. It's a tremendous opportunity to touch not only the outside with what you're doing, but to touch those who are working with you every day in a spiritual way wasn't all that easy, Glenn, was it?
Speaker 1:You had some resistance along the way, some challenges that you faced that seemed like they were going to put you under Absolutely Many midnights, yes, yep, many dark days, but out of those dark days the light always shined and turned the darkness into light. I shared some of that with you before. When my mother passed away, my father sold the farm and it seemed like everything I lived for and worked for was gone. Basically, that same thing happened back in 1997. We had gone from a 750-seat auditorium called the Living Waters Auditorium to a 1,400-seat auditorium named the Entertainment Center. The big thing that happened in that Entertainment Center was the NOAA production that I did in 95, which really put sight and sound on the map. 1996, we ran NOAA. In the summer I came out with another production entitled the Miracle of Christmas, which just exploded 1997, january.
Speaker 1:We're a skiing family, snow skiers, and we've skied all over the country. We still do, but we were on a ski trip up in western Canada, whistler, blackcomb, one of our favorite places to ski. One morning I got up early. I was working on a production, working on a script of another show, and I got up early. It was dark yet and I was sitting there in our place where we were staying and I was writing and the phone rang. It was my daughter. She said, daddy, if you guys are going out early to ski today? She said, noah, stick around for a while. She said there's a fire in the auditorium. She said I don't think it's very serious. But she said just stick around. So I didn't even get my wife and the children out of bed because I didn't think it was that bad.
Speaker 1:About an hour later I got a call from our CFO, our chief financial officer. He said Glenn, you guys got to come home right away. He said we have a major fire here. I didn't know to what extent. So we flew back, took all day to get into Harrisburg, drove into the home place we live on, a farm. Coming into the farm on the road, I can always look across the field and see the auditorium sitting on a high hill and I always used to say it's like a jewel sitting on the hill. It's so beautiful. But this time, when I drove down that road and looked across the field, all I saw were fire trucks, smoke, smoldering debris. Everything we ever lived for, worked for, believed for was gone. Everything we ever lived for, worked for, believed for was gone. The entire auditorium had vanished. In the fire, production shops, the shows nothing was left. But thank God nobody lost life, nor did any of our animals. In fact we used very many, a lot of animals in our shows.
Speaker 1:We had several hundred thousand tickets sold for that year, for NOAA 97. We had over 300 employees at that time, no place to put them, no place to meet with the family, with the leadership team, with the board of directors. So we met down in our farmhouse for three days solid. It seemed like it was around the clock and we were just trying to get through the front end of this thing the logistics. What do we do with our employees? The tickets that were sold was at the end of the third day.
Speaker 1:My wife and I was sitting in the kitchen. Everybody was gone and it was quiet for a change. When I looked over at her, I could have cried. She was beat. I didn't look any better. It was a great loss. And she looked over at me and she said Glenn. She said we worked hard all of our lives and she said we're getting older. She said do you know what this is going to mean to come back again? I said surely I haven't even thought about coming back again. I'm just trying to get through the front end of this thing. Then it really got quiet. She said to me do you want to come back again? And that hit me. That was a bomb dropped on me and my flesh went to work. All of a sudden I'm thinking I have a vague number of what it's going to cost to come back again to replace this.
Speaker 1:It's like $40 million.
Speaker 1:We had a very small amount of insurance. We were still those conservative people not near enough to come back with. And I got to thinking, glenn, why not just take that insurance money, send the people home, forget all the pressure of this and live happily ever after? And the Holy Spirit like smacked me over the head so hard. He said Glenn, you'll be the most miserable person ever after.
Speaker 1:And then I said to Shirley I said you know you're in this as much as I am. I said do you want to come back again? Here's what she said. Never forget it. She said to me sight and sound is much more than a business. She said to me it's much more than a ministry. She said to me it's much more than a ministry. She said this is a high calling that God has put in our lives right after we got married. And if we don't come back again, she said, I don't think I could ever sleep another night or live another day with myself. And that hit me so hard in the heart. I said surely you are exactly right. A fire can destroy a building, but it cannot destroy the calling. I said surely we will come back again. So you know what I did.
Speaker 1:I got up the next morning, took the gift that God gave me my pencil and my paper and I drew the Millennium Theater. As soon as I had a drawing, I went back to that which I love to do, which I did for all the shows Cardboard, hot glue, elmer's glue, whatever I could get my hands on and I modeled in eighth inch scale the Millennium Theater, hauled the 300 employees together at Hershey Farms, gave them a breakfast, said I have an announcement to make, and everybody was holding their breath thinking, oh, this is it. And I said we are coming back again and there was a roar, went up in that room, like you could have heard in Harrisburg. And then I held the model up of the Millennium Theater and I said this is what we're coming back with. What Satan meant for evil, god is what we're coming back with. What Satan meant for evil, god is going to turn it into good. And that's exactly what he did Incredible. So the darkness turned into light. That burned in 97 of January, september, the 1st 1970. I'm sorry, in 1997, it burned.
Speaker 1:September 1st 1998, we opened the doors to the Millennium Theater. And not only did we open the doors to the theater with a new theater, we had to rebuild the show of Noah and I've said I did something Noah never did. I built the ark twice. It's floated and mine burned, but we both got there by the grace and the help of God. So here we are today with a 2,000 seat theater, looking back not understanding at the time and at that moment why God permitted that to happen. It was hard. Surely dealt with it harder than I did. I'm more the kind of guy okay, this was your will, I accept it. I'll take it that way. If you permitted Satan to do this and destroy the place, thank God, we're going to come back again by your help. But what came out of that was what we have today with a Millennium Theater.
Speaker 1:We could have not been close in doing in the Entertainment Center yeah, we could have Seeding-wise, technically-wise anyway-wise with animals what God saw in the future for us and we didn't see he had to take away from us. You know it was Corrie ten Boone that said whatever you hold in your hands, hold it very lightly, so when God wants to take it from you, that he doesn't have to pry your fingers open to get it out of your hands, but that you can loosely and easily let it go. Life is change. That's been my life and it'll continue to change. But when change comes, how do we change? For the better or for the bitter? I chose to go with the better and how we should go, and now we look back and see what God has done through that Incredible. Was it the end of hard times? No, we started building in November, started to put foundation in the ground in November of 97. Still did not have a financial package in place to build this place. But the contractor had enough confidence and faith in us that he started. January of 98, they were putting steel up over the stage. Steel didn't have a financial package in place. I got a call from the owner of the company saying Glenn, I don't like to do this to you. I know you have an opening date already set and I know what will happen to that. But he said we cannot continue to build without a financial package in place. I said I totally understand. I said I don't think I could have gone as far as you've gone already. He said I'll give you two weeks If you don't have a financial package in place. He said we're out Two weeks. They're gone.
Speaker 1:That night, sitting with my wife in my office in the farmhouse. Sitting with my wife in my office in the farmhouse, we had a gal that was in our cast from Florida. I never met her dad, I only knew him by name. That was it. I knew nothing about him. Sitting there with Shirley in my office, shirley said I feel I should call him tonight. I said why do you want to call Dick? She said I don't know, I just feel I should call him. I said well, it's kind of dumb to call somebody you don't know why you're calling him. She said I just feel I should. Well, I said do what's in your heart. So she called him.
Speaker 1:Now here's what was happening. We were all but out of insurance money. We were days away from being out of insurance money and now the contractor was going to pull out. So she called him. She wasn't more on the phone with him. He said how's the building coming For some reason? Shirley told him what happened that morning from the call. He was a wealthy man. He said I just sold one of my large radio stations in Colorado. He said I have $4 million lying in the bank unspoken for. He said I'm willing to give you that $4 million to help carry you through till the banks come through. No attorneys involved, not even a handshake. We weren't together. Put $4 million in our bank account. Wow, when the insurance money left, within days of that, his money took over and the contractor kept building. Still no insurance, still no financial package in place. This is God.
Speaker 3:And you have a show set yeah, which is by faith.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. You're walking by faith and not by sight.
Speaker 3:Just doing it and just believing, okay, we're going to do this and somehow it's all going to come together. That's amazing.
Speaker 1:That's been me Sure. We used to always say, if you can think of it, you and God will get it done somehow. I'm not boasting, but that's my walk with my God. We were just about that was miracle one. We were just about at the end of his $4 million. I mean it was within days and all of a sudden the banks came through. The builders kept going. We opened up September the 1st Wow, this was planned. Wow, Incredible. Only God. That's why we look back and we cannot take any credit for what you see on that hill or what you see being done with sight and sound today. Praise God, Praise God, he's good.
Speaker 3:That's so incredible and you have people who come from all walks of life to see the show, different religions, different backgrounds, from all over. People drive from all over the country. There's buses that come, tourist buses that are always in and out of there. People fly from all over the world to see Sight and Sound. They do.
Speaker 1:You know it's again. It's only while God has taken this and put it in the hearts of people to come we get. I would like to tell you just a quick story. We did the show of David. Let me back up. We did the show of David, let me back up. Can I come back to your question in a moment? Yeah, absolutely, in 2020,.
Speaker 1:Covid hit Shut our doors. Government closed our doors. We had to send 800 people home. We were distraught. It was a dark time, a midnight in our lives. We had every Saturday the show of Esther had just premiered. The day before our doors were shut, we had every Saturday weekend sold out for Esther for that whole year. Wow, people paid for their tickets. Now we're shut down, no money coming in. People are asking for their money back.
Speaker 1:It was a very difficult time. But God, here he goes again. Here he goes. Got a phone call.
Speaker 1:Tbn, trinity Broadcasting Network, one of the largest Christian networks in the world, called and said we understand, you have the Jesus show shot in HD, edited, all ready to put on the air. We do. Would you be willing to let TBN run that for the Easter weekend on our network? We got together as a family and we said, absolutely we would. And let's take the second step with it, give it to them free. Because what's more important to give to the world, because they go to the world, what's more important to give to the world than the gospel? So we said it's yours, you can run it and you can also have it free. What we didn't know was how God was at work with that. In that one weekend, 6.5 million people heard the gospel and saw the Jesus production around the world and again, what Satan was meaning for evil, god was turning it into good and through that it gave us the vision to put a network together of our own and put all of our shows on Sight and Sound TV that people can experience them around the world today. And it has become an incredible tool again for Sight and Sound to use to get the gospel into all nations, translated into their language, done for their culture. So back to your question with all the people that come through our doors, we get saved, we get unsaved people. We jew, we get gentile, we get all religions imaginable. We get atheists.
Speaker 1:I talked to one some time ago. He was sitting up in the top row of the auditorium in the raised area, the, the raised seating area. I asked him where he was from. He was from New Jersey. I got to question him have you been here before? He said I come to all your shows. He said I love them.
Speaker 1:Then he said to me he said I want to tell you, though. He said I'm an atheist. He said I don't believe in God. I said I'm an atheist. He said I don't believe in God. I said come on, but you come here. Yeah, he said I come here. I said why do you come here?
Speaker 1:He said I'm just enthroned by the epicness of these productions and your technology that you use. So I've often said God has called me to be a lifeboat with Christian theater, of which I have tried to do all my life. Some time ago God got my attention with the technology and the epicness of our shows, said to me Glenn, make sure this doesn't become more of a showboat than a lifeboat. And I thought whoa, that's a good word. So I thought about that and I was concerned about it. I went to our children about it. We talked about it. They said we don't sense that's happening.
Speaker 1:A couple days later I got set free. On that the Holy Spirit said to me, glenn, the showboat's okay. You're responsible for this epic big look, it's okay. He said the showboat part is the bait to get the fish into the lifeboat and get the gospel into their hearts. That's exactly what was happening with that man. It was the showboat part that was getting him there, but he had also ears that he couldn't help but hearing the lifeboat part the gospel. So it's the all walks of life of which we are so thankful.
Speaker 1:And that was Jesus. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. He was accused for eating with sinners. He ministered to them as well as he did his own, and so do we. We are no respecter of person that comes in that door, as was Jesus, because the Bible says God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that, whosoever, no matter what your culture, what your color, where you've come from, where you are, what you have done, he came for you, to save you and to give you eternal life through his son, jesus Christ.
Speaker 3:What stood out to me is that sometimes our greatest setbacks become the greatest setups.
Speaker 1:I do. They were for me and still are. Thank you.
Speaker 3:But in the middle of all of that, it doesn't really feel like a setup, is it?
Speaker 1:Not at all. It's painful, it is very painful, but I look at it. I'm actually preaching a sermon on this in just a few weeks, called Our Midnights, god has done some of his greatest work in miracles. At midnight, paul and Silas praying chained. Midnight, chains fell off, freedom set free. I could go on and on with it. Our midnights, god always turns them into our victories, our freedoms, if we will continue to look to him. I'm a strong one on Proverbs 3, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge him, and then what will he do? I will direct your path. That has been my life. I have very little education. So does Shirley. I don't have any training in theater, in art, never had lessons in it.
Speaker 3:So, Glenn, what is your creative process like? How did you come to form each show before? Now? I understand you passed it on to the next generation. You have your family that's taken over and other people as well who are producing the shows and doing that. But when you first started and you were putting in each production, how did that process look like for you?
Speaker 1:I think one of the things that used to get my attention for a show were the times that we were in A world system, the church, what's happening? Spiritually, I was very sensitive to those things, but I would say the number one thing that always just inspired me. The number one thing that inspired me and moved me was the Word of God. When I was a boy, my father was the best storyteller I have yet ever met. I never heard a man be able to tell Bible stories like my daddy could, and at the age of 16 and 17, I, with the rest of the children, we used to get in bed with him and say, Daddy, tell us another story. And when he would tell us those Bible stories, Lord, I was there. I remember I had my eyes shut and, man, I was walking with Jesus. I was walking on the shores with him. I was right there and that's exactly what has happened to me. That DNA, that revelation from my father got into me to tell stories, as he did, of the Bible. So I had back then not realizing someday I will do this saw the value in being there when a story and making it so plain and so presentable that people are there. That's why I did that wraparound stage. So what happens? When I read a story in the Bible being visual, I'll get a visual of that. And I'm right there and all of a sudden I oh my word, could we really do something with that on stage if we bring that into sight and sound before people's eyes? So here's what happens. I have a sketch pad beside my bed, I have my Bible beside my bed, I have one down in my office. I read in the morning, I read at night before I go to bed. I have one down in my office. I read in the morning, I read at night before I go to bed. And if I read a story in the Bible I love the Old Testament stories, I love the New Testament but if I read a story and I get a visual of that thing immediately, I will take my sketch pad. I'll outline what I think can make a great production out of that. I'll outline what I think can make a great production out of that. I'll also make preliminary drawings of each one of those outlines that I put in there.
Speaker 1:When I got the vision for Noah I got it at the Harrisburg Farm Show the Holy Spirit said to me I want you to do a production on Noah. And I remember I questioned him and I said why, Noah, Lord? He said look how people are drawn to animals today. I said you're right, you got it. And then he said remember the words of Jesus as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be again in the days of the coming of the son of man. I said you're right on, that's it. And that's where I got my vision for Noah. But what I did. That's where I got my vision for Noah, but what I did. I came home that night. I went to bed and I couldn't sleep so I went down.
Speaker 1:I have my office in the first floor of our farmhouse. I also have my drawing board in there. I got my Bible, I got my drawing board and a sketch pad. It started about 11 o'clock at night. Board and a sketch pad. It started about 11 o'clock at night. I left that room daytime the next morning I don't even know what time it was, it might have been 10, 11 o'clock and that night, throughout that night, the Holy Spirit gave me the entire outline to that entire show. Wow, and not only did I outline it, I sketched every one of those outlines those scenes in preliminary one drawings.
Speaker 3:Wow, and did you eat at that time? Have coffee, or was it just go, go, go? Time was not even existing.
Speaker 1:When I look back on that, I'm not sure I was where. I was A little bit like Paul. I'm not sure if I was in the natural or in the spirit, both. My Bible was on my left, my sketch pad was on my right. And do you know what? My sister, 1995, three years later, that show opened exactly to the letter of what I sketched, outlined that night. Wow.
Speaker 1:That's how they start. They all start on that sketch pad, an outline of what I just read in the scriptures. Here's what I wanted to say a bit ago I'm no training, I'm no schooling in this whatsoever, and sometimes I wished I had more. And yet at the same time I'm glad I don't, because somebody could have taken what God put in me and turned it into something else. But my direction, my inspiration, my revelation, my rhema, my moving and my inspiration, my revelation, my rhema, my moving and my being is all driven by the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit. That's my source and I will die standing on that.
Speaker 1:The Bible says in John 16, when he, the spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you, he will lead you, he will counsel you, he will teach you, he will disclose to you all things. What more of a teacher than that do you need? If we draw into him, draw into me and I will draw nigh unto you. That's what he has done for me. And how can I ever say thank you enough? Thank you enough for your presence with me, for your guiding and your leading and your counsel that you have given me all the days of my life. Thank you.
Speaker 3:So you would say that your inspiration is all divine inspiration.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. Started with nature, divine inspiration, through His creation, went to the Word of God.
Speaker 3:Can I?
Speaker 1:give you a story.
Speaker 3:Yeah, go for it.
Speaker 1:When I was at the peak of my career in art and I had reached the pinnacle, I was in demand. I was a year out on catching up with orders from painting. I got a request from Disney in California to come with them as an artist. I don't know how they found out about me. I know we had a lot of artwork out there. A lot of my photography was out there. We had flyers, brochures they probably got a hold of one of them somewhere. It was a great offer Back then. That was the ultimate to work for Disney. That was a career, that was a future and that was a dream of everybody's.
Speaker 1:I prayed about it. I didn't have peace. One day, as I was praying and thinking about this, the Holy Spirit said to me. He said, Glenn, I have not called you to paint and draw ducks and mice. I have called you to take your gift and use it to glorify me. That was a turning point in my life. That's when I had determined that I will go from painting farms, just scenery, to painting the Word of God and putting the Bible on stage.
Speaker 3:That was the turning point, wow. So what was your routine like? A daily routine from before, when you were full-time working on it, to now, which you have a little, you know, because you have other people working on the production, you're probably not as involved as you were fully involved prior. So what was your daily routine like? From the time that you get up until the time you go to bed, as of right now, before and now?
Speaker 1:okay, well, because you're pretty creative, you got quite the imagination, glenn you asked my wife shirley, she said I never met anybody that keeps going at the speed you go, but I, I will never retire. I could not do that. I would. I would hurt my god if I would do that. I would hurt my God if I would do that. I'm called to the day I'll die with my boots on and my paintbrush in my hand, or my modeling tools. I'll die with that.
Speaker 1:But I live a full day. I live a full life. I do it scripturally. The Apostle Paul said seeing that the days are evil, make the most of your time. And I am not against things that other people do for pleasure, for sports, and that. That's just not my cut of the cloth and it's okay. It's how we're wired, it's how differently we are, but I am driven and maybe it's wrong sometimes're wired. It's how differently we are, but I am driven and maybe it's wrong sometimes, I don't know. I still take time for my family, for the church, for my wife, even for myself. But my healing, my joy, my pleasure comes in doing the work of the kingdom. That's just my cut. But I get up in the morning. We still live on a farm and I still farm 60 acres Corn soybeans. I'm going to go home today and do some farm work yet.
Speaker 1:So I get up early in the morning. First thing I do when I get up in the morning is I go to prayer and I spend a considerable time. That's every morning. I spend a considerable time alone with the Lord. That's my fellowship time with him, with the Lord, that's my fellowship time with Him. That's my time. I get understanding, revelation, direction for the day, for the future. It's just times that I commune with Him and be with Him, praise Him and thank Him and love Him. It's such a wonder, it's the best time of my day, and from there I go to my Bible, to the Word.
Speaker 1:This morning I spent time in the book of Genesis and Exodus. I'm getting ready to preach a sermon on midnight. I was looking at some of the midnights there. When God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was void, without form, and darkness covered the face of the deep. There was chaos on the earth and God spoke and there was light, and the light brought clarity and beauty to the darkness. So it's that type of thing I'm in in the morning. I was actually in this morning doing some writing on what I want to share. That's my every morning.
Speaker 1:And then I spend some time with Shirley, and then I go out to the barn, I feed my animals, take care of the farm work, the barn work early morning, and then from there I go right into my art studio. Right now, I go into my modeling studio, which I am doing a lot of models for this sight and sound story that I'm producing, and then many days, most days I'll have a tour group come through there. I have an art gallery with about 100 paintings on the life of Christ and we get many, many tour groups through that. Our barn is renovated in the bottom level, so that's where my art gallery is and that's where I give the tour. It's turned out to be an incredible ministry. So many people are getting saved just hearing the gospel and looking at the paintings and it's become an incredible ministry.
Speaker 1:I think tomorrow I have two. I have a lot this week. From there, when the tours are over, I go back into my modeling room. By then I take a short break for lunch, not much of a break. I go in for maybe about 15 minutes to half an hour, get a bite, to come back out again into the art gallery or to give another tour and by coming to the end of the day, come about 5.30, 6 o'clock, feed my animals again and I go into the house for supper. Sometimes I watch the news with Shirley, but this is a daily routine for me and then I go back to my art gallery again and then I'm out there until maybe 8, 39 o'clock, come in again, spend some time with Shirley. We spend time going over emails.
Speaker 3:All the people that are calling you like me to get you on podcasts and speaking events.
Speaker 1:She shares her day with me, saying well, you have just called and this is what's to take place on that day. She is that so go-to person for me. I'm so thankful for that because I could never handle it all. But she keeps my schedule and keeps the books. She does all the business book work for what I'm doing, and it's a lot yet. So I come into the house and head up to bed and take my Bible close out my day in my Bible and if I get an inkling for something I'll sketch it out and stay up late drawing. I have files and files of sketches that I have done that. If God gives me life, I would hope to paint some of them yet. But that's pretty much what my day is now.
Speaker 1:Wow, what my day was then. It was more so. I got up a lot earlier in the morning and did my devotional time again with God, but then went straight up. In fact, back then I used to have somebody from Sight and Sound come down and take care of my animals for me so I could get into meetings up at Sight and Sound. So the first thing I used to do when I went up to Sight and Sound I visited every department. I walked through the company, through the building and touched base with every department Department heads, supervisors, managers, just picking their brain How's it coming? Okay, can I help you in any way? Yeah, I could use some direction here. Or I would look at something and say let's make some corrections here.
Speaker 1:It's not quite the way I see it. So from there I would go back up into my office and sit down with the producing group and work on a production, writing script, doing design, layout, whatever it took. Into rehearsals with the directors, into meetings with casting for the next show, into meetings with Doa. Casting for the next show A big one was for many years. So many requests we were getting to put a sight and sound at another location, traveling to those areas, taking a look at them, praying about them, seeing if that's how Branson came about. We were at so many places and, in fact, doa.
Speaker 1:I just had a strong request to come to Jerusalem with a show, and this was just recent though. I had three rabbis come across from Israel to meet with us. President Benjamin Netanyahu was involved with it, which then took me to Israel to look further into it. It's only the tip of the iceberg, yeah, but that's been my life, it's a good life. And I might say, though, even before Sight Sound, a lot of my time was photography. When we were doing these multimedia shows, I would go on photo trips for six, seven weeks at a time Wow, just photographing and Shirley would hold down the fort at home and make sure everything was kept in order, which she did well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're a dedicated guy, huh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pretty dedicated. I still do a lot of preaching yet and speaking engagements, so that's also another big part of my life right now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, wow. So we were just at the show, daniel, and how long did that take to produce? That was a four-year production. Okay, Is that about an average per show for you? Is that about an average time per show?
Speaker 1:Three three and a half years is more average. Covid is the one that put that into longevity there. Yeah, because it had all of a sudden sound bend out of shape for a while. We didn't know what's going to happen here, so that was a bigger delay with it, plus some other things. So Daniel was a difficult show. We had our share of moments with that show, and that happens all the time, but I don't think one ever happened to this Like when we had the script done it was 20 minutes too long and that's a job to have to go back and cut out, determine what gets cut out and what scenes stay, rework that. It's like starting from scratch again. You just have to rework that whole thing. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So there were issues like that that happened with the Daniel show, but it came off with great success and we're finding people are really moved and touched by it, so I'm very thankful for it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was spectacular. And how much money does it take to produce something like that?
Speaker 1:Oh, about 8 mil.
Speaker 3:Wow, that was Daniel. Yeah, that's about 8 mil and where do you guys create the rooms that are set up for the stage, all the different settings? Where does that get made and who makes that?
Speaker 1:We're totally in-house. Okay, sight and sound is in-house. Now wait a minute. When push comes to shove and we see we're not going to make it on our opening date, we involve Branson. Branson Theater is exactly like the one here in Pennsylvania and we have production shops out there, so we'll farm some of that off to them and say, hey guys, we need help here, and they go to work on it and also, um, we've, we. We have some times that we have some major big projects that would be more beneficial to farm out to somebody, especially when it comes to structural work. Uh, some, some of these sets weigh up to 10, 12 ton.
Speaker 3:Yeah, some of them are pretty magnificent looking. I mean, it's massive.
Speaker 1:The structure. Oh, if you would see the engineering department, I think we have 20-some artists and that's not the designing group. We have 20-some artists, then there's the designing group, then there's the engineer department and then there's the people that work. This put this. I used to do it all with models, half-inch scale models. Now this is all computer generated today and that's one of the reasons I'm not there anymore. I got lost in there. Technically I could not keep up with it anymore. But then I go up into the art department now and I can't find a pencil or a paper.
Speaker 3:Or any of the paintings. You know any of that.
Speaker 1:Everything is computer-generated today, but it's the world we live in and it's better. I mean, I could not produce a show like Daniel was produced this time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there was a lot of digital aspects and the background with the screens, and it was pretty fantastic.
Speaker 1:I would like to speak of one thing here, yet my family, what God has given to us. As a family, we can never be grateful and thankful enough. I'm the artistic one, the creative one, the faith-driven one. Shirley is the business one, but God has given us son-in-laws the one married to our third daughter, amy. He is a duplicate of Shirley when it comes to business numbers, detail. He is sharp, he is good. The one married to our fourth daughter, kristen, josh Anke. He is a duplicate of myself. He is that artistic one, that creative one.
Speaker 1:He has done several shows since I stepped out. I had mentored him for many years with this in mind, that someday he can take my place in there. Simply because I saw, though, I was producing a new show every three years. It still had the old Glenn Vanilla in it. It had another title but it was still Glenn, and I was feeling I'm of an older generation and I'm not sure I'm going to continue to reach the next generation, as should be reached. So I was looking to him and mentoring and training him, saying you're of that generation, take your generation now and put it on stage with the Bible, of which he's done, and he's done a great job with it. He did Moses, he did the Jesus show, he did Jonah, did quite a few of them and now he has stepped out of putting stage production together out of putting stage production together and we have begun an entity called Sight and Sound Films. And he had the vision to take that over. So he took it over and last year we came out with our first Sight and Sound movie, entitled I Heard the Bells. It came out over Christmas and was very, very successful. He did a great job with it and now he's working on a next movie, a next film that's coming out, I think, in 26. In fact the script is written. I just read the script last week. It's phenomenal. And they're starting to do the shoot. We have what we call our back lot where we are building all of our own facades, our sets, to shoot this movie on. So that's another entity that has taken off.
Speaker 1:Back to the children we have four daughters. Kim is our oldest. Kim is responsible for all the spiritual aspect of Sight and Sound. She is like a pastor in Sight and Sound. Whenever there's a need, a hurt, a prayer request or whatever they're with Kim. Whenever there's a special event, we do a day called Inspire at Sight and Sound. Inspire at Sight and Sound, in which we invite all pastors, leaders in the spiritual realm, the musical people, to come for a day and we give them a meal, a free show, a meal, and then have an evening of inspiration. Were you ever at one of them? I have to tell them to invite you. It's a great day. We do one here. We fill that auditorium free of charge just to inspire, because we are finding people that are in spiritual leadership today take a pretty hard pounding. It's not easy. So we're there to encourage them and help them along as well, as we do the same thing in Branson then. So Kim's over all of that.
Speaker 1:Then our second daughter, brenda. She is involved with every one of the departments. In fact, these four girls are all board members and they're partial owners of Sight Sound today, along with Shirley and I, sight and sound today, along with Shirley and I. So she is involved with visiting every department once a month and sitting down with the supervisors, with the people, and really hearing their heart Struggles. Good times, hard times. How can we as a family, a company, help you and make it better for you?
Speaker 1:Amy, our third daughter. She's incredible. She oversees the entire production department, all the people that are in production, and she has a major job and role on her hand to herd that whole group together. But she's strong and she's good. Kristen, our fourth daughter she maybe comes a little closer to her daddy when it comes to visionary, the visual, the heart of a show. That's Kristen. She works beside her husband, josh, a lot in production.
Speaker 1:We have grandchildren that are in production, our grandson Ryan. He has produced the David show last year, so she would be working alongside of him. She's not in the public's eye but she's one of those silent lambs behind the scene that has great and major impact into these shows, tweaking it visually, spiritually. She's a good eye and a good heart, good spirit. So then we have great, great grandchildren that are also in the shows. Um, we have great grandchildren in the daniel show this year, this year. So the family we have been very thankful that god has given us a family with the same vision and the same drive. Uh, that's that's oftentimes where it starts to fall apart with second and third generations. But I would say what I'm experiencing with our family?
Speaker 3:they are probably herding that thing together stronger than ever before, with the same vision the same purpose, done a little different, but that's why you go to a next generation and that's such wisdom of what you said is that you wanted to pass it on to the generation so they can reach, because when you were saying it had glenn in it which in general when a creator says that, it's like saying that's a good thing, it's got me what I want. You know my original creation, but you're recognizing that wait a minute, this next generation can reach it better, so let why don't you kind of take over from there? And so that's so much wisdom in that, and that you were able to facilitate that and pass that on. I love how your family has crits it's like a welled oil machine, now what it sounds like where everybody's doing their part and they're all different and unique, which is incredible, yeah and we, we can never be thankful enough for it, because, and when I, when I, when I turned it, I'm that kind of a guy.
Speaker 1:When I turned it over, I turned it over, and here's what I told the children I said I'm stepping out of this organization as operations, but I said I'm still staying in the wagon. I'm going to give you the reins, but I'm staying in the wagon. So I will help you steer these horses. I will help you steer this organization wherever it's needed.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's beautiful. I love that. Well, I just think storytellers are some of the most impactful people in our society Because storytellers, through stories, through books and different medium, you can really convey a message and influence a generation and that's powerful that you're doing that and your family's doing that. How do you view storytelling Number one?
Speaker 1:I've always said and I still do, and I pound this hard at Sight Sound with love if you don't have a script that can entertain, just a script that can entertain an auditorium full of people for an hour and a half, without any lighting, special effects, without anything, you don't have a show. The script has to be the story, the thing. So everything you're going to add to that script now is only going to become not just bells and whistles, not just bells and whistles. It's going to become a way to express that story to people in a way that you can't do it just by storytelling. So it becomes a great asset to the story. But how I look at a story number one this is how I always produced and I still do and I still look for it. I was telling the producing group, telling my daughter I work very close with Amy. Amy works with the producers, but I'm bread and butter with Amy and I share my thoughts, my visions, my heart with her, and then she gets it through to whoever needs to get through to. But anyway, number one, you always have to have the wow in a show, the moments that somebody said oh my word, I never saw anything like that. Or the moment that hits them and says, oh, I never saw that in the Bible before. I never heard that portrayed that way. Now I understand it and now I see it in a whole new way. I push for that so hard. You know what that does. That holds people's attention, and you know what else it does it causes them to go home and check you out in the Word of God and see it in a whole new way. I'm a strong one on this. God gives us spiritual eyes and when we're born again he opens our spiritual eyes to see him and his kingdom as never before and his kingdom as never before. He like cuts the veil and gives us eyelids that are opened, that we can now see him in a whole new way. And that's why Paul said in Ephesians 1, this I pray that the eyes of your heart may be opened, ooh, that you may know the hope of his calling to you through Christ Jesus, our Lord. It's powerful, so that's always two big drivers in me to get those wow moments in there I've never seen anything like it before but also get those spirit moments that hit the heart so hard. Oh, my word, I got it. I never thought of it that way before. I never saw it that way before. Now I see it and it has turned my darkness into light. I would say right up there with those two.
Speaker 1:I always put into every show teaching moments, teaching the word of God in story form. And the other one, right up with the rest, is the gospel. Every show, you've got to be giving the people the gospel. The gospel, it's a pill that you can give to somebody that will cure every disease called the gospel pill and it's powerful. So I weave that into every show that I did and I still encourage the family to do the same. First time I saw Daniel, I went to my Amy and I said Amy, I said just a few thoughts on this and she heard me. So I still stay on top of what's happening, but in a roundabout way. Mm-hmm, does that answer your question?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Yeah, that's really good. I really love that.
Speaker 1:I'm great for just the spectacular. Why do I do that? I'm a strong believer. Everything God ever made or has done, or who he is, is glorious. It's the best, it's most beautiful. And why should we give him less than the best? That's right. Second best. I believe in giving him every pulling out, every stop, throwing out every dollar I can. To him I might say this Sight and sound is not about money. To Shirley and I and to the family, I mean that we don't live for that. I never produce a show and think how much money is this going to make? How many people is this going to pull? I produce a show about how many people can we touch with the gospel and with the word of God with this show. That's the driver behind it and we live that way. We do not live for money. You need it. You've got to have money to make it work. You got to have money to make it work, but it's not the driving factor with our family or at Sight and Sound.
Speaker 3:Positively not. Wow, glenn. Well, what a powerful story. Thank you so much for sharing. I always end the podcast with three questions. The first one is what is the bravest thing you've ever done that you haven't mentioned yet in this episode?
Speaker 1:I would probably say the production of Noah. That was my that's still Sight and Sound's signature show. That was my ultimate production and the reason I say that it is the most evangelistic show we have and I think it's the most timely show we yet have for today. We're doing some rework on that right now. It's coming back again. It's a show that'll never go away.
Speaker 1:But I would have to go to the production of Noah. It's probably one of the highlights of my life. It's not the buildings that we've built, it's in the productions that we've done. Actually, the very first live stage production I did Behold the Lamb would come very close to that. That was a strong production. Production I did Behold the Lamb would come very close to that. That was a strong production. When we ran Behold the Lamb starting down at Living Waters, I remember our audiences used to get that loud in just praise and worship on their feet that you couldn't even hear the cast speaking and that always moves me so much to see an audience moved by the spirit of what God put in your heart to present to them. I would probably say Noah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then the other one is the three transformative books.
Speaker 1:What are three books that you would say transformed your life? Well, absolutely. Number one is the Word of God. That's way over the top for me. It still is Just incredible book, I would say.
Speaker 1:Back in the early 80s God did a new work in my heart With the moving of the Holy Spirit in me. I came out of a church where I knew I was taught very little about the workings of the Holy Spirit and when I got a revelation of that, got understanding of the works of the Holy Spirit and what he is able to do for us, our helper, and all those things that I have mentioned, that was a really moving time in my life and I was able to get a hold of some books at that time on the Holy Spirit and what it really meant to be, what it really meant to have Jesus as Lord of my life. Those books really helped me understand and brought me into a whole new realm of understanding and a whole new walk with the Lord, because the Bible says that we are to confess with our mouth. If we confess with our mouth Jesus not as Lord, not as Savior, jesus as Lord we confess with our mouth. Believe in our heart, jesus as Lord shall be saved.
Speaker 1:It's a powerful thing that I'm not sure there's quite enough of teaching and understanding of Jesus as Lord. That puts him as boss of your life. He is president, he is the chief, he is king. I would say those would be some of the most. I just read a book recently that really had a lot to do. It was by a Jewish rabbi that really touched my heart. I'm still feasting on that heart. I'm still feasting on that. He described how the Jewish people, the Hebrew people, looked at God in such a respect and reverence and almighty way that they couldn't even call him by name, and I think sometimes I had to get a refresher course on that.
Speaker 3:Do you recall what the book is called or the name of the rabbi?
Speaker 1:I can't tell you, I don't know.
Speaker 3:And the last question that we have is what is the best advice that someone ever gave you? That's a tough one. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Maybe my Sunday school teacher, possibly my Sunday school teacher when he said to me God has given you a special gift. You need to use that. You need to go somewhere, you need to take that somewhere. Go somewhere with that. At the time I didn't get it, but now I look back and say when mother died and all fell apart, maybe that was the encouragement that I needed then to go to my gift. And as I look back over my life, that was the driver. That was the driver that was the driver through all these years.
Speaker 1:Wow. It was the driver that helped me to visualize Scripture because I saw it in an artistic way In a way. I've often said people wonder how I paint the way I do. I said I don't know, it just comes out of me, it's automatic. I don't even have to think while I'm painting, it's just there and honestly you can call me crazy, weird or what I actually can see a painting a picture on my eyelids.
Speaker 1:Wow, I close my eyes a lot when I preach. I close my eyes a lot when I paint, because I see it. I see it here.
Speaker 3:That's a gift.
Speaker 1:It's something. I guess it's a gift.
Speaker 3:I don't know. Yeah, you've got the creative imagination. That's unlike other people, I'd say. The majority of people can't imagine the scenes like you imagine. Like you said, when you read, you're in the scene, you're there, and then you're able to take that and create the visual, theatrical expression of that for other people to see what you've seen in your eyes first. So that's a gift, glenn.
Speaker 1:What I do. When I do a painting, I put myself in the painting I always do every time. On the Life of Christ paintings we were talking about. I've done two books on the Life of Christ paintings that I've done. One is entitled Stories of the Savior, the other is entitled the Greatest Gift. But I, literally, when I painted the Last Supper entitled the New Covenant, I put myself at the table with the boys. What were you feeling? What was going through your mind? What would have gone through my mind when he said, tomorrow I'm going to be leaving you. What would have I done if I was sitting at that table? He came to me and said this bread that I just broke, is my body broken for you Eat it? And then he poured the wine into the cup. This is my blood shed, for you Drink it. And then he poured the wine into the cup. This is my blood shed, for you Drink it. I was at the table. What have I done it? That's weird. Come on, yeah, come on.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. Well, what I love is that you are doing some deep work without trying to do that. You know, right now, in our distracted world, people my generation, you know give or take a few years here and there. You know we have to be so intentional about carving the space in order to go as deep as you go, in order to produce creative work. But you have done that so well. You were born in a different generation where that was not an issue. You know, before the internet, before the iPhone, before all the distractions, that now it's like we have to carve that out and there's books on it called deep work. So good, you know, and the fact that you go there for hours on end it allows you to have that space to really go and immerse yourself in those scenes and do that. So I just want to say thank you, glenn, for the work that you do.
Speaker 3:You're so welcome For the production that you create and just the gift that God gave you is such a beautiful expression and we're able to experience those visual sights and things that you see and feel, that you bring to life. So thank you so much for your life, your time. It's truly an honor to have you sitting in the seat.
Speaker 1:It's an honor and a joy to sit down with you today. You're a great host.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Thank you, Glenn.
Speaker 1:Thank you for what you are doing. It's very, very, very helpful to many, many people. Thank you, and I pray this will do some good in somebody's heart, yes, and maybe encourage somebody to take the gift, that seed that God has planted into you and bring it forth into a mighty harvest for the glory of God.
Speaker 3:Thank you for listening to the Once we Dare podcast. It is an honor to share these encouraging stories with you. If you enjoy the show, I would love for you to tell your friends. Leave us a reviewer rating and subscribe to wherever you listen to podcasts, because this helps others discover the show. You can find me on my website, speckhopalcom. Thank you.