It’s no secret that Christian media has struggled over the past several decades. All it takes is one look at early-2000s Christian contemporary music or Christian films from the same period to prove it.
In the writing world, Christian fiction is nearly nonexistent, even to this day, unless you’re reading “The Chronicles of Narnia” for the umpteenth time or are in the mood for an ultratraditional romance where the main character is probably named Jedediah.
Needless to say, “excellent storytelling” were not words that characterized the greater sphere of Christian creative media over the past few years. Well intentioned creatives have been sacrificing quality and craft for the sake of shoving a biblical message down the throats of consumers.
As a Christian who hopes to write fiction, I struggled with the reality that I was facing: I didn’t want to be associated with other Christian creatives. I didn’t want my work to fall into obscurity because Christian art was automatically slapped with a label, deemed unoriginal, uninspired and sterile.
I grieved the state of our industry because I believe that giving glory to God as an artist is largely about stewarding the gifts He’s given us by making excellent work. If you’re truly pursuing a relationship with the Lord, shouldn’t your message come out of your work without you having to strip it down to its framework, so that it’s no longer art but a sermon? And if we’re trying to reach the lost with these messages, how do we plan to do that when the art is bad, and they disagree with the content? What will draw them in?
These are questions that I have been asking myself for years as I prepare to make art. And it seems that I’m not the only Christian artist thinking about this.
In 2008, right in the middle of this creative drought, Andrew Peterson was writing music and books that broke the mold. His three book children’s fantasy series titled “The Wingfeather Saga” is one of the most popular things he’s written.
In 2022, season one of “The Wingfeather Saga” TV show was released on Angel Studios’ free streaming platform.
I had the opportunity to attend the season two premiere of “The Wingfeather Saga” TV show a few weeks ago.
“Hopefully what [The Wingfeather Saga] is giving people is something that the whole family can watch together, but also something that doesn’t pander,” Peterson said. “It’s not propaganda. We’re not trying to smuggle some secret Sunday school lesson into this story.”
The series is about the Igiby family who live in a world ravaged by dictatorial, reptilian overlords called Fangs. The Igiby siblings and their family must journey across their world in order to save themselves and the people they love. Along the way, they have to learn how to make hard decisions and stick together.
“We’re just going to tell the very best story we can tell. Give kids and families that flutter in the stomach that you get when a great story is being told, and then trust God with the rest of it,” Peterson said.
Peterson hopes and prays that his story will be used by God for His glory, but he doesn’t try to shoehorn in a gospel message and limit what the Lord can do with it. The storytellers involved in the TV show share a similar vision.
“Let’s go first into what is inherently compelling about these characters and the story they’re involved in,” Chris Wall, executive producer and showrunner for “Wingfeather,” said. “There are truths in their experience, I think, that resonate in our faith…We want to inform you with a fantasy series that is really compelling and fun, and in that, you may find some truths that are redemptive, that mean something to you.”
This approach has been successful for the “Wingfeather” crew and for Peterson. His story has done what much of Christian media has been unable to do: reached a secular audience.
“In wider media, I’m just excited — we talk about ‘Wingfeather’ living in a middle space where we know it has resonated deeply with Christian families, but it has also reached families from other traditions and people around the world,” Brock Starnes, COO and executive producer of the show, said.
Peterson’s books have been translated in 14 different languages and are enjoyed by adults and children, believers and nonbelievers, families and singles. It’s a story everyone can love.
“That’s one of the best things you can do with the arts, I think, kind of stir an affection or a longing. Even if you don’t know the name of it, you kind of feel your heart drawn toward something,” Peterson said.
These writers recognize what consumers broadly have begun to notice: there is a gap in quality stories. Everywhere. Consumers from all over the world are bored, tired and frustrated with the fact that every movie is a sequel or reboot and every book is cerebral candy that follows the same plot structure, features wooden characters and has no real depth or creativity.
Greater media has fallen into the artless category that Christian media lived in for so long, and consumers are hungry for good stories. If Christian storytellers can take this fact and start using their God-given talents to tell stories with excellence then they will attract a diverse readership. That diverse readership will then read and watch things that are informed by faith and have the opportunity to hear the gospel and experience the hope that comes from a life with Jesus Christ, and they won’t even realize it’s happening.
“Like any good story, it’s amazing to see people connect with these characters and storylines,” Starnes said, “and I’m hopeful that more things like this exist in the world that can be made, and that ‘Wingfeather’ can demonstrate how a new endeavor like this can get done and then hopefully things can come behind it.”
Sharing through stories is not a new phenomenon. It’s as old as time. Even Jesus was known for sharing the truth through stories. The time period we live in is unique because there is a need for good stories but not unique in that there is and has always been a need for people to hear the gospel. These two things fit together.
In 2008, Peterson recognized that need and took advantage of it. “The Wingfeather Saga” is one of the rare beauties in Christian storytelling because it is both quality and truthful. Other people saw this too and decided to adapt his stories to the screen to reach even more audiences.
Peterson has begun to pave a path down which other Christian creatives should be urgently trying to walk. Christian creatives should be seeking to follow him in this way, not by writing more “Wingfeather Sagas,” but by telling our own stories well to the glory of God, by writing more things that live in the middle space.
“I love when C.S. Lewis talks in his biography of those moments being bread crumbs that led him on the path that led him to Jesus eventually,” Peterson said. “My wildest hope is that a song that I write or a story that I write might, by God’s grace, be one of those little bread crumbs. It’s not the meal; He is the meal, but sometimes we get to drop little nourishing bits along the way.”
Season one of “The Wingfeather Saga” is available for everyone to stream for free at Angel.com. Season two will be available for free streaming summer of 2024.
This article is very well-written, and it is refreshing to read an honest perspective on the current state of entertainment (Christian or otherwise).