Copyright 2023 Kat Silverglate

When I repeat her description of the scene that day, it sounds really intense:

“We were in an abandoned warehouse downtown. I was screaming my head off. They told me I could struggle as hard as I wanted to; they weren’t going to let me break their grip. I fought so violently and screamed so loud the people on the street outside were about to call for help.” 

She was an extra in a movie short… in Idaho. I’ve watched the production now a few times. You can’t even see her face. Only the blur of her hair as she thrashes apparently terrified of these burley men playing hoodlums in a Boise warehouse.

It’s hard to decide which of these facts is more ridiculous: a film production company in Boise Idaho or the fact that she was an extra. Jenn Gleason is a five-time, award-winning sports producer. She has five Emmys. Five. And she was an extra? In a movie short? In Boise?

“I didn’t really know much about the scene that day. Just that they needed an extra and I was supposed to show up dressed like I was out on a date. When I arrived, the actor playing my boyfriend was young. Very young. He took one look at me and quipped: ‘Am I supposed to be on a date with my mom?’ I laughed and poked back, ‘Waaaaatch-it!’”

Jenn has a quick wit and a quicker mind but the road to the Emmy spotlight started the way many successful careers do – in the most invisible place, the bottom.

“After college, I started at Fox Sports in Atlanta at ten dollars an hour as a production assistant, moved to an associate producer, and eventually landed as a senior producer at Comcast Sports.”

She was a female sports producer in a male dominated industry. Forty-five people reported directly to her. Navigating all that was challenging, but also really rewarding.

Four Emmys later and ten years into her sky rocketing-production career, she and her husband made the decision to partner with family and start a business in Boise. They both knew it was a great opportunity to start a family in a less hectic environment, so they started to prepare themselves for a big move and a totally different life style and culture. A month before leaving big city life, another one of her productions was entered for an Emmy. Two months after settling in the land of potatoes, she gave birth to her one and only son. And two weeks later, this happened:

“I was laying on the couch and could hear my phone blowing up across the room, but I was afraid I’d wake him up if I moved. So, I stayed there till he stirred. When I finally got to my phone, I had 40 messages. I’d won another Emmy and wasn’t even there to accept it. This new little life had so completely shifted my focus, I’d forgotten all about it.”

Still, the transition from the spotlight to the nightlight of hourly feedings, spit up and diaper blow outs caused more than a bit of an identity crisis.

Maybe for the first time in her life, Jenn felt more like the extra than the producer who drew the spotlight to some big action.

An early turning point came for her when she found a church, joined a small group and she started to meet other people who struggled with the same questions. Who were vulnerable in their confession. A kind of spiritual infrastructure began to come into focus around her. The things that she once considered “on the fringes of her career life” suddenly looked like the main things. Connections were no longer a result of what she did for a living or what she worked on making to further her success. Connections and relationships were becoming the main thing.

Listen to how she uses a reference to the production world to try and make this shift more clear.

And like a sunrise that gradually makes the day appear, the truth that “there are no small parts in God’s kingdom” started to filter the lens of her interactions with others. And maybe more, her perspective on worth.

And then one day Hill City Pastor Andrew Branham called and asked if she’d lend some of her production expertise to a film project. It was pretty outside the box. Get this, it was aimed at bringing God’s story to life from the first-person vantage point of the thieves, the prostitutes, the tax collectors, and people like them in scripture. He wanted people to see Christ through the lens of what the world might be tempted to call the extras. She jumped. But also had to check herself because of her tendency to say YES, a lot.

“I often say yes quickly to things because they sound so cool and exciting. But really Kat, I think I need to be in rehab for it. Do you know I have to reread The Best Yes by Lisa Terkeurst every year just to try to keep myself in check.”

But this opportunity seemed to be directly from Corporate with a capital C. From Christ alone. It absolutely lit her up inside.

“I loved working in TV. And here He was inviting me behind the scenes to use some of my past producer life to shine the spotlight on Him.” How cool is that?

Vantage Films, the non profit that makes these shorts, has now released stories  about Christ from the vantage point of, Zacchaeus, Rehab, Mary Magdalene, Saul, and Mary and the thief on the cross next to Jesus [traditionally called Dismas]. Countless more of these are in the works. Jenn’s on the Board now, filling in as an ‘extra’ when needed, and feeling the gift of worth that comes from what He did in her, not what she does for Him.     

But perhaps the clearest perspective shift in the whole worth/spotlight thing happened for her most recently when her father died. “I started to think more intentionally about my footprint. My Dad’s footprint was huge.” Her dad was the one who took her to church as a teen after her parents divorced. He was the one who went church shopping with her for a full year after this honest conversation:

He was the dad who made a public profession of faith with her after they found a church where they fit, understood what was going on and were embraced by a loving community. He left an eternal footprint… in her. His death made her focus on the question, what is a worthwhile footprint.

The Whole Spotlight Thing Can Be Confusing

The relationship between the spotlight and worth can be really confusing in this cultural moment, can’t it? Followers. Clicks. Likes. Awards. Influencers. Mega influencers. No matter how many we get, it never fills the hole, does it? It’s never quite enough, is it? Yet, Jesus tells us to let our light shine before others! Not only that, He tells us not to hide our lights. Not to cover them up.

But here’s the deal. He reverses the direction of the light. Rather than trying to find our worth in spotlights shining on us and our glory and our accomplishments, He lights us up inside and sends us out into the hurting world to illuminate the Hope of glory to others.

Listen to Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount talking to ordinary people like you and me and Jenn.

The image on the cover of this mission from the Passion Conference in 2013 has these magnificently huge spotlights shining up to heaven on a stage where people are singing praises to God. Our lit-up lives are intended to point others up. To Him. In Jenn’s words:

Well said Jenn.

We are made to be spotlights to Glory.

Our October Mission:

If you are receiving our Mission Packs in the mail, you already have a 4 x 6 photo with Matthew 5:16 and a really cool light bulb emblazoned on the cover. Here’s our challenge; can you put this image in a place where it can remind you to meditate on these things once each day in October -- 31 times this month.  

1. There are no small parts in God’s kingdom, including mine.
2. I won’t withhold the good the Lord prompts me to today. I won’t do it. I will let my good deeds go unto Him.
3. I will let my light shine so that my Father in heaven will be glorified. Motives matter. Only God really sees our motives. We are made to be motivated by Him and for His glory.

One more thing! You’ll also find a small whimsical light bulb sticker in your Mission Pack. Very colorful and bright. At some point this month, you might meet someone who needs to know “there are no bit parts in God’s kingdom!” Can you give this sticker to that person. Tell them the truth we shared today. Encourage them in the Lord.

Or, if you are the one who finds yourself out there on the battle field of life finding the light of Glory shining through some earthen vessel, will you be ready to give that sticker away. Tell them that God used them today. Encourage them in the Lord.

And if you are new to all this and you have no idea where to start with God, will you please remember this? He started with you a long time ago. He’ll never stop knocking. The question for each and every one of us is this every single day. Will we respond?

Amen? Amen!