‘Light of the World’ Movie Director on Finding Jesus

When John Schafer was a boy, he first heard about God through A Charlie Brown Christmas—but it wasn’t until his life broke apart years later that he drew near to the Lord.

Today, as the co-director of the new movie Light of the World, John uses his passion to glorify Jesus Christ. Listen as John shares how he finally surrendered to God during one of the toughest seasons of his life and how, even as a Christian, he had to contend with struggles and mistakes. 

Connect with us through email at gps@billygraham.org or on Facebook at Billy Graham Radio. 

If you’d like to know more about beginning a relationship with Jesus Christ, or deepening the faith you already have, visit FindPeacewithGod.net. 

If you’d like to pray with someone, call our Billy Graham 24/7 Prayer Line at 855-255-7729. 

Transcript

John Schafer:  
[00:00:00] I felt like he was really sincere. But at the end, I just got up. I shook his hand, and I said thanks for taking the time to meet with me. I’m not interested in your church or your God. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:00:12] While movie director John Schafer was serving in the Air Force, he rejected out of hand an invitation to accept Jesus Christ as his Savior. And he even made fun of his friends who were Christians. Find out how God worked in John’s life to bring him into a relationship with Him through gifts of undeserved favor, the challenge of personal and family struggles, and his undying love for movies including a Christmas animation classic that we all know very, very well. That’s what’s coming up in this episode of GPS: God. People. Stories. An outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. I’m Jim Kirkland. As we approach Christman, the words of Billy Graham remind us that Jesus entered a world just as chaotic as ours is today. 

Billy Graham: 
[00:00:59] There’s no doubt that world events are now moving so rapidly that we can hardly keep up with them. Yet, it was in such an hour that our Lord, Jesus Christ came into the world 2,000 years ago. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:01:11] If you’re feeling anxious this Christmas season, we are here to help. Visit our website FindPeacewithGod.net. When you’re there, click where it says begin a relationship with Jesus. That’s FindPeacewithGod.net. And the fastest way to get there is the link in our show notes. 

Audio and Music Tag:
[00:01:29]

Jim Kirkland
[00:01:34] John Schafer grew up in Toledo, Ohio with a fascination for movies. The first one he ever saw at a theater was Disney’s Robin Hood. He was five years old. Just a few months after seeing Robin Hood, there was another animated feature that he saw. And it sparked a question that would change his life. 

John Schafer: 
[00:01:53] We were watching the Charlie Brown Christas Special. And it was the first time I had ever heard the word God or Savior when Linus was explaining to Charlie Brown what the true meaning of Christmas was. And I asked my mom and dad what is a Savior? What does that mean? What is God? 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:02:16] But John didn’t receive any answers. 

John Schafer: 
[00:02:19] My mom for sure did not have that answer being Buddhist. She had probably a totally different view. My dad, he didn’t say a whole lot on the subject matter. He just kind of blew it off. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:02:31] Still, a seed had been planted in John’s young heart from watching a Charlie Brown Christmas. Also growing was his love for movies and film production. In fact, before he was eight, he had learned how to create a production process known as stop motion animation. 

John Schafer: 
[00:02:48] But as I kind of got older, I just … I became … I don’t want to say the word rebellious, but now there was something. I wanted to be something different. I got married against my parents’ wishes. At that time, I was so young. They-they didn’t want me to get married. And-and that probably even drove me more of wanting to get married. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:03:07] When John was 18, he went into the Air Force to provide for his wife and child. Soon thereafter, things began to not turn out so well for him. 

John Schafer: 
[00:03:16] A lot of things were not going great at this time in my life. And, uh, I had some friends, uh, who were in the Air Force. And they had gotten saved. You know. And when they would share their stuff in the squadron and talk about what God’s doing in their lives, I just thought, man, what happened to these guys because we all partied together. We did everything together. And all of a sudden, now, here they are talking about they got saved. They’re changing their life. They’re not partying anymore. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:03:43] But John’s friends invited him to be a part of their new lives with God, but he didn’t want in. 

John Schafer: 
[00:03:50] I mocked them. I just thought, man, you guys kind of went off the deep end. And, uh, yeah. I-I would make fun of them just like everyone else did. But interesting enough, when my world collapsed around me and things went really bad, all the guys I was partying with kind of distance themselves from me. And, uh, at that time, my marriage, it was in trouble. And a lot of it, I think, it was the … my immaturity. Kind of also being selfish because when you get married young and you have a child young and all that stuff, there’s a lot of things I felt like, aww, I’m in the Air Force to provide for my family. But I’m not doing what I felt what my dream had been. My dream ever since I was a child was I wanted to be a filmmaker. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:04:40] Only two friends stuck by John. Their names were Tom and Pete. And both of them were Christians. 

John Schafer: 
[00:04:47]  They would always come and see me. And they would always want me to, uh, pray with them. And I never felt comfortable praying with them. My attitude was just like if there’s a God, He hasn’t done nothing for me. Because my entire childhood, that’s kind of what it was like.   

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:05:03] But one day, John’s friends wanted him to go to their church and meet their pastor. John reluctantly agreed and listened to the pastor for about half an hour before heading for the door. 

John Schafer: 
[00:05:16] I felt like he was really sincere. But at the end, I just got up. I shook his hand, and I said thanks for taking the time to meet with me. I’m not interested in your church or your God. I left there. And, uh, Pete and Tom went to meet with him. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:05:32] John made a quick decision to walk inside the sanctuary and go up to the front where there stood a cross. 

John Schafer: 
[00:05:39] It was the first time I had been in a church since I was in grade school like that. And I broke down. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:05:48] He didn’t understand what came over him in that moment, but his friends surrounded him. Over the next few months, John’s friends would check in on him, and want to pray for him, and had asked him to repeat a prayer they had said. Yet, John never felt comfortable enough to repeat their words. 

John Schafer: 
[00:06:07] But one morning when I woke up, and I just realized where my life was at. I knew the prayer because they kept wanting me to pray. They would pray it over and over with me, but I would never say it. But because I knew that, and this time it was just me. And, okay, God, if you’re real, I have nothing else to lose. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:06:26] With that confession, John prayed to accept Christ as his Lord and Savior. Still, there was trouble to contend with in his personal life. John hadn’t reported for duty with the squadron for a few days. He stayed in his apartment off base and didn’t even call in sick or answer his phone. 

John Schafer: 
[00:06:47] A few days later, they called in LE, you know, law enforcement from the Air Force came to my apartment. And they came and took me to the base. I wasn’t arrested or anything, but I was definitely classified as AWOL. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:06:59] John expected to get dishonorably discharged. To his relief, Tom and Pete saw him in the hallway as he waited to meet their commander. The guys prayed with him.  

John Schafer: 
[00:07:10] It was a simple prayer. God, protect him. Give him favor and just move on the heart of our squadron commander. And sure enough, when I was in there with the squadron commander, he didn’t yell. He didn’t hit everything. He just said, you know, Mr. Schafer, you have a great record here. I see there is some challenges going on in your life. And technically, you went AWOL. And you need to be discharged, but I’m going to honorably discharge you because you’ve done a four and a half years really good in service. And, uh, I don’t want anything to be tarnished. I think there’s something for you out there.  

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:07:49] This experience gave John a front row viewing of God’s workings in his life. After he was honorably discharged from the Air Force, a job opportunity opened up at the Christian Broadcasting Network, commonly known as CBN. The opportunity was in an area for which John had great passion. 

John Schafer: 
[00:08:11] I was the producer for Super Book. My job was to reimagine the ‘80s Super Book series that CBN had done. And, uh, reimagine it for a new generation. And life was amazing. I had, you know, been traveling. We were animating it in China. So, I would travel back and forth to China and all that. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:08:32] As the Super Book series became successful around the world, John had become so focused on his ministry and providing for his family that he became stretched thin in his ability to actually spend time with his family. 

John Schafer: 
[00:08:45] I was in a financial position to give them all their wants, but I wasn’t in the position to give them the basic needs of just being there, or when I was there, being present because I was just traveling so much overseas. Then when I was here, just you know, stateside, just working so hard. And I realized there came a point when I wasn’t furthering God’s kingdom. I was actually furthering mine. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:0911] Ultimately, John’s marriage failed. At this point, John started defining himself by his failures instead of his successes. A change had to be made. So, he decided to travel west and take time to heal. He continued his work producing and directing at CBN but committed to reprioritizing his life, always keeping what God wanted first and foremost. Over the years that followed, he met a woman and fell in love. Rebecca and he were married. And in February of 2020, they welcomed a son, Josiah. This was just weeks now before the outbreak of Covid-19 ushered in a global lockdown. In that challenge, there was nevertheless a gift. 

John Schafer: 
[00:09:59] As crazy as that was for all of us and not just in the states but around the world, it was also a blessing for Rebecca and I with Josiah because we were there for every moment of everything of Josiah. Every little thing, we were there together. 

Jim Kirkland:
[00:10:16] Something else unexpected in John’s life during the Covid pandemic lockdown. He received a job offer from the Salvation Poem Project to produce learning material for new believers in Jesus Christ. John took the job. And his family moved to Sparta, Wisconsin. Within just two months on the job, John was asked about another idea. Would he be interested in helping to create a 2D animated film about the life of Jesus. That movie would ultimately be entitled Light of the World. 

John Schafer: 
[00:10:49] Coming in to work on Light of the World, this feature film, I’ve learned so much about keeping focus my priority for God first. You know, we always can say that. God first, wife, children, career; but how often do we really follow that? And this time around, you know, my life … watching what God had done over and over and just do these amazing things. Yeah. It is God first. And it has been on this whole journey with this film. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:11:18] Even though not everyone on his staff were believers, John would constantly turn to God in prayer whenever the team couldn’t figure out a solution to a problem.   

John Schafer: 
[00:11:28] You know, you’re on a Zoom call. There’s like 50 people on there. And I would say I don’t know the answer to that. And we need answers because you’ve got schedules. You can’t hold up departments. I would always ask is it cool if I pray. And I would pray out loud. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:11:44] Over 400 people from all around the world worked on The Light of the World movie. And John estimates that 80% of them weren’t believers. In the middle of working on the film, John’s faith would be put to a test. And it had nothing to do with film production. John and Rebecca’s son, Josiah, now three, became unresponsive without warning on an otherwise routine day in the middle of playing a game of peek-a-boo. 

John Schafer: 
[00:12:12] We were playing with him. Me and Rebecca were in the basement one night just kind of playing with him. He liked to do the peek-a-boo thing. So, he’s lay down and go peek-a-boo. And the last time he did it, he kind of stayed there. And we thought, oh, he just wants us to come up to him. So, we would go, Josiah, peek-a-boo. And he didn’t do nothing. So, we were laughing. And then, he wasn’t moving. We rushed up to him. And when we turned him over, he was completely blue. His lip was dark blue. He wasn’t breathing. And he was cold. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:12:44 At first, John and Rebecca froze. Then, Rebecca yelled at the top of her lungs in Jesus name. They called 911 and began doing CPR on Josiah. 

John Schafer: 
[00:12:57] He’s still not breathing. And then, the medical team come in there. The, um, EMT and now, he’s got some subtle breathing. It’s very low, but now they’re doing all this stuff. Rebecca jumps in the ambulance with him. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:13:11] Josiah was taken to the Mayo Clinic. John texted friends and family for prayer. Despite MRIs and testing, the doctors could never figure out why Josiah had a non-responsive seizure. His brain had told his oxygen system to shut down. And in between these tests and trips to the doctor, John was wrestling with continuing to work on Light of the Word. And that to paint a picture of the seriousness of Josiah’s condition, the doctors had told John that if Josiah’s oxygen shut down while he or Rebecca were sleeping, their son would die. 

John Schafer: 
[00:13:48] So, I’m on Zoom calls in all these different areas while all these things are going on. And Tom Bancroft, my co-director, he called me. And he just said, hey, where we are in story, where we’re at, John, if you need to walk away and just focus on-on Josiah and Rebecca, I got this. The team’s got this. And there’s nothing wrong with you stepping away from the movie. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:14:12] But John had already considered walking away.  

John Schafer: 
[00:14:16] I had thought those thoughts already. I didn’t want to make those same mistakes I did early on, especially in a situation like this. And I remember just talking with God. God, I feel like I am supposed to tell the story, but also, I don’t know what to do. The experts don’t know what to do. And I said if I’m supposed to finish this story, I just need You to promise You’ll take care of Josiah. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:14:42] The next day, John had an unexplainable peace. He was still worried about his son, but it didn’t overwhelm him. Something had changed. 

John Schafer: 
[00:14:52] I had made the commitment. I think this is the path that God wants. So when 
Tom and them talked to me weeks later like, hey, are you still staying with the film? And I said, yeah, I am. I feel like this is what I’m supposed to do. And Tom, because we’re good friends, he’s very blunt with me and just said are you sure that’s what God wants you to do? Or is that pride that you want to finish this through? I said, no. I said I do feel like this is what I’m supposed to do. And Tom, I do feel that this. If I step away and I don’t trust God with what I asked Him, how can I make a movie to tell people they can trust God at all? 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:15:32] That realization brought John into a new level of trust in his journey with God. Since its release in September 2025, Light of the World has been shown across the USA and in many countries around the world sharing the hope of Jesus. The weekend after its release, it cracked the Top 10 among box office new releases. And John has seen God’s faithfulness in his family. Josiah is five years old. And as of our recording of this episode, Josiah has never had another seizure. While the doctors still don’t know why or how it happened, John has taken and applied to his craft the personal screenplay that he has seen the Lord direct in his life. It ultimately points to the story of the One who rescues us all, Jesus Christ. 

John Schafer: 
[00:16:20] I’m just excited to start to hear the testimonies and to start to share those stories from around the world to people. And, uh, I hope one day there’s some kid that grows up and wants to make movies because they said, hey, when I was six years old, I saw this movie called Light of the World. And I hope that that story just continues and continues and continues. 

Music tag:
[00:16:43] 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:16:56] If you’d like to know more about Jesus Christ, the Light of the World, we can help. Visit our website at FindPeacewithGod.net. When you’re there, click on begin a relationship with Jesus. That’s at FindPeacewithGod.net. You can also find the link to the website in our show notes. In just a minute, John will be back to tell us a little more about the response he has received from directing Light of the World. 

Audio tag:
[00:17:23] 

Billy Graham: 
[00:17:33] There’s no doubt that world events are now moving so rapidly that we can hardly keep up with them. 

Announcer:
[00:17:38] Billy Graham … 

Billy Graham: 
[00:17:39] Yet, it was in such an hour that our Lord, Jesus Christ came to the world 2,000 years ago. The angel on that first Christmas night under the stars said, “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord”. If we really believe this, then it makes all the difference in the world. Life takes on a new dimension. This means that history is not on some determinate course, but that God has a plan in history. And God also has a plan for your life. Therefore, this Christmas season with our trust and faith in Him, we hear the angel saying once again, “Fear not”. This is the message to you today. This is my Christmas message to you. You too can appropriate the words that are used all the way through the Scriptures to believers. Fear not, I am with you. A child was born and a Son was given for our salvation. And we have the total assurance that Jesus Christ was not only the son of man, but He was the Son of God. And God has accepted what He did on the cross for our salvation. And we trust in Him and Him alone for our forgiveness and for eternal life. You can take the Christmas message, Fear not, and apply it to your heart at this very moment because a Son has been given and a child has been born.  

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:19:01] If you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, let’s change that now. This Christmas could end up being the most important Christmas of your life. Visit us a FindPeacewithGod.net. And when you’re there, click where it says begin a relationship with Jesus. That’s FindPeacewithGod.net. If you’d rather speak with someone, there’s someone waiting to talk to you right now. Call the Billy Graham 24 hour Prayer Line at (855) 255-PRAY. That is (855) 255-7729. Once again, (855) 255-PRAY. As the director of an animated movie about the life of Jesus Christ, people reach out to John Schafer with their questions about who God is and what they should do when they pray. Here’s how he answers them. 

John Schafer: 
[00:19:55] I still get people who want to talk and not just do an email or a text message. But I’ll jump on Zoom with them and share things. They’ll ask me. Well, this is going on in my life. Can you pray for it? And I’ll say a prayer right then and there with them. But then, I will tell them you can talk to God too. He’d rather hear from you. He’ll listen to me, but He wants to hear from you. And there’s no formula of how you pray. Just talk to Him how you just talked to me. And ask how you’re asking me. 

Jim Kirkland: 
[00:20:27] Just like John’s Air Force friends, Tom and Pete, who offered to pray with him years earlier, John now offers to pray with other people when he runs into them. He’s even had the opportunity to lead both of his parents to the Lord revealing to them the answer to the question he had when he was just five and watching The Charlie Brown Christmas Special. What is a Savior? The Savior, our Savior, is Jesus Christ. Lord of all and Light of the World. We’re grateful John Schafer joined us on this episode of GPS: God. People. Stories. He’s a husband, father, the in-house director of the Salvation Poem Project, and director of the animated, box office success Light of the World. If this was encouraging to you and you want to be encouraged by more stories like John’s, then make sure to hit the subscribe button. That way you will not miss a single episode, including out next one, our special Christmas Eve episode, which is just two weeks away. Wow. In the middle of life, GPS is here in the middle of the week. Also, if someone comes to mind that you think would be blessed by hearing this episode of GPS, please share it with them. I’m Jim Kirkland. And this is GPS: God. People. Stories. It’s an outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Always good news. 

Music tag:
[00:21:49] 

End of transcript