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/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I got a request from Disney in California to come
with them as an artist.
I don't know how they found outabout me.
I know we had a lot of artworkout there.
A lot of my photography was outthere.
We had flyers, brochures.
They probably got a hold of oneof them somewhere.
(00:21):
It was a great offer.
Got a hold of one of themsomewhere.
It was a great offer Back then.
That was the ultimate to workfor Disney.
That was a career, that was afuture and that was a dream of
everybody's.
I prayed about it.
I didn't have peace.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Hey friends, welcome to the Ones who D Dared podcast,
where stories of courage areelevated.
I'm your host, becca, and everyother week you'll hear
interviews from inspiring people.
My hope is that you will leaveencouraged.
I'm so glad you're here, glenneshelman.
(01:11):
Welcome to the once a year.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Podcast.
It is such a privilege to haveyou sitting in the studio today.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Thank you, so that good.
Yeah, so you went from a dairyfarmer into now what we know as
sight and sound.
That attracts millions ofaudiences to see the sight and
sound theater production, andevery year you guys put on
something really spectacularthat attracts millions of
audiences to see the Sight SoundTheater production, and every
year you guys put on somethingreally spectacular.
So I really want the listenerto get to know, before they get
(01:37):
to know, what Sight Sound is, orfor them to know how did Glenn,
who was once a dairy farmer,became who we know you to be
today and produced someincredible things.
So how did it all start?
Can you tell us kind of theorigin of the story?
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Actually, right now I am doing the sight and sound
story, starting from its verybeginnings to where it was and
where it is today.
But it all began on a farm inLancaster County.
I came out of a veryconservative home.
It was a good home, I said.
(02:13):
We did three things at home weworked hard, ate good and went
to church.
But being at home on the farm ata very young age I was
captivated by God's gloriousworld of creation and living on
the farm, being out in thefields actually, I was raised
(02:33):
with horses, with my father outin the field with horses.
I was just so inspired andtaken by God's glorious world of
creation the clouds in the sky,the fields, the rolling hills,
the animals in the barn, a newcalf being born, chicks hatching
(02:55):
out of eggs and it just reallytouched my spirit.
What I didn't realize was Godhad given me a gift of art at a
very young age and I still amand always was a very visual
person.
So what I would see through theday.
I would come into the farmhouseat the kitchen, sit at the
(03:15):
table and I would draw what Isaw that day.
I had five crayons that myparents gave me and then I would
color with those five crayonsthe sketch that I just drew and
I remember begging my parentsfor that box of 48, and finally
one day I got the 48 crayons andI thought I went to heaven.
My parents saw this gift in me,which I want to encourage other
(03:41):
people as well to do, parentsespecially, which I want to
encourage other people as wellto do, parents especially.
If my parents would not haveseen this gift of art in me,
there probably would not be asight and sound today.
But it's so vital that we seesomebody else's gift, encourage
it and bring inspiration to them.
The Apostle Paul said toTimothy stir up that gift that
(04:04):
is within you, and the Biblesays that your gift will make
way for you, it'll make room foryou.
But my parents saw this gift inme at a very young age and they
encouraged me to keep on drawingand coloring.
At the age of eight they boughtme five tubes of oil paint and
two paintbrushes.
Oh wow.
(04:25):
I never asked for them and Istill don't know to this day why
they got them for me.
I had no clue what oil paintingwas.
They gave them to me but byGod's sovereign divine grace and
mercy upon my life.
He gave me a Sunday schoolteacher who was an artist.
The Sunday school teacher sawthis gift in me and he said
(04:45):
Glenn, someday you got to dosomething with this gift.
He found out I bought and myparents bought me some oil
paints, said if you need help ingetting started with them, he
(05:09):
said I'll be here to help you,which he did, and he was a great
inspiration to me.
At the age of 12, I took offwith oil painting.
I just loved it and it was anatural gift for me.
Age 12, I painted a painting ofour home farm.
It was a large painting.
It was all but five feet inlength.
My parents were so impressed byit.
They said Glenn, you need toenter that into the local farm
show.
I was only 12 years old ofwhich I did, with no expectation
(05:31):
, but I won first prize withthat, a blue ribbon.
But more than that, god was atwork in my life back then
already and I had no idea.
But that was my opening showfor becoming an artist.
All of a sudden, other farmersstarted to ask me to paint their
farms and I became so busy as ayoung teenager up until I got
(05:56):
married painting farms, that itwas a second work for me, along
with farming, but my dream wasto be a dairy farmer someday.
I took the ag course in school.
I was very active inagriculture.
By the time I graduated Ibought 18 registered Holstein
cows with the plans of mine tobe a dairy farmer.
(06:18):
But Jeremiah says God says Iknow the plans I have for you,
plans to bless you and not harmyou, plans to give you a hope
and to give you a future.
And that's what God was alreadyat work at in my life.
But how quickly God can changethings in our life which become
(06:42):
setbacks to us.
But God's set ups.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Oh, that's good yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
So at the age of 20, my mother was 45.
She suddenly died.
After my mother died, wethought we would go to my
grandmother, who lived on theneighboring farm.
Six months after mother died,my grandmother died.
It was the midnights, the darknights of my life, but it was
(07:14):
how God was about to turn thatdarkness into his glorious light
was something that I had noidea would ever happen.
So after my grandmother died, myfather came to me a couple
months later and said the farmthat I was planning to take over
and farm, he said I'm going tosell it.
(07:35):
He said if you want to stay inthe dairy business with your
herd, you will have to findanother farm or you will have to
find another place to buy foryour cows.
Through all that turmoil, Idecided to sell my herd and all
of a sudden, the vision that Ihad and the plans that I had was
(07:59):
working for was all gone.
It was no more.
Working for was all gone.
It was no more.
So what happened with that wasI went back to the gift that God
gave me and really dove intopainting.
By the time we got married Ibecame a full-time artist,
(08:20):
painting mostly Lancaster Countyfarms, painting mostly
Lancaster County farms.
I became so busy paintingLancaster County farms that I
had no time to do anything else.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
No time for dairy farming.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Exactly, I wasn't even thinking about it anymore.
I would go out in the field andsketch these farms, bring them
back to my art room to paint,discovered I forgot a collar, I
forgot how many windows were inthat house or that barn.
Bought my first camera toreference what I was painting.
(08:53):
I fell in love with photographyas much as I was with art,
because they're both of the samenature, especially, again,
god's world of creation, all ofnature.
And being a farm boy, I wasdoing a lot of photos of farms
and agriculture.
(09:14):
1965, a lady from our churchcalled and said Glenn, I know
you have a lot of outstandingslides, scenic slides.
Would you be willing to showthem for a family night at
Hostetters Banquet Hall in MountJoy for our church?
I turned her down.
(09:35):
I remembered as a boy whenmissionaries used to come to our
church with their slide showsand I was so bored I would lay
on that bench, fall asleep andwant to go home and I told my
wife, shirley, I will not dothat to people.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
You didn't want to be that guy who bores people.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Exactly.
Let me rewind the tape for amoment.
1960, when my mother died and Iwas going through this very
difficult time, I met my wifeShirley.
I met her at a roller skatingparty a church roller skating
party and we really not onlyclicked off on skates, we
(10:18):
clicked off with each otherRight after my mother died, her
mother.
I was dating her only for ashort while.
Her mother was a duplicate ofmy mother.
They looked alike Really.
They were wired alike, theyacted alike Wow, that's
interesting.
And all of a sudden she becamemy mother.
(10:39):
So God had provided a motherfor 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 themissing part of me.
I was a creative, the artisticone, she was business, detailed
(11:02):
and numbers very detailed.
She was business, detailed andnumbers very detailed.
So what I didn't have in mylife, god gave to me, knowing
I'm going to need that in thefuture.
We're opposites in many ways.
We laugh about it, saying I'mthe throttle, she's the brake,
but it works.
And both of us know how to pushon our pedals pretty hard.
(11:25):
And I often tell her without mythrottle you'd have gotten
nowhere in life, but she's quickto remind me without my brake
you would have went over thecliff and crashed.
Exactly right, it takes theboth to make a successful
journey, that's right.
But she became that helpmate tome Not artistic, but she has a
(11:46):
good eye, she's a good criticand even with my art she was not
negative about it, but she hadsome good pointers of how I
could improve it.
So what happened was, with thatslideshow that I was asked to do
, shirley and I decided, yeah,we'll do it.
(12:06):
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 BanquetHall that night no title, no
intent to ever show it again.
Hostetters banquet hall thatnight, no title, no intent to
(12:28):
ever show it again.
With one projector, shirley wasdropping the needle on a
turntable 33 RPM records.
I was reading script, she wasreading script.
She was holding a flashlight.
I was clicking the projector to.
About 100 people had no clue inthe world that that was our
premier showing for sight andsound.
From that, people started toask for the show.
(12:50):
So we made it portable, we gaveit a title To God Be the Glory
and it exploded.
And soon we were traveling andtraveling with this show.
Then we added a secondprojector.
Back then there was nothinglike a dissolve unit, so we made
our own dissolve unit.
We were dissolving from oneprojector to another.
(13:11):
It was great.
And then we added threeprojectors, four projectors, and
soon we were traveling fromMaine to Florida with four
tables on the road, sixoperators, and as far west as
Colorado and New Mexico on theroad, six operators and as far
west as Colorado and New Mexico,1972.
(13:31):
I was coming home fromPhiladelphia from a slideshow on
the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
At this time I was also calledto the ministry in the Church of
the Brethren.
So I was preaching in theChurch of the Brethren.
It was a plural ministry,non-salaried.
Six of us preached, took ourturns, but we took care of all
(13:53):
the church affairs weddings,funerals, everything.
So not only was I preaching andwith slideshows, we also
started a wedding photographybusiness and we became known as
the wedding photographer ofLancaster County.
People were booking us sixmonths on ahead.
So now we were into slideshows,preaching, wedding photography,
(14:17):
portrait photography, raisingchildren.
We had four daughters.
So what happened was I wascoming 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 thenext morning.
That's a lot.
(14:38):
It was a lot, and I remember Ilooked up to heaven and I said,
lord, this is not my cut of thecloth.
I'm not somebody to just liveon the road like this.
I'm a farm guy, yet I enjoywhat I'm doing, but I still love
my paintings of farms andscenic photography of farms.
(14:58):
And the Lord said to me by hisHoly Spirit, not audibly, but in
my heart.
He said, glenn, did you everthink of having the people come
to you rather than you go tothem?
I said no, I never reallythought about that.
It's a good idea, though.
So I came home and I said to mywife I said God just gave me a
(15:20):
word.
I'm coming home tonight.
I'm going to see if we can'trent an auditorium for next year
.
Do a special show?
Invite the people to come to usrather than us go to them.
We rented the Lancaster BibleCollege 1973.
The gym auditorium it was.
It was a large place of seating.
(15:42):
We put a show together entitledthe Wonder of it All.
It went from creation torevelation in the Bible and we
did something like that wasnever done before.
We took 15 high-intensityprojectors with an 80-foot
screen this was IMAX beforethere was IMAX and did this show
(16:04):
and there was nothing ever donelike it and it just was so
accepted.
Every show sold out.
We played it for 10 weeks whenschool was out that summer and
in those 10 weeks it played toover 30,000 people and it proved
to us people.
(16:29):
And it proved to us peoplewould come to us.
And not only did it prove that,it provided enough of seed
money for us to buy three and ahalf acres of land down along
896 when tourism was juststarting in Lancaster County of
where we built our firstauditorium 750 seats, opening it
in 1976.
That was the beginnings ofputting the Bible on stage.
(16:49):
We started there withmultimedia shows.
1985, I produced the firstall-live stage biblical
production entitled Behold theLamb.
It was on the life of Christand that show was just so
accepted it exploded.
It was really the launchingrocket for Sight and Sound.
(17:11):
We were selling that show out ayear on ahead.
Wow.
And it was the first time thatwe put the Bible on stage which
we're doing right now.
That was the beginnings ofputting the Bible on stage which
we're doing right now.
That was the beginnings ofputting the Bible on stage, of
what has made sight and sound sopopular today.
(17:32):
Now I would like to share withyou and your audience how this
all came into being, this visionfor putting the Bible on stage.
When we went to the LancasterBible College, I was looking for
a title for this organization,for this ministry.
People ask me all the time areyou a business or are you a
(17:55):
ministry?
We are both.
We are a ministry that needs abusiness and we are a business
with a ministry.
It works beautifully, it'sincredible and it has proven to
be a very successful way ofliving one's life spiritually
(18:15):
and in the natural.
So while I was looking for aname for this organization, this
ministry, I had a lot ofnatural names written down.
I had peace about none of them.
One morning I was in thescriptures reading where Jesus
was with his disciples, and thedisciples said to him Master,
(18:38):
why do you teach in story form?
Why do you do your preaching,your teaching, in parables?
Here's what he said In seeingthey don't see.
Sight, in sound they don't hear.
We're talking of their earsBecause he said, their hearts
(19:00):
have become hardened and thusthey don't believe.
And when I read that I thoughtthere it is.
That's exactly where we aretoday.
So many people have Bibles,they have tapes, they have all
the information, but they stilldon't see it, they still don't
hear it because their heartshave become hardened.
(19:23):
So I looked at that a little bitfurther and I thought oh, wow,
that's not only the name, that'smy vision for what I'm going to
do.
He staged his sermons with hisparables.
He took whatever he could gethis hands on, be it a lamb, soil
(19:45):
, a pearl, sheep, you name itand he staged it right in front
of them, illustrated it to them,and here's what he said.
Thus, in doing, their heartswere opened and they believed.
And I said, lord, if it workedback then for you, why could it
(20:06):
not work today?
That's where my vision forsight 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 asmuch of my direction,
information as possible fromGod's word, because it's
(20:28):
absolute truth and it will notfail you.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
I love that.
It's the power of storytellingand Jesus did it well and
there's a lot of storytellerswho even you know, in the just
the secular world, who bringJesus as an example of how he
was one of the best storytellersthat ever lived.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Absolutely was.
Nobody could match him andstill can't.
So our job is to put the Bibleon stage.
We got the easy part.
The story's already beenwritten, 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 doa lot of painting.
(21:11):
I have an art gallery and overthe last 15 or more years I have
painted nothing but the life ofChrist, the life of the Lord
Jesus, and I say all the timeit's endless, there's no end to
what you can paint, of puttingthe Bible on stage.
(21:32):
And now I put the Bible oncanvas and it's still a powerful
tool.
It's the working of the eyegate and the ear gate together
that gets to the heart ofsomebody I know.
So many people that come throughthe auditorium say we have a
very unique setup at Sight andSound.
When I designed the theater forSight and Sound, I designed it
(21:54):
with a wraparound stage.
We have a 300-foot wraparoundstage in our Millennium Theater
today, which seats about 2,100people.
But Doa, the wraparound stageprovides an experience for the
people that we hear it all thetime saying oh, I thought I was
right there.
I'm right in the midst of it,when we did Noah, the production
(22:17):
of Noah, act 2 opened with theinterior of the ark and the
interior of that ark was a300-foot wraparound of the
interior with over 300 animalsin the ark.
Wow, and you were there.
And it was always the moment,doa, we always got either a
(22:37):
large applause, a standingovation when the curtain went up
and people were sitting in theark Wow, incredible moment.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Wish I would have seen that one.
We just seen Daniel, which wasspectacular.
Thank you Spectacular, and Ilove what you just said, that
the ears and eyes are a windowto our heart.
Absolutely so.
Those are the two powerful waysthat we are able, through
storytelling, get to the heartof the matter.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
That's so true, and we live in an age today where
seemingly that works more sothan 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.
(23:26):
I went from preaching in aChurch of the Brethren pulpit to
making the Sight and Soundstage in my pulpit, which
reaches the world today.
I would like to rewind the tapehere back to the day we got
married.
(23:48):
Shirley came from a farm as wellas I did.
We were both farm kids, bothconservative homes.
The day we got married I'llnever forget this there was no
color photography yet, it wasall black and white.
But the photographer took apicture of Shirley and I
together on our wedding day andboth of us for some reason had
(24:15):
our hands under the white Biblethat she carried that day.
She carried a white Bible withwhite roses on the top and our
hands were under that Bible.
When that picture was taken hadno clue Somebody couldn't have
(24:35):
pounded that into us thatsomeday those hands are going to
take that Bible, that Word ofGod, and send it into the world.
It's the workings of God inone's life when you take the
gift that God has given you andyou put it into the hands of the
(24:59):
Lord Jesus, he will feed themultitudes.
I painted a painting of Jesusfeeding the 5,000, actually 20,
25,000.
Fed them all day or taught themall day, Was healing all day.
Came to the end of the day andJesus said send them home.
(25:25):
It's late in the day.
Looked at Philip and said butbefore 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 alunch with five loaves and two
(25:48):
fish in that basket.
He took that lunch, he had thatlittle bit, and put it into the
hands of Jesus.
Jesus fed the multitude, themultitude.
The little boy on the paintingis me.
In that basket is five loaves,two fish, five tubes of paint,
two paintbrushes and it's meputting that basket into the
hands of Jesus.
(26:15):
The reason for painting thepainting was this when you take
the little bit that you have, soinsignificant, so small, you
put it into the hands of Jesus.
He will feed the multitudes, hewill increase it and he will do
the miraculous with it.
With God, all things arepossible and I have seen him do
that over and over again in ourlives.
(26:38):
I've often said the Bible saysdo not despise the day of small
beginnings.
And we are very humbled, mywife and I, as we look back to
our beginnings, of how it allstarted, basically with nothing,
and where God has taken it.
(27:00):
Today we say all the time, allthat we are and ever hope to be,
we owe it all to Him.
And when people look at us asthe founders, the owners, we're
quick to reflect one other thingthe people that God brought
around us.
(27:21):
Sight Sound employs over 800people at this point.
We have a theater in Branson,Missouri, exactly like the one
here in Strasburg, Pennsylvania.
We employ about 250 peoplethere.
The rest are employed in theStrasburg Theater area with
(27:43):
production.
But we look back and we realizehow God brought the right
person at the right time withthe right giftings for the right
season to help bring us towhere we are today.
And you know what God does.
The Bible says he orders thesteps of the righteous.
He has taken us a step at atime.
(28:04):
It started with one employee,then two, then four, five, until
we are today to that number of800, plus until we are today to
that number of 800 plus.
And we look back at all thosepeople that God surrounded and
brought in.
And the beauty of this is theyall have different abilities and
(28:29):
giftings and at Sight and Sound, that's one of the beauties of
that organization.
We are the body of Christ, butwe are many different members
and each member of the body, thehuman body, plays a different
role, a different part, and sodoes each person at sight and
sound.
Our mission statement at sightand sound is this it is to sow
the word of God, present thegospel of Jesus Christ to all of
(28:53):
our customers through livetheatrical stage productions and
be wise stewards of ourGod-given talents and resources.
And we look at that army ofpeople there at Sight and Sound,
each playing their role in adifferent way, but when it all
comes together on the stage it'slike an orchestra.
(29:14):
We're all playing a differentinstrument, instrument making a
different sound, but when itcomes together on the stage it's
one beautiful sound andglorious picture of the Word of
God and the wonderful God weserve and the gospel of Jesus
Christ.
It's so powerful.
(29:36):
I would say high.
90% of employment at SightSound, if you would ask them.
They are there because of themission statement and what is so
beautiful about that?
We are a for-profit organization.
We are a for-profitorganization.
We pay our employees well, theyhave great benefits.
(29:59):
We have some of the besttechnical people, some of the
best artists, some of the bestpeople in the world at Sight
Sound, and it is wonderful to beable to have a two-fold
ministry which I designed fromthe beginning.
Our ministry, first of all, isto our clients who come in the
doors to experience a sight andsound story on stage.
(30:21):
Our second ministry, our secondfold ministry, is to our
employees.
So it is wonderful.
We hear it all the time.
Somebody is with 800 people.
You always have somebody goingthrough a difficult time in life
and it's wonderful to be coming.
You can come into thatauditorium any morning, walk
(30:44):
into any department and you willfind them praying as a first
thing in the morning, and notonly they for the are they
praying for the thing they haveto do at sight and sound that
day.
They're praying for theirfellow worker, who's worker,
who's going through a hard timethat day, who needs help, who
needs wisdom, who needs strength, who needs joy, who needs peace
(31:05):
.
It's a wonderful two-foldministry and I would encourage
that to any business persontoday.
It's a tremendous opportunityto touch not only the outside
with what you're doing, but totouch those who are working with
you every day in a spiritualway wasn't all that easy, Glenn,
(31:40):
was it?
You had some resistance alongthe way, some challenges that
you faced that seemed like theywere going to put you under
Absolutely Many midnights, yes,yep, many dark days, but out of
those dark days the light alwaysshined and turned the darkness
into light.
I shared some of that with youbefore.
(32:00):
When my mother passed away, myfather sold the farm and it
seemed like everything I livedfor and worked for was gone.
Basically, that same thinghappened back in 1997.
We had gone from a 750-seatauditorium called the Living
Waters Auditorium to a1,400-seat auditorium named the
(32:24):
Entertainment Center.
The big thing that happened inthat Entertainment Center was
the NOAA production that I didin 95, which really put sight
and sound on the map.
1996, we ran NOAA.
In the summer I came out withanother production entitled the
Miracle of Christmas, which justexploded 1997, january.
(32:50):
We're a skiing family, snowskiers, and we've skied all over
the country.
We still do, but we were on aski trip up in western Canada,
whistler, blackcomb, one of ourfavorite places to ski.
One morning I got up early.
I was working on a production,working on a script of another
(33:13):
show, and I got up early.
It was dark yet and I wassitting there in our place where
we were staying and I waswriting and the phone rang.
It was my daughter.
She said, daddy, if you guysare going out early to ski today
?
She said, noah, stick aroundfor a while.
She said there's a fire in theauditorium.
She said I don't think it'svery serious.
(33:33):
But she said just stick around.
So I didn't even get my wifeand the children out of bed
because I didn't think it wasthat bad.
About an hour later I got a callfrom our CFO, our chief
financial officer.
He said Glenn, you guys got tocome home right away.
He said we have a major firehere.
I didn't know to what extent.
(33:53):
So we flew back, took all dayto get into Harrisburg, drove
into the home place we live on,a farm.
Coming into the farm on theroad, I can always look across
the field and see the auditoriumsitting on a high hill and I
always used to say it's like ajewel sitting on the hill.
(34:16):
It's so beautiful.
But this time, when I drovedown that road and looked across
the field, all I saw were firetrucks, smoke, smoldering debris
.
Everything we ever lived for,worked for, believed for was
gone.
Everything we ever lived for,worked for, believed for was
(34:40):
gone.
The entire auditorium hadvanished.
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, alot of animals in our shows.
(35:01):
We had several hundred thousandtickets sold for that year, for
NOAA 97.
We had over 300 employees atthat time, no place to put them,
no place to meet with thefamily, with the leadership team
, with the board of directors.
So we met down in our farmhousefor three days solid.
(35:23):
It seemed like it was aroundthe clock and we were just
trying to get through the frontend of this thing the logistics.
What do we do with ouremployees?
The tickets that were sold wasat the end of the third day.
My wife and I was sitting in thekitchen.
Everybody was gone and it wasquiet for a change.
(35:45):
When I looked over at her, Icould have cried.
She was beat.
I didn't look any better.
It was a great loss.
And she looked over at me andshe said Glenn.
She said we worked hard all ofour lives and she said we're
(36:06):
getting older.
She said do you know what thisis going to mean to come back
again?
I said surely I haven't eventhought about coming back again.
I'm just trying to get throughthe front end of this thing.
Then it really got quiet.
She said to me do you want tocome back again?
(36:28):
And that hit me.
That was a bomb dropped on meand my flesh went to work.
All of a sudden I'm thinking Ihave a vague number of what it's
going to cost to come backagain to replace this.
It's like $40 million.
We had a very small amount ofinsurance.
We were still thoseconservative people not near
(36:52):
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 likesmacked me over the head so hard
.
He said Glenn, you'll be themost miserable person ever after
(37:12):
.
And then I said to Shirley Isaid you know you're in this as
much as I am.
I said do you want to come backagain?
Here's what she said.
Never forget it.
She said to me sight and soundis much more than a business.
(37:33):
She said to me it's much morethan a ministry.
She said to me it's much morethan a ministry.
She said this is a high callingthat 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 nightor live another day with myself.
And that hit me so hard in theheart.
I said surely you are exactlyright.
(37:57):
A fire can destroy a building,but it cannot destroy the
calling.
I said surely we will come backagain.
So you know what I did.
I got up the next morning, tookthe gift that God gave me my
pencil and my paper and I drewthe Millennium Theater.
As soon as I had a drawing, Iwent back to that which I love
(38:21):
to do, which I did for all theshows Cardboard, hot glue,
elmer's glue, whatever I couldget my hands on and I modeled in
eighth inch scale theMillennium Theater, hauled the
300 employees together atHershey Farms, gave them a
breakfast, said I have anannouncement to make, and
everybody was holding theirbreath thinking, oh, this is it.
(38:41):
And I said we are coming backagain and there was a roar, went
up in that room, like you couldhave heard in Harrisburg.
And then I held the model up ofthe Millennium Theater and I
said this is what we're comingback with.
What Satan meant for evil, godis what we're coming back with.
What Satan meant for evil, godis going to turn it into good.
And that's exactly what he didIncredible.
(39:03):
So the darkness turned intolight.
That burned in 97 of January,september, the 1st 1970.
I'm sorry, in 1997, it burned.
September 1st 1998, we openedthe doors to the Millennium
(39:25):
Theater.
And not only did we open thedoors to the theater with a new
theater, we had to rebuild theshow 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 a2,000 seat theater, looking back
(39:52):
not understanding at the timeand at that moment why God
permitted that to happen.
It was hard.
Surely dealt with it harderthan 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 dothis and destroy the place,
thank God, we're going to comeback again by your help.
(40:14):
But what came out of that waswhat we have today with a
Millennium Theater.
We could have not been close indoing in the Entertainment
Center yeah, we could haveSeeding-wise, technically-wise
anyway-wise with animals whatGod saw in the future for us and
(40:37):
we didn't see he had to takeaway from us.
You know it was Corrie tenBoone that said whatever you
hold in your hands, hold it verylightly, so when God wants to
take it from you, that hedoesn't have to pry your fingers
open to get it out of yourhands, but that you can loosely
(41:01):
and easily let it go.
Life is change.
That's been my life and it'llcontinue to change.
But when change comes, how dowe change?
For the better or for thebitter?
I chose to go with the betterand how we should go, and now we
(41:22):
look back and see what God hasdone through that Incredible.
Was it the end of hard times?
No, we started building inNovember, started to put
foundation in the ground inNovember of 97.
Still did not have a financialpackage in place to build this
(41:43):
place.
But the contractor had enoughconfidence and faith in us that
he started.
January of 98, they wereputting steel up over the stage.
Steel didn't have a financialpackage in place.
I got a call from the owner ofthe company saying Glenn, I
(42:05):
don't like to do this to you.
I know you have an opening datealready set and I know what
will happen to that.
But he said we cannot continueto build without a financial
package in place.
I said I totally understand.
I said I don't think I couldhave gone as far as you've gone
already.
He said I'll give you two weeksIf you don't have a financial
package in place.
He said we're out Two weeks.
(42:27):
They're gone.
That night, sitting with my wifein my office in the farmhouse.
Sitting with my wife in myoffice in the farmhouse, we had
a gal that was in our cast fromFlorida.
I never met her dad, I onlyknew him by name.
(42:48):
That was it.
I knew nothing about him.
Sitting there with Shirley inmy office, shirley said I feel I
should call him tonight.
I said why do you want to callDick?
She said I don't know, I justfeel I should call him.
I said well, it's kind of dumbto call somebody you don't know
why you're calling him.
She said I just feel I should.
(43:09):
Well, I said do what's in yourheart.
So she called him.
Now here's what was happening.
We were all but out ofinsurance money.
We were days away from beingout of insurance money and now
the contractor was going to pullout.
So she called him.
She wasn't more on the phonewith him.
(43:31):
He said how's the buildingcoming For some reason?
Shirley told him what happenedthat morning from the call.
He was a wealthy man.
He said I just sold one of mylarge radio stations in Colorado
.
He said I have $4 million lyingin the bank unspoken for.
(43:53):
He said I'm willing to give youthat $4 million to help carry
you through till the banks comethrough.
No attorneys involved, not evena handshake.
We weren't together.
Put $4 million in our bankaccount.
Wow, when the insurance moneyleft, within days of that, his
(44:18):
money took over and thecontractor kept building.
Still no insurance, still nofinancial package in place.
This is God.
Speaker 3 (44:28):
And you have a show set yeah, which is by faith.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
Absolutely.
You're walking by faith and notby sight.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
Just doing it and just believing, okay, we're
going to do this and somehowit's all going to come together.
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
That's been me Sure.
We used to always say, if youcan think of it, you and God
will get it done somehow.
I'm not boasting, but that's mywalk with my God.
We were just about that wasmiracle one.
We were just about at the endof his $4 million.
I mean it was within days andall of a sudden the banks came
(45:06):
through.
The builders kept going.
We opened up September the 1stWow, this was planned.
Wow, Incredible.
Only God.
That's why we look back and wecannot take any credit for what
you see on that hill or what yousee being done with sight and
sound today.
Praise God, Praise God, he'sgood.
Speaker 3 (45:32):
That's so incredible and you have people who come
from all walks of life to seethe show, different religions,
different backgrounds, from allover.
People drive from all over thecountry.
There's buses that come,tourist buses that are always in
and out of there.
People fly from all over theworld to see Sight and Sound.
They do.
Speaker 1 (45:59):
You know it's again.
It's only while God has takenthis and put it in the hearts of
people to come we get.
I would like to tell you just aquick story.
We did the show of David.
Let me back up.
We did the show of David, letme back up.
(46:19):
Can I come back to yourquestion in a moment?
Yeah, absolutely, in 2020,.
Covid hit Shut our doors.
Government closed our doors.
We had to send 800 people home.
We were distraught.
(46:43):
It was a dark time, a midnightin our lives.
We had every Saturday the showof Esther had just premiered.
The day before our doors wereshut, we had every Saturday
weekend sold out for Esther forthat whole year.
Wow, people paid for theirtickets.
(47:04):
Now we're shut down, no moneycoming in.
People are asking for theirmoney back.
It was a very difficult time.
But God, here he goes again.
Here he goes.
Got a phone call.
Tbn, trinity BroadcastingNetwork, one of the largest
(47:28):
Christian networks in the world,called and said we understand,
you have the Jesus show shot inHD, edited, all ready to put on
the air.
We do.
Would you be willing to let TBNrun that for the Easter weekend
(47:49):
on our network?
We got together as a family andwe said, absolutely we would.
And let's take the second stepwith it, give it to them free.
Because what's more importantto give to the world, because
they go to the world, what'smore important to give to the
world than the gospel?
(48:09):
So we said it's yours, you canrun it and you can also have it
free.
What we didn't know was how Godwas at work with that.
In that one weekend, 6.5million people heard the gospel
and saw the Jesus productionaround the world and again, what
(48:34):
Satan was meaning for evil, godwas turning it into good and
through that it gave us thevision to put a network together
of our own and put all of ourshows on Sight and Sound TV that
people can experience themaround the world today.
And it has become an incredibletool again for Sight and Sound
(48:58):
to use to get the gospel intoall nations, translated into
their language, done for theirculture.
So back to your question withall the people that come through
our doors, we get saved, we getunsaved people.
We jew, we get gentile, we getall religions imaginable.
(49:24):
We get atheists.
I talked to one some time ago.
He was sitting up in the toprow of the auditorium in the
raised area, the, the raisedseating area.
I asked him where he was from.
He was from New Jersey.
I got to question him have youbeen here before?
He said I come to all yourshows.
(49:45):
He said I love them.
Then he said to me he said Iwant 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 comehere.
Yeah, he said I come here.
I said why do you come here?
He said I'm just enthroned bythe epicness of these
(50:06):
productions and your technologythat you use.
So I've often said God hascalled me to be a lifeboat with
Christian theater, of which Ihave tried to do all my life.
Some time ago God got myattention with the technology
(50:27):
and the epicness of our shows,said to me Glenn, make sure this
doesn't become more of ashowboat than a lifeboat.
And I thought whoa, that's agood word.
So I thought about that and Iwas concerned about it.
I went to our children about it.
We talked about it.
(50:48):
They said we don't sense that'shappening.
A couple days later I got setfree.
On that the Holy Spirit said tome, glenn, the showboat's okay.
You're responsible for thisepic big look, it's okay.
He said the showboat part isthe bait to get the fish into
(51:09):
the lifeboat and get the gospelinto their hearts.
That's exactly what washappening with that man.
It was the showboat part thatwas getting him there, but he
had also ears that he couldn'thelp but hearing the lifeboat
part the gospel.
So it's the all walks of lifeof which we are so thankful.
(51:31):
And that was Jesus.
He came to seek and to savethat which was lost.
He was accused for eating withsinners.
He ministered to them as wellas he did his own, and so do we.
We are no respecter of personthat comes in that door, as was
Jesus, because the Bible saysGod so loved the world that he
(51:58):
gave his only begotten son that,whosoever, no matter what your
culture, what your color, whereyou've come from, where you are,
what you have done, he came foryou, to save you and to give
you eternal life through his son, jesus Christ.
Speaker 3 (52:20):
What stood out to me is that sometimes our greatest
setbacks become the greatestsetups.
Speaker 1 (52:28):
I do.
They were for me and still are.
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (52:31):
But in the middle of all of that, it doesn't really
feel like a setup, is it?
Speaker 1 (52:35):
Not at all.
It's painful, it is verypainful, but I look at it.
I'm actually preaching a sermonon this in just a few weeks,
called Our Midnights, god hasdone some of his greatest work
in miracles.
(52:55):
At midnight, paul and Silaspraying chained.
Midnight, chains fell off,freedom set free.
I could go on and on with it.
Our midnights, god always turnsthem into our victories, our
freedoms, if we will continue tolook to him.
(53:17):
I'm a strong one on Proverbs 3,trust in the Lord with all your
heart.
Lean not on your ownunderstanding, but in all your
ways acknowledge him, and thenwhat 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 intheater, in art, never had
(53:41):
lessons in it.
Speaker 3 (53:45):
So, Glenn, what is your creative process like?
How did you come to form eachshow before?
Now?
I understand you passed it onto the next generation.
You have your family that'staken over and other people as
well who are producing the showsand doing that.
But when you first started andyou were putting in each
production, how did that processlook like for you?
Speaker 1 (54:10):
I think one of the things that used to get my
attention for a show were thetimes that we were in A world
system, the church, what'shappening?
Spiritually, I was verysensitive to those things, but I
(54:33):
would say the number one thingthat always just inspired me.
The number one thing thatinspired me and moved me was the
Word of God.
When I was a boy, my father wasthe best storyteller I have yet
(54:57):
ever met.
I never heard a man be able totell Bible stories like my daddy
could, and at the age of 16 and17, I, with the rest of the
children, we used to get in bedwith him and say, Daddy, tell us
another story.
And when he would tell us thoseBible stories, Lord, I was
(55:19):
there.
I remember I had my eyes shutand, man, I was walking with
Jesus.
I was walking on the shoreswith him.
I was right there and that'sexactly what has happened to me.
That DNA, that revelation frommy father got into me to tell
stories, as he did, of the Bible.
(55:41):
So I had back then notrealizing someday I will do this
saw the value in being therewhen a story and making it so
plain and so presentable thatpeople are there.
That's why I did thatwraparound stage.
So what happens?
(56:02):
When I read a story in theBible being visual, I'll get a
visual of that.
And I'm right there and all ofa sudden I oh my word, could we
really do something with that onstage if we bring that into
sight and sound before people'seyes?
(56:22):
So here's what happens.
I have a sketch pad beside mybed, I have my Bible beside my
bed, I have one down in myoffice.
I read in the morning, I readat night before I go to bed.
I have one down in my office.
I read in the morning, I readat night before I go to bed.
And if I read a story in theBible I love the Old Testament
stories, I love the NewTestament but if I read a story
(56:45):
and I get a visual of that thingimmediately, I will take my
sketch pad.
I'll outline what I think canmake a great production out of
that.
I'll outline what I think canmake a great production out of
that.
I'll also make preliminarydrawings of each one of those
outlines that I put in there.
When I got the vision for Noah Igot it at the Harrisburg Farm
(57:06):
Show the Holy Spirit said to meI want you to do a production on
Noah.
And I remember I questioned himand I said why, Noah, Lord?
He said look how people aredrawn to animals today.
I said you're right, you got it.
And then he said remember thewords of Jesus as it was in the
days of Noah, so shall it beagain in the days of the coming
(57:28):
of the son of man.
I said you're right on, that'sit.
And that's where I got myvision for Noah.
But what I did.
That's where I got my visionfor Noah, but what I did.
I came home that night.
I went to bed and I couldn'tsleep so I went down.
I have my office in the firstfloor of our farmhouse.
I also have my drawing board inthere.
I got my Bible, I got mydrawing board and a sketch pad.
(57:52):
It started about 11 o'clock atnight.
Board and a sketch pad.
It started about 11 o'clock atnight.
I left that room daytime thenext morning I don't even know
what time it was, it might havebeen 10, 11 o'clock and that
night, throughout that night,the Holy Spirit gave me the
(58:13):
entire outline to that entireshow.
Wow, and not only did I outlineit, I sketched every one of
those outlines those scenes inpreliminary one drawings.
Speaker 3 (58:23):
Wow, and did you eat at that time?
Have coffee, or was it just go,go, go?
Time was not even existing.
Speaker 1 (58:31):
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 thenatural or in the spirit, both.
My Bible was on my left, mysketch pad was on my right.
And do you know what?
My sister, 1995, three yearslater, that show opened exactly
(58:55):
to the letter of what I sketched, outlined that night.
Wow.
That's how they start.
They all start on that sketchpad, an outline of what I just
read in the scriptures.
Here's what I wanted to say abit ago I'm no training, I'm no
schooling in this whatsoever,and sometimes I wished I had
(59:17):
more.
And yet at the same time I'mglad I don't, because somebody
could have taken what God put inme and turned it into something
else.
But my direction, myinspiration, my revelation, my
rhema, my moving and myinspiration, my revelation, my
(59:39):
rhema, my moving and my being isall driven by the Holy Ghost,
the Holy Spirit.
That's my source and I will diestanding on that.
The Bible says in John 16, whenhe, the spirit of truth, comes,
he will guide you, he will leadyou, he will counsel you, he
(01:00:01):
will teach you, he will discloseto you all things.
What more of a teacher thanthat do you need?
If we draw into him, draw intome and I will draw nigh unto you
.
That's what he has done for me.
And how can I ever say thankyou enough?
Thank you enough for yourpresence with me, for your
(01:00:25):
guiding and your leading andyour counsel that you have given
me all the days of my life.
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:00:35):
So you would say that your inspiration is all divine
inspiration.
Speaker 1 (01:00:39):
Absolutely, absolutely.
Started with nature, divineinspiration, through His
creation, went to the Word ofGod.
Speaker 3 (01:00:53):
Can I?
Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
give you a story.
Speaker 3 (01:00:55):
Yeah, go for it.
Speaker 1 (01:00:57):
When I was at the peak of my career in art and I
had reached the pinnacle, I wasin demand.
I was a year out on catching upwith orders from painting.
(01:01:19):
I got a request from Disney inCalifornia to come with them as
an artist.
I don't know how they found outabout me.
I know we had a lot of artworkout there.
A lot of my photography was outthere.
(01:01:40):
We had flyers, brochures theyprobably got a hold of one of
them somewhere.
It was a great offer Back then.
That was the ultimate to workfor Disney.
That was a career, that was afuture and that was a dream of
everybody's.
(01:02:02):
I prayed about it.
I didn't have peace.
One day, as I was praying andthinking about this, the Holy
Spirit said to me.
He said, Glenn, I have notcalled you to paint and draw
ducks and mice.
I have called you to take yourgift and use it to glorify me.
(01:02:25):
That was a turning point in mylife.
That's when I had determinedthat I will go from painting
farms, just scenery, to paintingthe Word of God and putting the
Bible on stage.
Speaker 3 (01:02:47):
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 alittle, you know, because you
have other people working on theproduction, you're probably not
as involved as you were fullyinvolved prior.
So what was your daily routinelike?
From the time that you get upuntil the time you go to bed, as
(01:03:09):
of right now, before and now?
Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
okay, well, because you're pretty creative, you got
quite the imagination, glenn youasked my wife shirley, she said
I never met anybody that keepsgoing at the speed you go, but I
, I will never retire.
I could not do that.
(01:03:33):
I would.
I would hurt my god if I woulddo that.
I would hurt my God if I woulddo that.
I'm called to the day I'll diewith my boots on and my
paintbrush in my hand, or mymodeling tools.
I'll die with that.
But I live a full day.
(01:03:53):
I live a full life.
I do it scripturally.
The Apostle Paul said seeingthat the days are evil, make the
most of your time.
And I am not against thingsthat other people do for
pleasure, for sports, and that.
That's just not my cut of thecloth and it's okay.
It's how we're wired, it's howdifferently we are, but I am
(01:04:16):
driven and maybe it's wrongsometimes'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, mypleasure comes in doing the work
(01:04:41):
of the kingdom.
That's just my cut.
But I get up in the morning.
We still live on a farm and Istill farm 60 acres Corn
soybeans.
I'm going to go home today anddo some farm work yet.
So I get up early in the morning.
First thing I do when I get upin the morning is I go to prayer
(01:05:06):
and I spend a considerable time.
That's every morning.
I spend a considerable timealone with the Lord.
That's my fellowship time withhim, 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 communewith Him and be with Him, praise
(01:05:29):
Him and thank Him and love Him.
It's such a wonder, it's thebest time of my day, and from
there I go to my Bible, to theWord.
This morning I spent time in thebook of Genesis and Exodus.
I'm getting ready to preach asermon on midnight.
I was looking at some of themidnights there.
(01:05:49):
When God created the heavensand the earth, the earth was
void, without form, and darknesscovered the face of the deep.
There was chaos on the earthand God spoke and there was
light, and the light broughtclarity and beauty to the
darkness.
So it's that type of thing I'min in the morning.
(01:06:10):
I was actually in this morningdoing some writing on what I
want to share.
That's my every morning.
And then I spend some time withShirley, and then I go out to
the barn, I feed my animals,take care of the farm work, the
barn work early morning, andthen from there I go right into
(01:06:32):
my art studio.
Right now, I go into mymodeling studio, which I am
doing a lot of models for thissight 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 withabout 100 paintings on the life
(01:06:53):
of Christ and we get many, manytour groups through that.
Our barn is renovated in thebottom level, so that's where my
art gallery is and that's whereI give the tour.
It's turned out to be anincredible ministry.
So many people are gettingsaved just hearing the gospel
(01:07:16):
and looking at the paintings andit's become an incredible
ministry.
I think tomorrow I have two.
I have a lot this week.
From there, when the tours areover, I go back into my modeling
room.
By then I take a short breakfor lunch, not much of a break.
I go in for maybe about 15minutes to half an hour, get a
(01:07:37):
bite, to come back out againinto the art gallery or to give
another tour and by coming tothe end of the day, come about
5.30, 6 o'clock, feed my animalsagain and I go into the house
for supper.
Sometimes I watch the news withShirley, but this is a daily
(01:07:59):
routine for me and then I goback to my art gallery again and
then I'm out there until maybe8, 39 o'clock, come in again,
spend some time with Shirley.
We spend time going over emails.
Speaker 3 (01:08:16):
All the people that are calling you like me to get
you on podcasts and speakingevents.
Speaker 1 (01:08:20):
She shares her day with me, saying well, you have
just called and this is what'sto take place on that day.
She is that so go-to person forme.
I'm so thankful for thatbecause I could never handle it
all.
But she keeps my schedule andkeeps the books.
She does all the business bookwork for what I'm doing, and
(01:08:45):
it's a lot yet.
So I come into the house andhead up to bed and take my Bible
close out my day in my Bibleand if I get an inkling for
something I'll sketch it out andstay up late drawing.
I have files and files ofsketches that I have done that.
(01:09:07):
If God gives me life, I wouldhope to paint some of them yet.
But that's pretty much what myday is now.
Wow, what my day was then.
It was more so.
I got up a lot earlier in themorning and did my devotional
time again with God, but thenwent straight up.
(01:09:28):
In fact, back then I used tohave somebody from Sight and
Sound come down and take care ofmy animals for me so I could
get into meetings up at Sightand Sound.
So the first thing I used to dowhen I went up to Sight and
Sound I visited every department.
I walked through the company,through the building and touched
(01:09:48):
base with every departmentDepartment heads, supervisors,
managers, just picking theirbrain How's it coming?
Okay, can I help you in any way?
Yeah, I could use somedirection here.
Or I would look at somethingand say let's make some
(01:10:10):
corrections here.
It's not quite the way I see it.
So from there I would go backup into my office and sit down
with the producing group andwork on a production, writing
script, doing design, layout,whatever it took.
Into rehearsals with thedirectors, into meetings with
(01:10:35):
casting for the next show, intomeetings with Doa.
Casting for the next show A bigone was for many years.
So many requests we weregetting to put a sight and sound
at another location, travelingto 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.
(01:10:57):
I just had a strong request tocome to Jerusalem with a show,
and this was just recent though.
I had three rabbis come acrossfrom Israel to meet with us.
President Benjamin Netanyahuwas involved with it, which then
took me to Israel to lookfurther into it.
(01:11:19):
It's only the tip of theiceberg, yeah, but that's been
my life, it's a good life.
And I might say, though, evenbefore Sight Sound, a lot of my
time was photography.
When we were doing thesemultimedia shows, I would go on
photo trips for six, seven weeksat a time Wow, just
(01:11:42):
photographing and Shirley wouldhold down the fort at home and
make sure everything was kept inorder, which she did well.
Speaker 3 (01:11:52):
Yeah, you're a dedicated guy, huh.
Speaker 1 (01:11:55):
Yeah, pretty dedicated.
I still do a lot of preachingyet and speaking engagements, so
that's also another big part ofmy life right now.
Speaker 3 (01:12:04):
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 averageper show for you?
Is that about an average timeper show?
Speaker 1 (01:12:19):
Three three and a half years is more average.
Covid is the one that put thatinto longevity there.
Yeah, because it had all of asudden sound bend out of shape
for a while.
We didn't know what's going tohappen here, so that was a
bigger delay with it, plus someother things.
So Daniel was a difficult show.
(01:12:41):
We had our share of momentswith that show, and that happens
all the time, but I don't thinkone ever happened to this Like
when we had the script done itwas 20 minutes too long and
that's a job to have to go backand cut out, determine what gets
cut out and what scenes stay,rework that.
(01:13:05):
It's like starting from scratchagain.
You just have to rework thatwhole thing.
Yeah.
So there were issues like thatthat happened with the Daniel
show, but it came off with greatsuccess and we're finding
people are really moved andtouched by it, so I'm very
thankful for it.
Speaker 3 (01:13:23):
Yeah, it was spectacular.
And how much money does it taketo produce something like that?
Speaker 1 (01:13:27):
Oh, about 8 mil.
Speaker 3 (01:13:29):
Wow, that was Daniel.
Yeah, that's about 8 mil andwhere do you guys create the
rooms that are set up for thestage, all the different
settings?
Where does that get made andwho makes that?
Speaker 1 (01:13:41):
We're totally in-house.
Okay, sight and sound isin-house.
Now wait a minute.
When push comes to shove and wesee we're not going to make it
on our opening date, we involveBranson.
Branson Theater is exactly likethe one here in Pennsylvania
(01:14:05):
and we have production shops outthere, so we'll farm some of
that off to them and say, heyguys, we need help here, and
they go to work on it and also,um, we've, we.
We have some times that we havesome major big projects that
(01:14:26):
would be more beneficial to farmout to somebody, especially
when it comes to structural work.
Uh, some, some of these setsweigh up to 10, 12 ton.
Speaker 3 (01:14:38):
Yeah, some of them are pretty magnificent looking.
I mean, it's massive.
Speaker 1 (01:14:42):
The structure.
Oh, if you would see theengineering department, I think
we have 20-some artists andthat's not the designing group.
We have 20-some artists, thenthere's the designing group,
then there's the engineerdepartment and then there's the
people that work.
This put this.
I used to do it all with models, half-inch scale models.
(01:15:05):
Now this is all computergenerated today and that's one
of the reasons I'm not thereanymore.
I got lost in there.
Technically I could not keep upwith it anymore.
But then I go up into the artdepartment now and I can't find
a pencil or a paper.
Speaker 3 (01:15:23):
Or any of the paintings.
You know any of that.
Speaker 1 (01:15:26):
Everything is computer-generated today, but
it's the world we live in andit's better.
I mean, I could not produce ashow like Daniel was produced
this time.
Speaker 3 (01:15:37):
Yeah, there was a lot of digital aspects and the
background with the screens, andit was pretty fantastic.
Speaker 1 (01:15:43):
I would like to speak of one thing here, yet my
family, what God has given to us.
As a family, we can never begrateful and thankful enough.
I'm the artistic one, thecreative one, the faith-driven
one.
Shirley is the business one,but God has given us son-in-laws
(01:16:06):
the one married to our thirddaughter, amy.
He is a duplicate of Shirleywhen it comes to business
numbers, detail.
He is sharp, he is good.
The one married to our fourthdaughter, kristen, josh Anke.
He is a duplicate of myself.
(01:16:26):
He is that artistic one, thatcreative one.
He has done several shows sinceI stepped out.
I had mentored him for manyyears with this in mind, that
someday he can take my place inthere.
Simply because I saw, though, Iwas producing a new show every
(01:16:48):
three years.
It still had the old GlennVanilla in it.
It had another title but it wasstill Glenn, and I was feeling
I'm of an older generation andI'm not sure I'm going to
continue to reach the nextgeneration, as should be reached
.
So I was looking to him andmentoring and training him,
(01:17:11):
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 Jesusshow, he did Jonah, did quite a
few of them and now he hasstepped out of putting stage
(01:17:33):
production together out ofputting stage production
together and we have begun anentity called Sight and Sound
Films.
And he had the vision to takethat over.
So he took it over and lastyear we came out with our first
Sight and Sound movie, entitledI Heard the Bells.
It came out over Christmas andwas very, very successful.
(01:17:57):
He did a great job with it andnow 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 lastweek.
It's phenomenal.
And they're starting to do theshoot.
We have what we call our backlot where we are building all of
(01:18:19):
our own facades, our sets, toshoot this movie on.
So that's another entity thathas taken off.
Back to the children we havefour daughters.
Kim is our oldest.
Kim is responsible for all thespiritual aspect of Sight and
Sound.
She is like a pastor in Sightand Sound.
(01:18:39):
Whenever there's a need, a hurt, a prayer request or whatever
they're with Kim.
Whenever there's a specialevent, we do a day called
Inspire at Sight and Sound.
Inspire at Sight and Sound, inwhich we invite all pastors,
leaders in the spiritual realm,the musical people, to come for
(01:19:05):
a day and we give them a meal, afree show, a meal, and then
have an evening of inspiration.
Were you ever at one of them?
I have to tell them to inviteyou.
It's a great day.
We do one here.
We fill that auditorium free ofcharge just to inspire, because
we are finding people that arein spiritual leadership today
(01:19:29):
take a pretty hard pounding.
It's not easy.
So we're there to encouragethem and help them along as well
, as we do the same thing inBranson then.
So Kim's over all of that.
Then our second daughter, brenda.
She is involved with every oneof the departments.
In fact, these four girls areall board members and they're
(01:19:51):
partial owners of Sight Soundtoday, along with Shirley and I,
sight and sound today, alongwith Shirley and I.
So she is involved withvisiting every department once a
month and sitting down with thesupervisors, with the people,
and really hearing their heartStruggles.
Good times, hard times.
(01:20:14):
How can we as a family, acompany, help you and make it
better for you?
Amy, our third daughter.
She's incredible.
She oversees the entireproduction department, all the
people that are in production,and she has a major job and role
on her hand to herd that wholegroup together.
(01:20:37):
But she's strong and she's good.
Kristen, our fourth daughtershe maybe comes a little closer
to her daddy when it comes tovisionary, the visual, the heart
of a show.
That's Kristen.
(01:20:57):
She works beside her husband,josh, a lot in production.
We have grandchildren that arein production, our grandson Ryan
.
He has produced the David showlast year, so she would be
working alongside of him.
She's not in the public's eyebut she's one of those silent
(01:21:21):
lambs behind the scene that hasgreat and major impact into
these shows, tweaking itvisually, spiritually.
She's a good eye and a goodheart, good spirit.
So then we have great, greatgrandchildren that are also in
the shows.
Um, we have great grandchildrenin the daniel show this year,
(01:21:44):
this year.
So the family we have been verythankful that god has given us
a family with the same visionand the same drive.
Uh, that's that's oftentimeswhere it starts to fall apart
with second and thirdgenerations.
But I would say what I'mexperiencing with our family?
Speaker 3 (01:22:07):
they are probably herding that thing together
stronger than ever before, withthe same vision the same purpose
, done a little different, butthat's why you go to a next
generation and that's suchwisdom of what you said is that
you wanted to pass it on to thegeneration so they can reach,
(01:22:30):
because when you were saying ithad glenn in it which in general
when a creator says that, it'slike 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 generationcan reach it better, so let why
don't you kind of take over fromthere?
(01:22:51):
And so that's so much wisdom inthat, and that you were able to
facilitate that and pass thaton.
I love how your family hascrits it's like a welled oil
machine, now what it sounds likewhere everybody's doing their
part and they're all differentand unique, which is incredible,
yeah and we, we can never bethankful enough for it, because,
(01:23:12):
and when I, when I, when Iturned it, I'm that kind of a
guy.
Speaker 1 (01:23:17):
When I turned it over , I turned it over, and here's
what I told the children I saidI'm stepping out of this
organization as operations, butI said I'm still staying in the
wagon.
I'm going to give you the reins, but I'm staying in the wagon.
(01:23:39):
So I will help you steer thesehorses.
I will help you steer thisorganization wherever it's
needed.
Speaker 3 (01:23:48):
Oh, that's beautiful.
I love that.
Well, I just think storytellersare some of the most impactful
people in our society Becausestorytellers, through stories,
through books and differentmedium, you can really convey a
message and influence ageneration and that's powerful
that you're doing that and yourfamily's doing that.
(01:24:10):
How do you view storytellingNumber one?
Speaker 1 (01:24:17):
I've always said and I still do, and I pound this
hard at Sight Sound with love ifyou don't have a script that
can entertain, just a scriptthat can entertain an auditorium
full of people for an hour anda half, without any lighting,
special effects, withoutanything, you don't have a show.
(01:24:40):
The script has to be the story,the thing.
So everything you're going toadd to that script now is only
going to become not just bellsand whistles, not just bells and
whistles.
(01:25:00):
It's going to become a way toexpress that story to people in
a way that you can't do it justby storytelling.
So it becomes a great asset tothe story.
But how I look at a storynumber one this is how I always
(01:25:24):
produced and I still do and Istill look for it.
I was telling the producinggroup, 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, myvisions, my heart with her, and
(01:25:44):
then she gets it through towhoever needs to get through to.
But anyway, number one, youalways have to have the wow in a
show, the moments that somebodysaid oh my word, I never saw
anything like that.
Or the moment that hits themand says, oh, I never saw that
(01:26:11):
in the Bible before.
I never heard that portrayedthat way.
Now I understand it and now Isee 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 andcheck you out in the Word of God
(01:26:34):
and see it in a whole new way.
I'm a strong one on this.
God gives us spiritual eyes andwhen we're born again he opens
our spiritual eyes to see himand his kingdom as never before
(01:26:58):
and his kingdom as never before.
He like cuts the veil and givesus eyelids that are opened,
that we can now see him in awhole new way.
And that's why Paul said inEphesians 1, this I pray that
the eyes of your heart may beopened, ooh, that you may know
(01:27:21):
the hope of his calling to youthrough Christ Jesus, our Lord.
It's powerful, so that's alwaystwo big drivers in me to get
those wow moments in there I'venever seen anything like it
before but also get those spiritmoments that hit the heart so
(01:27:43):
hard.
Oh, my word, I got it.
I never thought of it that waybefore.
I never saw it that way before.
Now I see it and it has turnedmy darkness into light.
I would say right up there withthose two.
(01:28:07):
I always put into every showteaching moments, teaching the
word of God in story form.
And the other one, right upwith the rest, is the gospel.
Every show, you've got to begiving the people the gospel.
The gospel, it's a pill thatyou can give to somebody that
will cure every disease calledthe gospel pill and it's
(01:28:31):
powerful.
So I weave that into every showthat I did and I still
encourage the family to do thesame.
First time I saw Daniel, I wentto my Amy and I said Amy, I
said just a few thoughts on thisand she heard me.
(01:28:52):
So I still stay on top ofwhat's happening, but in a
roundabout way.
Mm-hmm, does that answer yourquestion?
Speaker 3 (01:29:03):
Absolutely.
Yeah, that's really good.
I really love that.
Speaker 1 (01:29:07):
I'm great for just the spectacular.
Why do I do that?
I'm a strong believer.
Everything God ever made or hasdone, or who he is, is glorious
.
It's the best, it's mostbeautiful.
And why should we give him lessthan the best?
(01:29:27):
That's right.
Second best.
I believe in giving him everypulling out, every stop,
throwing out every dollar I can.
To him I might say this Sightand sound is not about money.
To Shirley and I and to thefamily, I mean that we don't
live for that.
I never produce a show andthink how much money is this
(01:29:51):
going to make?
How many people is this goingto pull?
I produce a show about how manypeople can we touch with the
gospel and with the word of Godwith this show.
That's the driver behind it andwe live that way.
We do not live for money.
You need it.
You've got to have money tomake it work.
(01:30:14):
You got to have money to makeit work, but it's not the
driving factor with our familyor at Sight and Sound.
Speaker 3 (01:30:23):
Positively not.
Wow, glenn.
Well, what a powerful story.
Thank you so much for sharing.
I always end the podcast withthree questions.
The first one is what is thebravest thing you've ever done
that you haven't mentioned yetin this episode?
Speaker 1 (01:30:44):
I would probably say the production of Noah.
That was my that's still Sightand Sound's signature show.
That was my ultimate productionand the reason I say that it is
the most evangelistic show wehave and I think it's the most
(01:31:09):
timely show we yet have fortoday.
We're doing some rework on thatright now.
It's coming back again.
It's a show that'll never goaway.
But I would have to go to theproduction of Noah.
It's probably one of thehighlights of my life.
It's not the buildings thatwe've built, it's in the
productions that we've done.
(01:31:29):
Actually, the very first livestage production I did Behold
the Lamb would come very closeto that.
That was a strong production.
Production I did Behold theLamb would come very close to
that.
That was a strong production.
When we ran Behold the Lambstarting down at Living Waters,
(01:31:53):
I remember our audiences used toget that loud in just praise
and worship on their feet thatyou couldn't even hear the cast
speaking and that always movesme so much to see an audience
moved by the spirit of what Godput in your heart to present to
them.
I would probably say Noah.
Speaker 3 (01:32:17):
Yeah, and then the other one is the three
transformative books.
Speaker 1 (01:32:29):
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 incrediblebook, I would say.
(01:32:58):
Back in the early 80s God did anew work in my heart With the
moving of the Holy Spirit in me.
I came out of a church where Iknew I was taught very little
about the workings of the HolySpirit and when I got a
revelation of that, gotunderstanding of the works of
the Holy Spirit and what he isable to do for us, our helper,
(01:33:19):
and all those things that I havementioned, that was a really
moving time in my life and I wasable to get a hold of some
books at that time on the HolySpirit and what it really meant
(01:33:41):
to be, what it really meant tohave Jesus as Lord of my life.
Those books really helped meunderstand and brought me into a
whole new realm ofunderstanding and a whole new
walk with the Lord, because theBible says that we are to
(01:34:07):
confess with our mouth.
If we confess with our mouthJesus not as Lord, not as Savior
, jesus as Lord we confess withour mouth.
Believe in our heart, jesus asLord shall be saved.
It's a powerful thing that I'mnot sure there's quite enough of
(01:34:27):
teaching and understanding ofJesus as Lord.
That puts him as boss of yourlife.
He is president, he is thechief, he is king.
I would say those would be someof the most.
I just read a book recentlythat really had a lot to do.
(01:34:48):
It was by a Jewish rabbi thatreally touched my heart.
I'm still feasting on thatheart.
I'm still feasting on that.
He described how the Jewishpeople, the Hebrew people,
looked at God in such a respectand reverence and almighty way
(01:35:12):
that they couldn't even call himby name, and I think sometimes
I had to get a refresher courseon that.
Speaker 3 (01:35:23):
Do you recall what the book is called or the name
of the rabbi?
Speaker 1 (01:35:28):
I can't tell you, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (01:35:30):
And the last question that we have is what is the
best advice that someone evergave you?
That's a tough one.
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (01:35:42):
Maybe my Sunday school teacher, possibly my
Sunday school teacher when hesaid to me God has given you a
special gift.
You need to use that.
You need to go somewhere, youneed to take that somewhere.
(01:36:06):
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 thento go to my gift.
(01:36:29):
And as I look back over my life, that was the driver.
That was the driver that wasthe driver through all these
years.
Wow.
It was the driver that helpedme to visualize Scripture
(01:36:54):
because I saw it in an artisticway In a way.
I've often said people wonderhow I paint the way I do.
I said I don't know, it justcomes out of me, it's automatic.
I don't even have to thinkwhile I'm painting, it's just
(01:37:15):
there and honestly you can callme crazy, weird or what I
actually can see a painting apicture on my eyelids.
Wow, I close my eyes a lot whenI preach.
I close my eyes a lot when Ipaint, because I see it.
I see it here.
Speaker 3 (01:37:40):
That's a gift.
Speaker 1 (01:37:41):
It's something.
I guess it's a gift.
Speaker 3 (01:37:43):
I don't know.
Yeah, you've got the creativeimagination.
That's unlike other people, I'dsay.
The majority of people can'timagine the scenes like you
imagine.
Like you said, when you read,you're in the scene, you're
there, and then you're able totake that and create the visual,
(01:38:03):
theatrical expression of thatfor other people to see what
you've seen in your eyes first.
So that's a gift, glenn.
Speaker 1 (01:38:11):
What I do.
When I do a painting, I putmyself in the painting I always
do every time.
On the Life of Christ paintingswe were talking about.
I've done two books on the Lifeof Christ paintings that I've
done.
One is entitled Stories of theSavior, the other is entitled
the Greatest Gift.
(01:38:32):
But I, literally, when Ipainted the Last Supper entitled
the New Covenant, I put myselfat the table with the boys.
What were you feeling?
What was going through yourmind?
What would have gone through mymind when he said, tomorrow I'm
(01:38:54):
going to be leaving you.
What would have I done if I wassitting at that table?
He came to me and said thisbread that I just broke, is my
body broken for you Eat it?
And then he poured the wineinto the cup.
(01:39:16):
This is my blood shed, for youDrink it.
And then he poured the wineinto the cup.
This is my blood shed, for youDrink it.
I was at the table.
What have I done it?
That's weird.
Come on, yeah, come on.
Speaker 3 (01:39:36):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, what I love is that youare doing some deep work without
trying to do that.
You know, right now, in ourdistracted world, people my
generation, you know give ortake a few years here and there.
You know we have to be sointentional about carving the
space in order to go as deep asyou go, in order to produce
(01:39:58):
creative work.
But you have done that so well.
You were born in a differentgeneration where that was not an
issue.
You know, before the internet,before the iPhone, before all
the distractions, that now it'slike we have to carve that out
and there's books on it calleddeep work.
So good, you know, and the factthat you go there for hours on
(01:40:21):
end it allows you to have thatspace to really go and immerse
yourself in those scenes and dothat.
So I just want to say thank you, glenn, for the work that you
do.
You're so welcome For theproduction that you create and
just the gift that God gave youis such a beautiful expression
and we're able to experiencethose visual sights and things
(01:40:44):
that you see and feel, that youbring to life.
So thank you so much for yourlife, your time.
It's truly an honor to have yousitting in the seat.
Speaker 1 (01:40:54):
It's an honor and a joy to sit down with you today.
You're a great host.
Speaker 3 (01:40:59):
Thank you.
Thank you, Glenn.
Speaker 1 (01:41:00):
Thank you for what you are doing.
It's very, very, very helpfulto many, many people.
Thank you, and I pray this willdo some good in somebody's
heart, yes, and maybe encouragesomebody to take the gift, that
seed that God has planted intoyou and bring it forth into a
(01:41:22):
mighty harvest for the glory ofGod.
Speaker 3 (01:41:27):
Thank you for listening to the Once we Dare
podcast.
It is an honor to share theseencouraging stories with you.
If you enjoy the show, I wouldlove for you to tell your
friends.
Leave us a reviewer rating andsubscribe to wherever you listen
to podcasts, because this helpsothers discover the show.
You can find me on my website,speckhopalcom.
Thank you.
I got a request from Disney in California to come
with them as an artist.
I don't know how they found outabout me.
I know we had a lot of artworkout there.
A lot of my photography was outthere.
We had flyers, brochures.
They probably got a hold of oneof them somewhere.
(00:21):
It was a great offer.
Got a hold of one of themsomewhere.
It was a great offer Back then.
That was the ultimate to workfor Disney.
That was a career, that was afuture and that was a dream of
everybody's.
I prayed about it.
I didn't have peace.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Hey friends, welcome to the Ones who D Dared podcast,
where stories of courage areelevated.
I'm your host, becca, and everyother week you'll hear
interviews from inspiring people.
My hope is that you will leaveencouraged.
I'm so glad you're here, glenneshelman.
(01:11):
Welcome to the once a year.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Podcast.
It is such a privilege to haveyou sitting in the studio today.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Thank you, so that good.
Yeah, so you went from a dairyfarmer into now what we know as
sight and sound.
That attracts millions ofaudiences to see the sight and
sound theater production, andevery year you guys put on
something really spectacularthat attracts millions of
audiences to see the Sight SoundTheater production, and every
year you guys put on somethingreally spectacular.
So I really want the listenerto get to know, before they get
(01:37):
to know, what Sight Sound is, orfor them to know how did Glenn,
who was once a dairy farmer,became who we know you to be
today and produced someincredible things.
So how did it all start?
Can you tell us kind of theorigin of the story?
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Actually, right now I am doing the sight and sound
story, starting from its verybeginnings to where it was and
where it is today.
But it all began on a farm inLancaster County.
I came out of a veryconservative home.
It was a good home, I said.
(02:13):
We did three things at home weworked hard, ate good and went
to church.
But being at home on the farm ata very young age I was
captivated by God's gloriousworld of creation and living on
the farm, being out in thefields actually, I was raised
(02:33):
with horses, with my father outin the field with horses.
I was just so inspired andtaken by God's glorious world of
creation the clouds in the sky,the fields, the rolling hills,
the animals in the barn, a newcalf being born, chicks hatching
(02:55):
out of eggs and it just reallytouched my spirit.
What I didn't realize was Godhad given me a gift of art at a
very young age and I still amand always was a very visual
person.
So what I would see through theday.
I would come into the farmhouseat the kitchen, sit at the
(03:15):
table and I would draw what Isaw that day.
I had five crayons that myparents gave me and then I would
color with those five crayonsthe sketch that I just drew and
I remember begging my parentsfor that box of 48, and finally
one day I got the 48 crayons andI thought I went to heaven.
My parents saw this gift in me,which I want to encourage other
(03:41):
people as well to do, parentsespecially, which I want to
encourage other people as wellto do, parents especially.
If my parents would not haveseen this gift of art in me,
there probably would not be asight and sound today.
But it's so vital that we seesomebody else's gift, encourage
it and bring inspiration to them.
The Apostle Paul said toTimothy stir up that gift that
(04:04):
is within you, and the Biblesays that your gift will make
way for you, it'll make room foryou.
But my parents saw this gift inme at a very young age and they
encouraged me to keep on drawingand coloring.
At the age of eight they boughtme five tubes of oil paint and
two paintbrushes.
Oh wow.
(04:25):
I never asked for them and Istill don't know to this day why
they got them for me.
I had no clue what oil paintingwas.
They gave them to me but byGod's sovereign divine grace and
mercy upon my life.
He gave me a Sunday schoolteacher who was an artist.
The Sunday school teacher sawthis gift in me and he said
(04:45):
Glenn, someday you got to dosomething with this gift.
He found out I bought and myparents bought me some oil
paints, said if you need help ingetting started with them, he
(05:09):
said I'll be here to help you,which he did, and he was a great
inspiration to me.
At the age of 12, I took offwith oil painting.
I just loved it and it was anatural gift for me.
Age 12, I painted a painting ofour home farm.
It was a large painting.
It was all but five feet inlength.
My parents were so impressed byit.
They said Glenn, you need toenter that into the local farm
show.
I was only 12 years old ofwhich I did, with no expectation
(05:31):
, but I won first prize withthat, a blue ribbon.
But more than that, god was atwork in my life back then
already and I had no idea.
But that was my opening showfor becoming an artist.
All of a sudden, other farmersstarted to ask me to paint their
farms and I became so busy as ayoung teenager up until I got
(05:56):
married painting farms, that itwas a second work for me, along
with farming, but my dream wasto be a dairy farmer someday.
I took the ag course in school.
I was very active inagriculture.
By the time I graduated Ibought 18 registered Holstein
cows with the plans of mine tobe a dairy farmer.
(06:18):
But Jeremiah says God says Iknow the plans I have for you,
plans to bless you and not harmyou, plans to give you a hope
and to give you a future.
And that's what God was alreadyat work at in my life.
But how quickly God can changethings in our life which become
(06:42):
setbacks to us.
But God's set ups.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
Oh, that's good yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
So at the age of 20, my mother was 45.
She suddenly died.
After my mother died, wethought we would go to my
grandmother, who lived on theneighboring farm.
Six months after mother died,my grandmother died.
It was the midnights, the darknights of my life, but it was
(07:14):
how God was about to turn thatdarkness into his glorious light
was something that I had noidea would ever happen.
So after my grandmother died, myfather came to me a couple
months later and said the farmthat I was planning to take over
and farm, he said I'm going tosell it.
(07:35):
He said if you want to stay inthe dairy business with your
herd, you will have to findanother farm or you will have to
find another place to buy foryour cows.
Through all that turmoil, Idecided to sell my herd and all
of a sudden, the vision that Ihad and the plans that I had was
(07:59):
working for was all gone.
It was no more.
Working for was all gone.
It was no more.
So what happened with that wasI went back to the gift that God
gave me and really dove intopainting.
By the time we got married Ibecame a full-time artist,
(08:20):
painting mostly Lancaster Countyfarms, painting mostly
Lancaster County farms.
I became so busy paintingLancaster County farms that I
had no time to do anything else.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
No time for dairy farming.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Exactly, I wasn't even thinking about it anymore.
I would go out in the field andsketch these farms, bring them
back to my art room to paint,discovered I forgot a collar, I
forgot how many windows were inthat house or that barn.
Bought my first camera toreference what I was painting.
(08:53):
I fell in love with photographyas much as I was with art,
because they're both of the samenature, especially, again,
god's world of creation, all ofnature.
And being a farm boy, I wasdoing a lot of photos of farms
and agriculture.
(09:14):
1965, a lady from our churchcalled and said Glenn, I know
you have a lot of outstandingslides, scenic slides.
Would you be willing to showthem for a family night at
Hostetters Banquet Hall in MountJoy for our church?
I turned her down.
(09:35):
I remembered as a boy whenmissionaries used to come to our
church with their slide showsand I was so bored I would lay
on that bench, fall asleep andwant to go home and I told my
wife, shirley, I will not dothat to people.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
You didn't want to be that guy who bores people.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Exactly.
Let me rewind the tape for amoment.
1960, when my mother died and Iwas going through this very
difficult time, I met my wifeShirley.
I met her at a roller skatingparty a church roller skating
party and we really not onlyclicked off on skates, we
(10:18):
clicked off with each otherRight after my mother died, her
mother.
I was dating her only for ashort while.
Her mother was a duplicate ofmy mother.
They looked alike Really.
They were wired alike, theyacted alike Wow, that's
interesting.
And all of a sudden she becamemy mother.
(10:39):
So God had provided a motherfor 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 themissing part of me.
I was a creative, the artisticone, she was business, detailed
(11:02):
and numbers very detailed.
She was business, detailed andnumbers very detailed.
So what I didn't have in mylife, god gave to me, knowing
I'm going to need that in thefuture.
We're opposites in many ways.
We laugh about it, saying I'mthe throttle, she's the brake,
but it works.
And both of us know how to pushon our pedals pretty hard.
(11:25):
And I often tell her without mythrottle you'd have gotten
nowhere in life, but she's quickto remind me without my brake
you would have went over thecliff and crashed.
Exactly right, it takes theboth to make a successful
journey, that's right.
But she became that helpmate tome Not artistic, but she has a
(11:46):
good eye, she's a good criticand even with my art she was not
negative about it, but she hadsome good pointers of how I
could improve it.
So what happened was, with thatslideshow that I was asked to do
, shirley and I decided, yeah,we'll do it.
(12:06):
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 BanquetHall that night no title, no
intent to ever show it again.
Hostetters banquet hall thatnight, no title, no intent to
(12:28):
ever show it again.
With one projector, shirley wasdropping the needle on a
turntable 33 RPM records.
I was reading script, she wasreading script.
She was holding a flashlight.
I was clicking the projector to.
About 100 people had no clue inthe world that that was our
premier showing for sight andsound.
From that, people started toask for the show.
(12:50):
So we made it portable, we gaveit a title To God Be the Glory
and it exploded.
And soon we were traveling andtraveling with this show.
Then we added a secondprojector.
Back then there was nothinglike a dissolve unit, so we made
our own dissolve unit.
We were dissolving from oneprojector to another.
(13:11):
It was great.
And then we added threeprojectors, four projectors, and
soon we were traveling fromMaine to Florida with four
tables on the road, sixoperators, and as far west as
Colorado and New Mexico on theroad, six operators and as far
west as Colorado and New Mexico,1972.
(13:31):
I was coming home fromPhiladelphia from a slideshow on
the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
At this time I was also calledto the ministry in the Church of
the Brethren.
So I was preaching in theChurch of the Brethren.
It was a plural ministry,non-salaried.
Six of us preached, took ourturns, but we took care of all
(13:53):
the church affairs weddings,funerals, everything.
So not only was I preaching andwith slideshows, we also
started a wedding photographybusiness and we became known as
the wedding photographer ofLancaster County.
People were booking us sixmonths on ahead.
So now we were into slideshows,preaching, wedding photography,
(14:17):
portrait photography, raisingchildren.
We had four daughters.
So what happened was I wascoming 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 thenext morning.
That's a lot.
(14:38):
It was a lot, and I remember Ilooked up to heaven and I said,
lord, this is not my cut of thecloth.
I'm not somebody to just liveon the road like this.
I'm a farm guy, yet I enjoywhat I'm doing, but I still love
my paintings of farms andscenic photography of farms.
(14:58):
And the Lord said to me by hisHoly Spirit, not audibly, but in
my heart.
He said, glenn, did you everthink of having the people come
to you rather than you go tothem?
I said no, I never reallythought about that.
It's a good idea, though.
So I came home and I said to mywife I said God just gave me a
(15:20):
word.
I'm coming home tonight.
I'm going to see if we can'trent an auditorium for next year
.
Do a special show?
Invite the people to come to usrather than us go to them.
We rented the Lancaster BibleCollege 1973.
The gym auditorium it was.
It was a large place of seating.
(15:42):
We put a show together entitledthe Wonder of it All.
It went from creation torevelation in the Bible and we
did something like that wasnever done before.
We took 15 high-intensityprojectors with an 80-foot
screen this was IMAX beforethere was IMAX and did this show
(16:04):
and there was nothing ever donelike it and it just was so
accepted.
Every show sold out.
We played it for 10 weeks whenschool was out that summer and
in those 10 weeks it played toover 30,000 people and it proved
to us people.
(16:29):
And it proved to us peoplewould come to us.
And not only did it prove that,it provided enough of seed
money for us to buy three and ahalf acres of land down along
896 when tourism was juststarting in Lancaster County of
where we built our firstauditorium 750 seats, opening it
in 1976.
That was the beginnings ofputting the Bible on stage.
(16:49):
We started there withmultimedia shows.
1985, I produced the firstall-live stage biblical
production entitled Behold theLamb.
It was on the life of Christand that show was just so
accepted it exploded.
It was really the launchingrocket for Sight and Sound.
(17:11):
We were selling that show out ayear on ahead.
Wow.
And it was the first time thatwe put the Bible on stage which
we're doing right now.
That was the beginnings ofputting the Bible on stage which
we're doing right now.
That was the beginnings ofputting the Bible on stage, of
what has made sight and sound sopopular today.
(17:32):
Now I would like to share withyou and your audience how this
all came into being, this visionfor putting the Bible on stage.
When we went to the LancasterBible College, I was looking for
a title for this organization,for this ministry.
People ask me all the time areyou a business or are you a
(17:55):
ministry?
We are both.
We are a ministry that needs abusiness and we are a business
with a ministry.
It works beautifully, it'sincredible and it has proven to
be a very successful way ofliving one's life spiritually
(18:15):
and in the natural.
So while I was looking for aname for this organization, this
ministry, I had a lot ofnatural names written down.
I had peace about none of them.
One morning I was in thescriptures reading where Jesus
was with his disciples, and thedisciples said to him Master,
(18:38):
why do you teach in story form?
Why do you do your preaching,your teaching, in parables?
Here's what he said In seeingthey don't see.
Sight, in sound they don't hear.
We're talking of their earsBecause he said, their hearts
(19:00):
have become hardened and thusthey don't believe.
And when I read that I thoughtthere it is.
That's exactly where we aretoday.
So many people have Bibles,they have tapes, they have all
the information, but they stilldon't see it, they still don't
hear it because their heartshave become hardened.
(19:23):
So I looked at that a little bitfurther and I thought oh, wow,
that's not only the name, that'smy vision for what I'm going to
do.
He staged his sermons with hisparables.
He took whatever he could gethis hands on, be it a lamb, soil
(19:45):
, a pearl, sheep, you name itand he staged it right in front
of them, illustrated it to them,and here's what he said.
Thus, in doing, their heartswere opened and they believed.
And I said, lord, if it workedback then for you, why could it
(20:06):
not work today?
That's where my vision forsight 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 asmuch of my direction,
information as possible fromGod's word, because it's
(20:28):
absolute truth and it will notfail you.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
I love that.
It's the power of storytellingand Jesus did it well and
there's a lot of storytellerswho even you know, in the just
the secular world, who bringJesus as an example of how he
was one of the best storytellersthat ever lived.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
Absolutely was.
Nobody could match him andstill can't.
So our job is to put the Bibleon stage.
We got the easy part.
The story's already beenwritten, 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 doa lot of painting.
(21:11):
I have an art gallery and overthe last 15 or more years I have
painted nothing but the life ofChrist, the life of the Lord
Jesus, and I say all the timeit's endless, there's no end to
what you can paint, of puttingthe Bible on stage.
(21:32):
And now I put the Bible oncanvas and it's still a powerful
tool.
It's the working of the eyegate and the ear gate together
that gets to the heart ofsomebody I know.
So many people that come throughthe auditorium say we have a
very unique setup at Sight andSound.
When I designed the theater forSight and Sound, I designed it
(21:54):
with a wraparound stage.
We have a 300-foot wraparoundstage in our Millennium Theater
today, which seats about 2,100people.
But Doa, the wraparound stageprovides an experience for the
people that we hear it all thetime saying oh, I thought I was
right there.
I'm right in the midst of it,when we did Noah, the production
(22:17):
of Noah, act 2 opened with theinterior of the ark and the
interior of that ark was a300-foot wraparound of the
interior with over 300 animalsin the ark.
Wow, and you were there.
And it was always the moment,doa, we always got either a
(22:37):
large applause, a standingovation when the curtain went up
and people were sitting in theark Wow, incredible moment.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Wish I would have seen that one.
We just seen Daniel, which wasspectacular.
Thank you Spectacular, and Ilove what you just said, that
the ears and eyes are a windowto our heart.
Absolutely so.
Those are the two powerful waysthat we are able, through
storytelling, get to the heartof the matter.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
That's so true, and we live in an age today where
seemingly that works more sothan 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.
(23:26):
I went from preaching in aChurch of the Brethren pulpit to
making the Sight and Soundstage in my pulpit, which
reaches the world today.
I would like to rewind the tapehere back to the day we got
married.
(23:48):
Shirley came from a farm as wellas I did.
We were both farm kids, bothconservative homes.
The day we got married I'llnever forget this there was no
color photography yet, it wasall black and white.
But the photographer took apicture of Shirley and I
together on our wedding day andboth of us for some reason had
(24:15):
our hands under the white Biblethat she carried that day.
She carried a white Bible withwhite roses on the top and our
hands were under that Bible.
When that picture was taken hadno clue Somebody couldn't have
(24:35):
pounded that into us thatsomeday those hands are going to
take that Bible, that Word ofGod, and send it into the world.
It's the workings of God inone's life when you take the
gift that God has given you andyou put it into the hands of the
(24:59):
Lord Jesus, he will feed themultitudes.
I painted a painting of Jesusfeeding the 5,000, actually 20,
25,000.
Fed them all day or taught themall day, Was healing all day.
Came to the end of the day andJesus said send them home.
(25:25):
It's late in the day.
Looked at Philip and said butbefore 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 alunch with five loaves and two
(25:48):
fish in that basket.
He took that lunch, he had thatlittle bit, and put it into the
hands of Jesus.
Jesus fed the multitude, themultitude.
The little boy on the paintingis me.
In that basket is five loaves,two fish, five tubes of paint,
two paintbrushes and it's meputting that basket into the
hands of Jesus.
(26:15):
The reason for painting thepainting was this when you take
the little bit that you have, soinsignificant, so small, you
put it into the hands of Jesus.
He will feed the multitudes, hewill increase it and he will do
the miraculous with it.
With God, all things arepossible and I have seen him do
that over and over again in ourlives.
(26:38):
I've often said the Bible saysdo not despise the day of small
beginnings.
And we are very humbled, mywife and I, as we look back to
our beginnings, of how it allstarted, basically with nothing,
and where God has taken it.
(27:00):
Today we say all the time, allthat we are and ever hope to be,
we owe it all to Him.
And when people look at us asthe founders, the owners, we're
quick to reflect one other thingthe people that God brought
around us.
(27:21):
Sight Sound employs over 800people at this point.
We have a theater in Branson,Missouri, exactly like the one
here in Strasburg, Pennsylvania.
We employ about 250 peoplethere.
The rest are employed in theStrasburg Theater area with
(27:43):
production.
But we look back and we realizehow God brought the right
person at the right time withthe right giftings for the right
season to help bring us towhere we are today.
And you know what God does.
The Bible says he orders thesteps of the righteous.
He has taken us a step at atime.
(28:04):
It started with one employee,then two, then four, five, until
we are today to that number of800, plus until we are today to
that number of 800 plus.
And we look back at all thosepeople that God surrounded and
brought in.
And the beauty of this is theyall have different abilities and
(28:29):
giftings and at Sight and Sound, that's one of the beauties of
that organization.
We are the body of Christ, butwe are many different members
and each member of the body, thehuman body, plays a different
role, a different part, and sodoes each person at sight and
sound.
Our mission statement at sightand sound is this it is to sow
the word of God, present thegospel of Jesus Christ to all of
(28:53):
our customers through livetheatrical stage productions and
be wise stewards of ourGod-given talents and resources.
And we look at that army ofpeople there at Sight and Sound,
each playing their role in adifferent way, but when it all
comes together on the stage it'slike an orchestra.
(29:14):
We're all playing a differentinstrument, instrument making a
different sound, but when itcomes together on the stage it's
one beautiful sound andglorious picture of the Word of
God and the wonderful God weserve and the gospel of Jesus
Christ.
It's so powerful.
(29:36):
I would say high.
90% of employment at SightSound, if you would ask them.
They are there because of themission statement and what is so
beautiful about that?
We are a for-profit organization.
We are a for-profitorganization.
We pay our employees well, theyhave great benefits.
(29:59):
We have some of the besttechnical people, some of the
best artists, some of the bestpeople in the world at Sight
Sound, and it is wonderful to beable to have a two-fold
ministry which I designed fromthe beginning.
Our ministry, first of all, isto our clients who come in the
doors to experience a sight andsound story on stage.
(30:21):
Our second ministry, our secondfold ministry, is to our
employees.
So it is wonderful.
We hear it all the time.
Somebody is with 800 people.
You always have somebody goingthrough a difficult time in life
and it's wonderful to be coming.
You can come into thatauditorium any morning, walk
(30:44):
into any department and you willfind them praying as a first
thing in the morning, and notonly they for the are they
praying for the thing they haveto do at sight and sound that
day.
They're praying for theirfellow worker, who's worker,
who's going through a hard timethat day, who needs help, who
needs wisdom, who needs strength, who needs joy, who needs peace
(31:05):
.
It's a wonderful two-foldministry and I would encourage
that to any business persontoday.
It's a tremendous opportunityto touch not only the outside
with what you're doing, but totouch those who are working with
you every day in a spiritualway wasn't all that easy, Glenn,
(31:40):
was it?
You had some resistance alongthe way, some challenges that
you faced that seemed like theywere going to put you under
Absolutely Many midnights, yes,yep, many dark days, but out of
those dark days the light alwaysshined and turned the darkness
into light.
I shared some of that with youbefore.
(32:00):
When my mother passed away, myfather sold the farm and it
seemed like everything I livedfor and worked for was gone.
Basically, that same thinghappened back in 1997.
We had gone from a 750-seatauditorium called the Living
Waters Auditorium to a1,400-seat auditorium named the
(32:24):
Entertainment Center.
The big thing that happened inthat Entertainment Center was
the NOAA production that I didin 95, which really put sight
and sound on the map.
1996, we ran NOAA.
In the summer I came out withanother production entitled the
Miracle of Christmas, which justexploded 1997, january.
(32:50):
We're a skiing family, snowskiers, and we've skied all over
the country.
We still do, but we were on aski trip up in western Canada,
whistler, blackcomb, one of ourfavorite places to ski.
One morning I got up early.
I was working on a production,working on a script of another
(33:13):
show, and I got up early.
It was dark yet and I wassitting there in our place where
we were staying and I waswriting and the phone rang.
It was my daughter.
She said, daddy, if you guysare going out early to ski today
?
She said, noah, stick aroundfor a while.
She said there's a fire in theauditorium.
She said I don't think it'svery serious.
(33:33):
But she said just stick around.
So I didn't even get my wifeand the children out of bed
because I didn't think it wasthat bad.
About an hour later I got a callfrom our CFO, our chief
financial officer.
He said Glenn, you guys got tocome home right away.
He said we have a major firehere.
I didn't know to what extent.
(33:53):
So we flew back, took all dayto get into Harrisburg, drove
into the home place we live on,a farm.
Coming into the farm on theroad, I can always look across
the field and see the auditoriumsitting on a high hill and I
always used to say it's like ajewel sitting on the hill.
(34:16):
It's so beautiful.
But this time, when I drovedown that road and looked across
the field, all I saw were firetrucks, smoke, smoldering debris
.
Everything we ever lived for,worked for, believed for was
gone.
Everything we ever lived for,worked for, believed for was
(34:40):
gone.
The entire auditorium hadvanished.
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, alot of animals in our shows.
(35:01):
We had several hundred thousandtickets sold for that year, for
NOAA 97.
We had over 300 employees atthat time, no place to put them,
no place to meet with thefamily, with the leadership team
, with the board of directors.
So we met down in our farmhousefor three days solid.
(35:23):
It seemed like it was aroundthe clock and we were just
trying to get through the frontend of this thing the logistics.
What do we do with ouremployees?
The tickets that were sold wasat the end of the third day.
My wife and I was sitting in thekitchen.
Everybody was gone and it wasquiet for a change.
(35:45):
When I looked over at her, Icould have cried.
She was beat.
I didn't look any better.
It was a great loss.
And she looked over at me andshe said Glenn.
She said we worked hard all ofour lives and she said we're
(36:06):
getting older.
She said do you know what thisis going to mean to come back
again?
I said surely I haven't eventhought about coming back again.
I'm just trying to get throughthe front end of this thing.
Then it really got quiet.
She said to me do you want tocome back again?
(36:28):
And that hit me.
That was a bomb dropped on meand my flesh went to work.
All of a sudden I'm thinking Ihave a vague number of what it's
going to cost to come backagain to replace this.
It's like $40 million.
We had a very small amount ofinsurance.
We were still thoseconservative people not near
(36:52):
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 likesmacked me over the head so hard
.
He said Glenn, you'll be themost miserable person ever after
(37:12):
.
And then I said to Shirley Isaid you know you're in this as
much as I am.
I said do you want to come backagain?
Here's what she said.
Never forget it.
She said to me sight and soundis much more than a business.
(37:33):
She said to me it's much morethan a ministry.
She said to me it's much morethan a ministry.
She said this is a high callingthat 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 nightor live another day with myself.
And that hit me so hard in theheart.
I said surely you are exactlyright.
(37:57):
A fire can destroy a building,but it cannot destroy the
calling.
I said surely we will come backagain.
So you know what I did.
I got up the next morning, tookthe gift that God gave me my
pencil and my paper and I drewthe Millennium Theater.
As soon as I had a drawing, Iwent back to that which I love
(38:21):
to do, which I did for all theshows Cardboard, hot glue,
elmer's glue, whatever I couldget my hands on and I modeled in
eighth inch scale theMillennium Theater, hauled the
300 employees together atHershey Farms, gave them a
breakfast, said I have anannouncement to make, and
everybody was holding theirbreath thinking, oh, this is it.
(38:41):
And I said we are coming backagain and there was a roar, went
up in that room, like you couldhave heard in Harrisburg.
And then I held the model up ofthe Millennium Theater and I
said this is what we're comingback with.
What Satan meant for evil, godis what we're coming back with.
What Satan meant for evil, godis going to turn it into good.
And that's exactly what he didIncredible.
(39:03):
So the darkness turned intolight.
That burned in 97 of January,september, the 1st 1970.
I'm sorry, in 1997, it burned.
September 1st 1998, we openedthe doors to the Millennium
(39:25):
Theater.
And not only did we open thedoors to the theater with a new
theater, we had to rebuild theshow 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 a2,000 seat theater, looking back
(39:52):
not understanding at the timeand at that moment why God
permitted that to happen.
It was hard.
Surely dealt with it harderthan 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 dothis and destroy the place,
thank God, we're going to comeback again by your help.
(40:14):
But what came out of that waswhat we have today with a
Millennium Theater.
We could have not been close indoing in the Entertainment
Center yeah, we could haveSeeding-wise, technically-wise
anyway-wise with animals whatGod saw in the future for us and
(40:37):
we didn't see he had to takeaway from us.
You know it was Corrie tenBoone that said whatever you
hold in your hands, hold it verylightly, so when God wants to
take it from you, that hedoesn't have to pry your fingers
open to get it out of yourhands, but that you can loosely
(41:01):
and easily let it go.
Life is change.
That's been my life and it'llcontinue to change.
But when change comes, how dowe change?
For the better or for thebitter?
I chose to go with the betterand how we should go, and now we
(41:22):
look back and see what God hasdone through that Incredible.
Was it the end of hard times?
No, we started building inNovember, started to put
foundation in the ground inNovember of 97.
Still did not have a financialpackage in place to build this
(41:43):
place.
But the contractor had enoughconfidence and faith in us that
he started.
January of 98, they wereputting steel up over the stage.
Steel didn't have a financialpackage in place.
I got a call from the owner ofthe company saying Glenn, I
(42:05):
don't like to do this to you.
I know you have an opening datealready set and I know what
will happen to that.
But he said we cannot continueto build without a financial
package in place.
I said I totally understand.
I said I don't think I couldhave gone as far as you've gone
already.
He said I'll give you two weeksIf you don't have a financial
package in place.
He said we're out Two weeks.
(42:27):
They're gone.
That night, sitting with my wifein my office in the farmhouse.
Sitting with my wife in myoffice in the farmhouse, we had
a gal that was in our cast fromFlorida.
I never met her dad, I onlyknew him by name.
(42:48):
That was it.
I knew nothing about him.
Sitting there with Shirley inmy office, shirley said I feel I
should call him tonight.
I said why do you want to callDick?
She said I don't know, I justfeel I should call him.
I said well, it's kind of dumbto call somebody you don't know
why you're calling him.
She said I just feel I should.
(43:09):
Well, I said do what's in yourheart.
So she called him.
Now here's what was happening.
We were all but out ofinsurance money.
We were days away from beingout of insurance money and now
the contractor was going to pullout.
So she called him.
She wasn't more on the phonewith him.
(43:31):
He said how's the buildingcoming For some reason?
Shirley told him what happenedthat morning from the call.
He was a wealthy man.
He said I just sold one of mylarge radio stations in Colorado
.
He said I have $4 million lyingin the bank unspoken for.
(43:53):
He said I'm willing to give youthat $4 million to help carry
you through till the banks comethrough.
No attorneys involved, not evena handshake.
We weren't together.
Put $4 million in our bankaccount.
Wow, when the insurance moneyleft, within days of that, his
(44:18):
money took over and thecontractor kept building.
Still no insurance, still nofinancial package in place.
This is God.
Speaker 3 (44:28):
And you have a show set yeah, which is by faith.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
Absolutely.
You're walking by faith and notby sight.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
Just doing it and just believing, okay, we're
going to do this and somehowit's all going to come together.
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
That's been me Sure.
We used to always say, if youcan think of it, you and God
will get it done somehow.
I'm not boasting, but that's mywalk with my God.
We were just about that wasmiracle one.
We were just about at the endof his $4 million.
I mean it was within days andall of a sudden the banks came
(45:06):
through.
The builders kept going.
We opened up September the 1stWow, this was planned.
Wow, Incredible.
Only God.
That's why we look back and wecannot take any credit for what
you see on that hill or what yousee being done with sight and
sound today.
Praise God, Praise God, he'sgood.
Speaker 3 (45:32):
That's so incredible and you have people who come
from all walks of life to seethe show, different religions,
different backgrounds, from allover.
People drive from all over thecountry.
There's buses that come,tourist buses that are always in
and out of there.
People fly from all over theworld to see Sight and Sound.
They do.
Speaker 1 (45:59):
You know it's again.
It's only while God has takenthis and put it in the hearts of
people to come we get.
I would like to tell you just aquick story.
We did the show of David.
Let me back up.
We did the show of David, letme back up.
(46:19):
Can I come back to yourquestion in a moment?
Yeah, absolutely, in 2020,.
Covid hit Shut our doors.
Government closed our doors.
We had to send 800 people home.
We were distraught.
(46:43):
It was a dark time, a midnightin our lives.
We had every Saturday the showof Esther had just premiered.
The day before our doors wereshut, we had every Saturday
weekend sold out for Esther forthat whole year.
Wow, people paid for theirtickets.
(47:04):
Now we're shut down, no moneycoming in.
People are asking for theirmoney back.
It was a very difficult time.
But God, here he goes again.
Here he goes.
Got a phone call.
Tbn, trinity BroadcastingNetwork, one of the largest
(47:28):
Christian networks in the world,called and said we understand,
you have the Jesus show shot inHD, edited, all ready to put on
the air.
We do.
Would you be willing to let TBNrun that for the Easter weekend
(47:49):
on our network?
We got together as a family andwe said, absolutely we would.
And let's take the second stepwith it, give it to them free.
Because what's more importantto give to the world, because
they go to the world, what'smore important to give to the
world than the gospel?
(48:09):
So we said it's yours, you canrun it and you can also have it
free.
What we didn't know was how Godwas at work with that.
In that one weekend, 6.5million people heard the gospel
and saw the Jesus productionaround the world and again, what
(48:34):
Satan was meaning for evil, godwas turning it into good and
through that it gave us thevision to put a network together
of our own and put all of ourshows on Sight and Sound TV that
people can experience themaround the world today.
And it has become an incredibletool again for Sight and Sound
(48:58):
to use to get the gospel intoall nations, translated into
their language, done for theirculture.
So back to your question withall the people that come through
our doors, we get saved, we getunsaved people.
We jew, we get gentile, we getall religions imaginable.
(49:24):
We get atheists.
I talked to one some time ago.
He was sitting up in the toprow of the auditorium in the
raised area, the, the raisedseating area.
I asked him where he was from.
He was from New Jersey.
I got to question him have youbeen here before?
He said I come to all yourshows.
(49:45):
He said I love them.
Then he said to me he said Iwant 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 comehere.
Yeah, he said I come here.
I said why do you come here?
He said I'm just enthroned bythe epicness of these
(50:06):
productions and your technologythat you use.
So I've often said God hascalled me to be a lifeboat with
Christian theater, of which Ihave tried to do all my life.
Some time ago God got myattention with the technology
(50:27):
and the epicness of our shows,said to me Glenn, make sure this
doesn't become more of ashowboat than a lifeboat.
And I thought whoa, that's agood word.
So I thought about that and Iwas concerned about it.
I went to our children about it.
We talked about it.
(50:48):
They said we don't sense that'shappening.
A couple days later I got setfree.
On that the Holy Spirit said tome, glenn, the showboat's okay.
You're responsible for thisepic big look, it's okay.
He said the showboat part isthe bait to get the fish into
(51:09):
the lifeboat and get the gospelinto their hearts.
That's exactly what washappening with that man.
It was the showboat part thatwas getting him there, but he
had also ears that he couldn'thelp but hearing the lifeboat
part the gospel.
So it's the all walks of lifeof which we are so thankful.
(51:31):
And that was Jesus.
He came to seek and to savethat which was lost.
He was accused for eating withsinners.
He ministered to them as wellas he did his own, and so do we.
We are no respecter of personthat comes in that door, as was
Jesus, because the Bible saysGod so loved the world that he
(51:58):
gave his only begotten son that,whosoever, no matter what your
culture, what your color, whereyou've come from, where you are,
what you have done, he came foryou, to save you and to give
you eternal life through his son, jesus Christ.
Speaker 3 (52:20):
What stood out to me is that sometimes our greatest
setbacks become the greatestsetups.
Speaker 1 (52:28):
I do.
They were for me and still are.
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (52:31):
But in the middle of all of that, it doesn't really
feel like a setup, is it?
Speaker 1 (52:35):
Not at all.
It's painful, it is verypainful, but I look at it.
I'm actually preaching a sermonon this in just a few weeks,
called Our Midnights, god hasdone some of his greatest work
in miracles.
(52:55):
At midnight, paul and Silaspraying chained.
Midnight, chains fell off,freedom set free.
I could go on and on with it.
Our midnights, god always turnsthem into our victories, our
freedoms, if we will continue tolook to him.
(53:17):
I'm a strong one on Proverbs 3,trust in the Lord with all your
heart.
Lean not on your ownunderstanding, but in all your
ways acknowledge him, and thenwhat 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 intheater, in art, never had
(53:41):
lessons in it.
Speaker 3 (53:45):
So, Glenn, what is your creative process like?
How did you come to form eachshow before?
Now?
I understand you passed it onto the next generation.
You have your family that'staken over and other people as
well who are producing the showsand doing that.
But when you first started andyou were putting in each
production, how did that processlook like for you?
Speaker 1 (54:10):
I think one of the things that used to get my
attention for a show were thetimes that we were in A world
system, the church, what'shappening?
Spiritually, I was verysensitive to those things, but I
(54:33):
would say the number one thingthat always just inspired me.
The number one thing thatinspired me and moved me was the
Word of God.
When I was a boy, my father wasthe best storyteller I have yet
(54:57):
ever met.
I never heard a man be able totell Bible stories like my daddy
could, and at the age of 16 and17, I, with the rest of the
children, we used to get in bedwith him and say, Daddy, tell us
another story.
And when he would tell us thoseBible stories, Lord, I was
(55:19):
there.
I remember I had my eyes shutand, man, I was walking with
Jesus.
I was walking on the shoreswith him.
I was right there and that'sexactly what has happened to me.
That DNA, that revelation frommy father got into me to tell
stories, as he did, of the Bible.
(55:41):
So I had back then notrealizing someday I will do this
saw the value in being therewhen a story and making it so
plain and so presentable thatpeople are there.
That's why I did thatwraparound stage.
So what happens?
(56:02):
When I read a story in theBible being visual, I'll get a
visual of that.
And I'm right there and all ofa sudden I oh my word, could we
really do something with that onstage if we bring that into
sight and sound before people'seyes?
(56:22):
So here's what happens.
I have a sketch pad beside mybed, I have my Bible beside my
bed, I have one down in myoffice.
I read in the morning, I readat night before I go to bed.
I have one down in my office.
I read in the morning, I readat night before I go to bed.
And if I read a story in theBible I love the Old Testament
stories, I love the NewTestament but if I read a story
(56:45):
and I get a visual of that thingimmediately, I will take my
sketch pad.
I'll outline what I think canmake a great production out of
that.
I'll outline what I think canmake a great production out of
that.
I'll also make preliminarydrawings of each one of those
outlines that I put in there.
When I got the vision for Noah Igot it at the Harrisburg Farm
(57:06):
Show the Holy Spirit said to meI want you to do a production on
Noah.
And I remember I questioned himand I said why, Noah, Lord?
He said look how people aredrawn to animals today.
I said you're right, you got it.
And then he said remember thewords of Jesus as it was in the
days of Noah, so shall it beagain in the days of the coming
(57:28):
of the son of man.
I said you're right on, that'sit.
And that's where I got myvision for Noah.
But what I did.
That's where I got my visionfor Noah, but what I did.
I came home that night.
I went to bed and I couldn'tsleep so I went down.
I have my office in the firstfloor of our farmhouse.
I also have my drawing board inthere.
I got my Bible, I got mydrawing board and a sketch pad.
(57:52):
It started about 11 o'clock atnight.
Board and a sketch pad.
It started about 11 o'clock atnight.
I left that room daytime thenext morning I don't even know
what time it was, it might havebeen 10, 11 o'clock and that
night, throughout that night,the Holy Spirit gave me the
(58:13):
entire outline to that entireshow.
Wow, and not only did I outlineit, I sketched every one of
those outlines those scenes inpreliminary one drawings.
Speaker 3 (58:23):
Wow, and did you eat at that time?
Have coffee, or was it just go,go, go?
Time was not even existing.
Speaker 1 (58:31):
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 thenatural or in the spirit, both.
My Bible was on my left, mysketch pad was on my right.
And do you know what?
My sister, 1995, three yearslater, that show opened exactly
(58:55):
to the letter of what I sketched, outlined that night.
Wow.
That's how they start.
They all start on that sketchpad, an outline of what I just
read in the scriptures.
Here's what I wanted to say abit ago I'm no training, I'm no
schooling in this whatsoever,and sometimes I wished I had
(59:17):
more.
And yet at the same time I'mglad I don't, because somebody
could have taken what God put inme and turned it into something
else.
But my direction, myinspiration, my revelation, my
rhema, my moving and myinspiration, my revelation, my
(59:39):
rhema, my moving and my being isall driven by the Holy Ghost,
the Holy Spirit.
That's my source and I will diestanding on that.
The Bible says in John 16, whenhe, the spirit of truth, comes,
he will guide you, he will leadyou, he will counsel you, he
(01:00:01):
will teach you, he will discloseto you all things.
What more of a teacher thanthat do you need?
If we draw into him, draw intome and I will draw nigh unto you
.
That's what he has done for me.
And how can I ever say thankyou enough?
Thank you enough for yourpresence with me, for your
(01:00:25):
guiding and your leading andyour counsel that you have given
me all the days of my life.
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:00:35):
So you would say that your inspiration is all divine
inspiration.
Speaker 1 (01:00:39):
Absolutely, absolutely.
Started with nature, divineinspiration, through His
creation, went to the Word ofGod.
Speaker 3 (01:00:53):
Can I?
Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
give you a story.
Speaker 3 (01:00:55):
Yeah, go for it.
Speaker 1 (01:00:57):
When I was at the peak of my career in art and I
had reached the pinnacle, I wasin demand.
I was a year out on catching upwith orders from painting.
(01:01:19):
I got a request from Disney inCalifornia to come with them as
an artist.
I don't know how they found outabout me.
I know we had a lot of artworkout there.
A lot of my photography was outthere.
(01:01:40):
We had flyers, brochures theyprobably got a hold of one of
them somewhere.
It was a great offer Back then.
That was the ultimate to workfor Disney.
That was a career, that was afuture and that was a dream of
everybody's.
(01:02:02):
I prayed about it.
I didn't have peace.
One day, as I was praying andthinking about this, the Holy
Spirit said to me.
He said, Glenn, I have notcalled you to paint and draw
ducks and mice.
I have called you to take yourgift and use it to glorify me.
(01:02:25):
That was a turning point in mylife.
That's when I had determinedthat I will go from painting
farms, just scenery, to paintingthe Word of God and putting the
Bible on stage.
Speaker 3 (01:02:47):
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 alittle, you know, because you
have other people working on theproduction, you're probably not
as involved as you were fullyinvolved prior.
So what was your daily routinelike?
From the time that you get upuntil the time you go to bed, as
(01:03:09):
of right now, before and now?
Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
okay, well, because you're pretty creative, you got
quite the imagination, glenn youasked my wife shirley, she said
I never met anybody that keepsgoing at the speed you go, but I
, I will never retire.
I could not do that.
(01:03:33):
I would.
I would hurt my god if I woulddo that.
I would hurt my God if I woulddo that.
I'm called to the day I'll diewith my boots on and my
paintbrush in my hand, or mymodeling tools.
I'll die with that.
But I live a full day.
(01:03:53):
I live a full life.
I do it scripturally.
The Apostle Paul said seeingthat the days are evil, make the
most of your time.
And I am not against thingsthat other people do for
pleasure, for sports, and that.
That's just not my cut of thecloth and it's okay.
It's how we're wired, it's howdifferently we are, but I am
(01:04:16):
driven and maybe it's wrongsometimes'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, mypleasure comes in doing the work
(01:04:41):
of the kingdom.
That's just my cut.
But I get up in the morning.
We still live on a farm and Istill farm 60 acres Corn
soybeans.
I'm going to go home today anddo some farm work yet.
So I get up early in the morning.
First thing I do when I get upin the morning is I go to prayer
(01:05:06):
and I spend a considerable time.
That's every morning.
I spend a considerable timealone with the Lord.
That's my fellowship time withhim, 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 communewith Him and be with Him, praise
(01:05:29):
Him and thank Him and love Him.
It's such a wonder, it's thebest time of my day, and from
there I go to my Bible, to theWord.
This morning I spent time in thebook of Genesis and Exodus.
I'm getting ready to preach asermon on midnight.
I was looking at some of themidnights there.
(01:05:49):
When God created the heavensand the earth, the earth was
void, without form, and darknesscovered the face of the deep.
There was chaos on the earthand God spoke and there was
light, and the light broughtclarity and beauty to the
darkness.
So it's that type of thing I'min in the morning.
(01:06:10):
I was actually in this morningdoing some writing on what I
want to share.
That's my every morning.
And then I spend some time withShirley, and then I go out to
the barn, I feed my animals,take care of the farm work, the
barn work early morning, andthen from there I go right into
(01:06:32):
my art studio.
Right now, I go into mymodeling studio, which I am
doing a lot of models for thissight 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 withabout 100 paintings on the life
(01:06:53):
of Christ and we get many, manytour groups through that.
Our barn is renovated in thebottom level, so that's where my
art gallery is and that's whereI give the tour.
It's turned out to be anincredible ministry.
So many people are gettingsaved just hearing the gospel
(01:07:16):
and looking at the paintings andit's become an incredible
ministry.
I think tomorrow I have two.
I have a lot this week.
From there, when the tours areover, I go back into my modeling
room.
By then I take a short breakfor lunch, not much of a break.
I go in for maybe about 15minutes to half an hour, get a
(01:07:37):
bite, to come back out againinto the art gallery or to give
another tour and by coming tothe end of the day, come about
5.30, 6 o'clock, feed my animalsagain and I go into the house
for supper.
Sometimes I watch the news withShirley, but this is a daily
(01:07:59):
routine for me and then I goback to my art gallery again and
then I'm out there until maybe8, 39 o'clock, come in again,
spend some time with Shirley.
We spend time going over emails.
Speaker 3 (01:08:16):
All the people that are calling you like me to get
you on podcasts and speakingevents.
Speaker 1 (01:08:20):
She shares her day with me, saying well, you have
just called and this is what'sto take place on that day.
She is that so go-to person forme.
I'm so thankful for thatbecause I could never handle it
all.
But she keeps my schedule andkeeps the books.
She does all the business bookwork for what I'm doing, and
(01:08:45):
it's a lot yet.
So I come into the house andhead up to bed and take my Bible
close out my day in my Bibleand if I get an inkling for
something I'll sketch it out andstay up late drawing.
I have files and files ofsketches that I have done that.
(01:09:07):
If God gives me life, I wouldhope to paint some of them yet.
But that's pretty much what myday is now.
Wow, what my day was then.
It was more so.
I got up a lot earlier in themorning and did my devotional
time again with God, but thenwent straight up.
(01:09:28):
In fact, back then I used tohave somebody from Sight and
Sound come down and take care ofmy animals for me so I could
get into meetings up at Sightand Sound.
So the first thing I used to dowhen I went up to Sight and
Sound I visited every department.
I walked through the company,through the building and touched
(01:09:48):
base with every departmentDepartment heads, supervisors,
managers, just picking theirbrain How's it coming?
Okay, can I help you in any way?
Yeah, I could use somedirection here.
Or I would look at somethingand say let's make some
(01:10:10):
corrections here.
It's not quite the way I see it.
So from there I would go backup into my office and sit down
with the producing group andwork on a production, writing
script, doing design, layout,whatever it took.
Into rehearsals with thedirectors, into meetings with
(01:10:35):
casting for the next show, intomeetings with Doa.
Casting for the next show A bigone was for many years.
So many requests we weregetting to put a sight and sound
at another location, travelingto 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.
(01:10:57):
I just had a strong request tocome to Jerusalem with a show,
and this was just recent though.
I had three rabbis come acrossfrom Israel to meet with us.
President Benjamin Netanyahuwas involved with it, which then
took me to Israel to lookfurther into it.
(01:11:19):
It's only the tip of theiceberg, yeah, but that's been
my life, it's a good life.
And I might say, though, evenbefore Sight Sound, a lot of my
time was photography.
When we were doing thesemultimedia shows, I would go on
photo trips for six, seven weeksat a time Wow, just
(01:11:42):
photographing and Shirley wouldhold down the fort at home and
make sure everything was kept inorder, which she did well.
Speaker 3 (01:11:52):
Yeah, you're a dedicated guy, huh.
Speaker 1 (01:11:55):
Yeah, pretty dedicated.
I still do a lot of preachingyet and speaking engagements, so
that's also another big part ofmy life right now.
Speaker 3 (01:12:04):
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 averageper show for you?
Is that about an average timeper show?
Speaker 1 (01:12:19):
Three three and a half years is more average.
Covid is the one that put thatinto longevity there.
Yeah, because it had all of asudden sound bend out of shape
for a while.
We didn't know what's going tohappen here, so that was a
bigger delay with it, plus someother things.
So Daniel was a difficult show.
(01:12:41):
We had our share of momentswith that show, and that happens
all the time, but I don't thinkone ever happened to this Like
when we had the script done itwas 20 minutes too long and
that's a job to have to go backand cut out, determine what gets
cut out and what scenes stay,rework that.
(01:13:05):
It's like starting from scratchagain.
You just have to rework thatwhole thing.
Yeah.
So there were issues like thatthat happened with the Daniel
show, but it came off with greatsuccess and we're finding
people are really moved andtouched by it, so I'm very
thankful for it.
Speaker 3 (01:13:23):
Yeah, it was spectacular.
And how much money does it taketo produce something like that?
Speaker 1 (01:13:27):
Oh, about 8 mil.
Speaker 3 (01:13:29):
Wow, that was Daniel.
Yeah, that's about 8 mil andwhere do you guys create the
rooms that are set up for thestage, all the different
settings?
Where does that get made andwho makes that?
Speaker 1 (01:13:41):
We're totally in-house.
Okay, sight and sound isin-house.
Now wait a minute.
When push comes to shove and wesee we're not going to make it
on our opening date, we involveBranson.
Branson Theater is exactly likethe one here in Pennsylvania
(01:14:05):
and we have production shops outthere, so we'll farm some of
that off to them and say, heyguys, we need help here, and
they go to work on it and also,um, we've, we.
We have some times that we havesome major big projects that
(01:14:26):
would be more beneficial to farmout to somebody, especially
when it comes to structural work.
Uh, some, some of these setsweigh up to 10, 12 ton.
Speaker 3 (01:14:38):
Yeah, some of them are pretty magnificent looking.
I mean, it's massive.
Speaker 1 (01:14:42):
The structure.
Oh, if you would see theengineering department, I think
we have 20-some artists andthat's not the designing group.
We have 20-some artists, thenthere's the designing group,
then there's the engineerdepartment and then there's the
people that work.
This put this.
I used to do it all with models, half-inch scale models.
(01:15:05):
Now this is all computergenerated today and that's one
of the reasons I'm not thereanymore.
I got lost in there.
Technically I could not keep upwith it anymore.
But then I go up into the artdepartment now and I can't find
a pencil or a paper.
Speaker 3 (01:15:23):
Or any of the paintings.
You know any of that.
Speaker 1 (01:15:26):
Everything is computer-generated today, but
it's the world we live in andit's better.
I mean, I could not produce ashow like Daniel was produced
this time.
Speaker 3 (01:15:37):
Yeah, there was a lot of digital aspects and the
background with the screens, andit was pretty fantastic.
Speaker 1 (01:15:43):
I would like to speak of one thing here, yet my
family, what God has given to us.
As a family, we can never begrateful and thankful enough.
I'm the artistic one, thecreative one, the faith-driven
one.
Shirley is the business one,but God has given us son-in-laws
(01:16:06):
the one married to our thirddaughter, amy.
He is a duplicate of Shirleywhen it comes to business
numbers, detail.
He is sharp, he is good.
The one married to our fourthdaughter, kristen, josh Anke.
He is a duplicate of myself.
(01:16:26):
He is that artistic one, thatcreative one.
He has done several shows sinceI stepped out.
I had mentored him for manyyears with this in mind, that
someday he can take my place inthere.
Simply because I saw, though, Iwas producing a new show every
(01:16:48):
three years.
It still had the old GlennVanilla in it.
It had another title but it wasstill Glenn, and I was feeling
I'm of an older generation andI'm not sure I'm going to
continue to reach the nextgeneration, as should be reached
.
So I was looking to him andmentoring and training him,
(01:17:11):
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 Jesusshow, he did Jonah, did quite a
few of them and now he hasstepped out of putting stage
(01:17:33):
production together out ofputting stage production
together and we have begun anentity called Sight and Sound
Films.
And he had the vision to takethat over.
So he took it over and lastyear we came out with our first
Sight and Sound movie, entitledI Heard the Bells.
It came out over Christmas andwas very, very successful.
(01:17:57):
He did a great job with it andnow 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 lastweek.
It's phenomenal.
And they're starting to do theshoot.
We have what we call our backlot where we are building all of
(01:18:19):
our own facades, our sets, toshoot this movie on.
So that's another entity thathas taken off.
Back to the children we havefour daughters.
Kim is our oldest.
Kim is responsible for all thespiritual aspect of Sight and
Sound.
She is like a pastor in Sightand Sound.
(01:18:39):
Whenever there's a need, a hurt, a prayer request or whatever
they're with Kim.
Whenever there's a specialevent, we do a day called
Inspire at Sight and Sound.
Inspire at Sight and Sound, inwhich we invite all pastors,
leaders in the spiritual realm,the musical people, to come for
(01:19:05):
a day and we give them a meal, afree show, a meal, and then
have an evening of inspiration.
Were you ever at one of them?
I have to tell them to inviteyou.
It's a great day.
We do one here.
We fill that auditorium free ofcharge just to inspire, because
we are finding people that arein spiritual leadership today
(01:19:29):
take a pretty hard pounding.
It's not easy.
So we're there to encouragethem and help them along as well
, as we do the same thing inBranson then.
So Kim's over all of that.
Then our second daughter, brenda.
She is involved with every oneof the departments.
In fact, these four girls areall board members and they're
(01:19:51):
partial owners of Sight Soundtoday, along with Shirley and I,
sight and sound today, alongwith Shirley and I.
So she is involved withvisiting every department once a
month and sitting down with thesupervisors, with the people,
and really hearing their heartStruggles.
Good times, hard times.
(01:20:14):
How can we as a family, acompany, help you and make it
better for you?
Amy, our third daughter.
She's incredible.
She oversees the entireproduction department, all the
people that are in production,and she has a major job and role
on her hand to herd that wholegroup together.
(01:20:37):
But she's strong and she's good.
Kristen, our fourth daughtershe maybe comes a little closer
to her daddy when it comes tovisionary, the visual, the heart
of a show.
That's Kristen.
(01:20:57):
She works beside her husband,josh, a lot in production.
We have grandchildren that arein production, our grandson Ryan
.
He has produced the David showlast year, so she would be
working alongside of him.
She's not in the public's eyebut she's one of those silent
(01:21:21):
lambs behind the scene that hasgreat and major impact into
these shows, tweaking itvisually, spiritually.
She's a good eye and a goodheart, good spirit.
So then we have great, greatgrandchildren that are also in
the shows.
Um, we have great grandchildrenin the daniel show this year,
(01:21:44):
this year.
So the family we have been verythankful that god has given us
a family with the same visionand the same drive.
Uh, that's that's oftentimeswhere it starts to fall apart
with second and thirdgenerations.
But I would say what I'mexperiencing with our family?
Speaker 3 (01:22:07):
they are probably herding that thing together
stronger than ever before, withthe same vision the same purpose
, done a little different, butthat's why you go to a next
generation and that's suchwisdom of what you said is that
you wanted to pass it on to thegeneration so they can reach,
(01:22:30):
because when you were saying ithad glenn in it which in general
when a creator says that, it'slike 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 generationcan reach it better, so let why
don't you kind of take over fromthere?
(01:22:51):
And so that's so much wisdom inthat, and that you were able to
facilitate that and pass thaton.
I love how your family hascrits it's like a welled oil
machine, now what it sounds likewhere everybody's doing their
part and they're all differentand unique, which is incredible,
yeah and we, we can never bethankful enough for it, because,
(01:23:12):
and when I, when I, when Iturned it, I'm that kind of a
guy.
Speaker 1 (01:23:17):
When I turned it over , I turned it over, and here's
what I told the children I saidI'm stepping out of this
organization as operations, butI said I'm still staying in the
wagon.
I'm going to give you the reins, but I'm staying in the wagon.
(01:23:39):
So I will help you steer thesehorses.
I will help you steer thisorganization wherever it's
needed.
Speaker 3 (01:23:48):
Oh, that's beautiful.
I love that.
Well, I just think storytellersare some of the most impactful
people in our society Becausestorytellers, through stories,
through books and differentmedium, you can really convey a
message and influence ageneration and that's powerful
that you're doing that and yourfamily's doing that.
(01:24:10):
How do you view storytellingNumber one?
Speaker 1 (01:24:17):
I've always said and I still do, and I pound this
hard at Sight Sound with love ifyou don't have a script that
can entertain, just a scriptthat can entertain an auditorium
full of people for an hour anda half, without any lighting,
special effects, withoutanything, you don't have a show.
(01:24:40):
The script has to be the story,the thing.
So everything you're going toadd to that script now is only
going to become not just bellsand whistles, not just bells and
whistles.
(01:25:00):
It's going to become a way toexpress that story to people in
a way that you can't do it justby storytelling.
So it becomes a great asset tothe story.
But how I look at a storynumber one this is how I always
(01:25:24):
produced and I still do and Istill look for it.
I was telling the producinggroup, 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, myvisions, my heart with her, and
(01:25:44):
then she gets it through towhoever needs to get through to.
But anyway, number one, youalways have to have the wow in a
show, the moments that somebodysaid oh my word, I never saw
anything like that.
Or the moment that hits themand says, oh, I never saw that
(01:26:11):
in the Bible before.
I never heard that portrayedthat way.
Now I understand it and now Isee 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 andcheck you out in the Word of God
(01:26:34):
and see it in a whole new way.
I'm a strong one on this.
God gives us spiritual eyes andwhen we're born again he opens
our spiritual eyes to see himand his kingdom as never before
(01:26:58):
and his kingdom as never before.
He like cuts the veil and givesus eyelids that are opened,
that we can now see him in awhole new way.
And that's why Paul said inEphesians 1, this I pray that
the eyes of your heart may beopened, ooh, that you may know
(01:27:21):
the hope of his calling to youthrough Christ Jesus, our Lord.
It's powerful, so that's alwaystwo big drivers in me to get
those wow moments in there I'venever seen anything like it
before but also get those spiritmoments that hit the heart so
(01:27:43):
hard.
Oh, my word, I got it.
I never thought of it that waybefore.
I never saw it that way before.
Now I see it and it has turnedmy darkness into light.
I would say right up there withthose two.
(01:28:07):
I always put into every showteaching moments, teaching the
word of God in story form.
And the other one, right upwith the rest, is the gospel.
Every show, you've got to begiving the people the gospel.
The gospel, it's a pill thatyou can give to somebody that
will cure every disease calledthe gospel pill and it's
(01:28:31):
powerful.
So I weave that into every showthat I did and I still
encourage the family to do thesame.
First time I saw Daniel, I wentto my Amy and I said Amy, I
said just a few thoughts on thisand she heard me.
(01:28:52):
So I still stay on top ofwhat's happening, but in a
roundabout way.
Mm-hmm, does that answer yourquestion?
Speaker 3 (01:29:03):
Absolutely.
Yeah, that's really good.
I really love that.
Speaker 1 (01:29:07):
I'm great for just the spectacular.
Why do I do that?
I'm a strong believer.
Everything God ever made or hasdone, or who he is, is glorious
.
It's the best, it's mostbeautiful.
And why should we give him lessthan the best?
(01:29:27):
That's right.
Second best.
I believe in giving him everypulling out, every stop,
throwing out every dollar I can.
To him I might say this Sightand sound is not about money.
To Shirley and I and to thefamily, I mean that we don't
live for that.
I never produce a show andthink how much money is this
(01:29:51):
going to make?
How many people is this goingto pull?
I produce a show about how manypeople can we touch with the
gospel and with the word of Godwith this show.
That's the driver behind it andwe live that way.
We do not live for money.
You need it.
You've got to have money tomake it work.
(01:30:14):
You got to have money to makeit work, but it's not the
driving factor with our familyor at Sight and Sound.
Speaker 3 (01:30:23):
Positively not.
Wow, glenn.
Well, what a powerful story.
Thank you so much for sharing.
I always end the podcast withthree questions.
The first one is what is thebravest thing you've ever done
that you haven't mentioned yetin this episode?
Speaker 1 (01:30:44):
I would probably say the production of Noah.
That was my that's still Sightand Sound's signature show.
That was my ultimate productionand the reason I say that it is
the most evangelistic show wehave and I think it's the most
(01:31:09):
timely show we yet have fortoday.
We're doing some rework on thatright now.
It's coming back again.
It's a show that'll never goaway.
But I would have to go to theproduction of Noah.
It's probably one of thehighlights of my life.
It's not the buildings thatwe've built, it's in the
productions that we've done.
(01:31:29):
Actually, the very first livestage production I did Behold
the Lamb would come very closeto that.
That was a strong production.
Production I did Behold theLamb would come very close to
that.
That was a strong production.
When we ran Behold the Lambstarting down at Living Waters,
(01:31:53):
I remember our audiences used toget that loud in just praise
and worship on their feet thatyou couldn't even hear the cast
speaking and that always movesme so much to see an audience
moved by the spirit of what Godput in your heart to present to
them.
I would probably say Noah.
Speaker 3 (01:32:17):
Yeah, and then the other one is the three
transformative books.
Speaker 1 (01:32:29):
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 incrediblebook, I would say.
(01:32:58):
Back in the early 80s God did anew work in my heart With the
moving of the Holy Spirit in me.
I came out of a church where Iknew I was taught very little
about the workings of the HolySpirit and when I got a
revelation of that, gotunderstanding of the works of
the Holy Spirit and what he isable to do for us, our helper,
(01:33:19):
and all those things that I havementioned, that was a really
moving time in my life and I wasable to get a hold of some
books at that time on the HolySpirit and what it really meant
(01:33:41):
to be, what it really meant tohave Jesus as Lord of my life.
Those books really helped meunderstand and brought me into a
whole new realm ofunderstanding and a whole new
walk with the Lord, because theBible says that we are to
(01:34:07):
confess with our mouth.
If we confess with our mouthJesus not as Lord, not as Savior
, jesus as Lord we confess withour mouth.
Believe in our heart, jesus asLord shall be saved.
It's a powerful thing that I'mnot sure there's quite enough of
(01:34:27):
teaching and understanding ofJesus as Lord.
That puts him as boss of yourlife.
He is president, he is thechief, he is king.
I would say those would be someof the most.
I just read a book recentlythat really had a lot to do.
(01:34:48):
It was by a Jewish rabbi thatreally touched my heart.
I'm still feasting on thatheart.
I'm still feasting on that.
He described how the Jewishpeople, the Hebrew people,
looked at God in such a respectand reverence and almighty way
(01:35:12):
that they couldn't even call himby name, and I think sometimes
I had to get a refresher courseon that.
Speaker 3 (01:35:23):
Do you recall what the book is called or the name
of the rabbi?
Speaker 1 (01:35:28):
I can't tell you, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (01:35:30):
And the last question that we have is what is the
best advice that someone evergave you?
That's a tough one.
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (01:35:42):
Maybe my Sunday school teacher, possibly my
Sunday school teacher when hesaid to me God has given you a
special gift.
You need to use that.
You need to go somewhere, youneed to take that somewhere.
(01:36:06):
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 thento go to my gift.
(01:36:29):
And as I look back over my life, that was the driver.
That was the driver that wasthe driver through all these
years.
Wow.
It was the driver that helpedme to visualize Scripture
(01:36:54):
because I saw it in an artisticway In a way.
I've often said people wonderhow I paint the way I do.
I said I don't know, it justcomes out of me, it's automatic.
I don't even have to thinkwhile I'm painting, it's just
(01:37:15):
there and honestly you can callme crazy, weird or what I
actually can see a painting apicture on my eyelids.
Wow, I close my eyes a lot whenI preach.
I close my eyes a lot when Ipaint, because I see it.
I see it here.
Speaker 3 (01:37:40):
That's a gift.
Speaker 1 (01:37:41):
It's something.
I guess it's a gift.
Speaker 3 (01:37:43):
I don't know.
Yeah, you've got the creativeimagination.
That's unlike other people, I'dsay.
The majority of people can'timagine the scenes like you
imagine.
Like you said, when you read,you're in the scene, you're
there, and then you're able totake that and create the visual,
(01:38:03):
theatrical expression of thatfor other people to see what
you've seen in your eyes first.
So that's a gift, glenn.
Speaker 1 (01:38:11):
What I do.
When I do a painting, I putmyself in the painting I always
do every time.
On the Life of Christ paintingswe were talking about.
I've done two books on the Lifeof Christ paintings that I've
done.
One is entitled Stories of theSavior, the other is entitled
the Greatest Gift.
(01:38:32):
But I, literally, when Ipainted the Last Supper entitled
the New Covenant, I put myselfat the table with the boys.
What were you feeling?
What was going through yourmind?
What would have gone through mymind when he said, tomorrow I'm
(01:38:54):
going to be leaving you.
What would have I done if I wassitting at that table?
He came to me and said thisbread that I just broke, is my
body broken for you Eat it?
And then he poured the wineinto the cup.
(01:39:16):
This is my blood shed, for youDrink it.
And then he poured the wineinto the cup.
This is my blood shed, for youDrink it.
I was at the table.
What have I done it?
That's weird.
Come on, yeah, come on.
Speaker 3 (01:39:36):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, what I love is that youare doing some deep work without
trying to do that.
You know, right now, in ourdistracted world, people my
generation, you know give ortake a few years here and there.
You know we have to be sointentional about carving the
space in order to go as deep asyou go, in order to produce
(01:39:58):
creative work.
But you have done that so well.
You were born in a differentgeneration where that was not an
issue.
You know, before the internet,before the iPhone, before all
the distractions, that now it'slike we have to carve that out
and there's books on it calleddeep work.
So good, you know, and the factthat you go there for hours on
(01:40:21):
end it allows you to have thatspace to really go and immerse
yourself in those scenes and dothat.
So I just want to say thank you, glenn, for the work that you
do.
You're so welcome For theproduction that you create and
just the gift that God gave youis such a beautiful expression
and we're able to experiencethose visual sights and things
(01:40:44):
that you see and feel, that youbring to life.
So thank you so much for yourlife, your time.
It's truly an honor to have yousitting in the seat.
Speaker 1 (01:40:54):
It's an honor and a joy to sit down with you today.
You're a great host.
Speaker 3 (01:40:59):
Thank you.
Thank you, Glenn.
Speaker 1 (01:41:00):
Thank you for what you are doing.
It's very, very, very helpfulto many, many people.
Thank you, and I pray this willdo some good in somebody's
heart, yes, and maybe encouragesomebody to take the gift, that
seed that God has planted intoyou and bring it forth into a
(01:41:22):
mighty harvest for the glory ofGod.
Speaker 3 (01:41:27):
Thank you for listening to the Once we Dare
podcast.
It is an honor to share theseencouraging stories with you.
If you enjoy the show, I wouldlove for you to tell your
friends.
Leave us a reviewer rating andsubscribe to wherever you listen
to podcasts, because this helpsothers discover the show.
You can find me on my website,speckhopalcom.
Thank you.
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.