Bringing Faith to our screens

Personal Profile

Colm Fitzpatrick speaks with religious filmmaker Jonny Somerville

Some of the youth in Ireland today may object to the Faith because it seems outdated, but one filmmaker is hoping that the history of Christianity is the very thing that can persuade people of its truth.

NUA, an evangelical video series produced by the Scripture Union (SU) group has engaged with over 15,000 students in 267 different schools, with another 4,000-young people experiencing it in youth groups, in the last year.

The eight-episode short film series which offers an engaging perspective on the Christian faith is the brain-child of Dubliner Jonny Somerville who got involved in youth ministry when he was just 16.

“I’m the youngest of four boys and Faith development was always certainly a part of our upbringing – you know being part of church was normal for us,” says Jonny, adding that his mother would try to normalise Faith so that it would have an actual impact on the family, and instil God into their lives.

Doubts

Despite this religious upbringing, Jonny still experienced many doubts about his beliefs during his teenage years and decided to engage with the historicity of Christianity and arguments against it in order to combat these uncertainties.

“I know, even in school, I really hated history and I would have ran from history. It was interesting that it was my historical discoveries of Christianity that really helped me and so from once running from history I was now running to history – looking at the historicity of Jesus, his life, the historical context of Jerusalem at the time, looking at the small pieces of evidence we have for the lives of the disciples,” he explains.

“The history of all that became a real pillar in my Faith and helped to counteract the doubts that I had,” he adds.

It was important for Jonny to be able to answer the tough and complex questions about Christianity as this entailed gaining a deeper understanding of his Faith and gave him the tools to present the Faith to others in a more wholesome way.

“I think living in Western culture, one thing that challenges life of Faith the most is engaging with your peers or engaging with the atheistic or agnostic voices in the world,” he says, noting figures such as Richard Dawkins or the late Christopher Hitchens.

“Their heads are so screwed on to the point that they should challenge our Faith because they’ re asking really good questions…I am thankful for people like them for making me have to dig deeper.”

“If I can’t communicate why I believe, or if I don’t have a response to some of those good questions, then how deep really is my Faith – how far does it go?” he says.

His Faith became much stronger during this process, but Jonny stresses that this formative journey was not done in isolation, but with the help of others who guided him throughout it. Without this type of engagement, it would have been much more difficult for him to be where he is today.

“I certainly would have allowed myself to allow others to speak into my life. I would have looked for wisdom from those who were older than me like a spiritual guide and that was really helpful. That kind of makes sense to me, particularly looking at the Gospels, looking at Jesus with his disciples, and that kind of mentoring role.

“It’s hard to navigate Faith without help and it’s hard to look for real depth unless people are out along the journey with you,” he says.

During this time, Jonny volunteered at youth camps in Avoca, Co. Wicklow, run by SU. An internship with SU followed, after which Jonny studied theology at the Irish Bible Institute – then accredited by the University of Wales – before returning to work full time with SU in 2008.

He began working in schools evangelising as the ‘Alpha Youth Coordinator’, and after four or five years in this role realised that although he was quite good at engaging with questions of Faith, some youth workers and parish leaders didn’t feel as well “equipped” to deal with these tough questions.

NUA was the resource he created in response to this problem, recognising it could enable a better and deeper conversation around Jesus and Faith. Topics covered in the series include an in-depth look at the person of Jesus, the struggle between science and religion, and an honest examination of the Church over the last 2,000 years.

Good 
sense

“I just think evangelism today needs to be quite destructive, in a good sense. We need to be able to engage with young people today and make them stop and think because life is so hectic for young people today,” says Jonny, stressing that the young are consumed with data and information.

“We did choose the video format because it’s something they watch a lot of everyday but we wanted it also to be a film that would not just be consumed like the rest, it would be something that would cause a destruction – that would make them think,” he says.

“Evangelism is going to take many different shapes and forms but we thought let’s make some really good videos that would be like the videos that they’re watching but would be different. It will have depth, it will have meaning, it will be genuine. They can’t but help think about it.”

For more information about NUA, see: https://nuafilmseries.org/