Moms, you are the biggest influencers – why else do you think advertisers target you? You have the power to make or break a product or film:
- You control the most significant amount of consumer spending.
- Do the majority of social media posts.
- Spend the most time with your children, with some exceptions.
- “A man naturally wants to please his wife” (a pastor once told me).
What godly wife hasn’t experienced times when she feels like her husband is a puppet God is pulling the strings on, especially when she prays and is properly submitted to God?
Moms, it is time you realize your power to change the world. This is why I am launching the #MovieMoms hashtag. I encourage you to start using it when sharing pertinent social media content, to help you understand that YOU are the biggest influencer.
As a former personal publicist and social media marketer, I will provide you with tips to help you change the world. As you see your influence grow, you will be more inclined to speak out. And you will feel empowered in a new way, no longer feeling hopeless about world events.
“Surely, you are exaggerating, Kristen! I can’t change the world!” Oh, yes you can! (See the 4 reasons above.)
“But how, Kristen? Tell me how, in a real way? How can I, just one mom, change the world?”
Because art creates culture. Not politics. Politics is downstream of culture. And you are the biggest supporter of art (movies, TV) in the world. You have the power to #BudLight or not to #BudLight – that is the question! You are the biggest spreaders of Christian films on social media. You are the biggest angel investors in Christian films.
Why else do you think that Christian movies – primarily directed by men – are geared toward you? Because “women are easy to manipulate,” a seasoned advertising professional once told me. In the same way we know that “a man naturally wants to please his wife,” by how angry and frustrated our husbands get when they feel like they’re not pleasing us, we also know the inverse is true: that a man also intrinsically knows how to push his wife’s buttons.
Which is why we, as moms, have to be very cautious when lending our valuable social media reach to movies. Knowing that men know how to manipulate us, should they so choose to do.
Moms, You CAN Change the World – One Movie at a Time
I will be writing a series of articles to help you grow your social media reach and help you understand the power you have as an influencer. To help you see that you, as a mom, are the biggest influencer. Because of your consumer power and social media reach. The articles will help you so that you will no longer be taken advantage of by marketers and producers targeting you to get you to spread the word on social media about their latest film.
I encourage you to #BudLight all Christian films starting now. And instead, start fresh. Do a hard reset. Say to yourself, “At this moment, today, I will no longer give my valuable social media posts to help spread the word about a movie just because it is Christian. Instead, I will begin afresh by making them earn my word-of-mouth advertising.
I will be a skeptic. Making the project earn my social media, free advertising.”
But most importantly, “I will stop, when thinking about sharing a post about some Christian movie, show, or music, and will pray first.”
Why pray first?
Because the biggest myth in Christian movies is that they are cheesy due to a lack of money. This is why people give them a pass and share them on social media, even though inwardly they’re cringing, wishing they were better.
Christian Movies Are Cheesy Because They are Vanity Projects
This will be explained in subsequent articles, helping you, as moms, better understand which Christian movies you should share in your valuable social media posts, and which you should ignore. In future articles, I will explain a bit about the artistry behind filmmaking and flesh out the above statement.
“But Kristen, you’re such a meany! These people are doing the best they can!”
No. They’re not. The people producing cheesy Christian movies are out of alignment in the Body of Christ. They are a hand trying to be a foot. Which is why the movies are cheesy, i.e., “blatantly inauthentic,” the definition of cheesy. And you’ll notice that “inauthentic” is a TRUTH claim. And Jesus is the Truth (Jn. 14:6). Therefore, making “cheesy” Christian movies, by definition, is antichrist.
And none of us want to support that. So, please understand, Moms, that the movies are not cheesy because the producers need more money. They’re doing the best they can. The movies are cheesy because the wrong people are making them. They are vanity pieces.
“What do you mean by that Kristen, you harsh media critic!”
The Creative Vs. Analytical Brain
In this world, people with analytical brains (doctors, businessmen, engineers) earn the most money. And we’ve all seen the “starving artist” type (artists, singers) who works at a convenience store, letting his wife support him working a real job, so he can pursue his dream.
This explains why Christian movies are cheesy. This “harsh” movie critic believes that about 95% are vanity projects. Instead of being initiated by the Holy Ghost and brought to fruition by those He’s gifted, i.e., the creative members in the Body of Christ, they are begun by the analytical members who have money to produce them.
Often, they are conceived by the moneyed analytical set, above, who are not creative. The creative brain is the exact opposite of the analytical brain. Which is why these projects fall flat. Because they are not the ones gifted by God in the creative arts.
Generally, they are analytical believers who have the money, and so want to be the creatives. But God has given them an analytical brain, not a creative brain. So they are out of alignment in the Body of Christ. This is why the films are vanity projects. The person making it has a personal attachment to the story, usually having to do with some personal trauma, cancer, death, dying, etc., and they feel their story is important, so want to share it with the world.
This is different from those who are gifted by God in the creative arts. As Scripture says, whom God calls, He also equips (Hebrews 13:21). Some people are gifted artists. They are gifted by God to be artists. It is undeniable.
So the problem arises when those who are not gifted by God in the arts make movies. These are vanity projects since they are not gifted by God in the arts. Well-intentioned. But vanity projects.
“Well, I think you’re just a big meany, Kristen! Hatin’ on these people who are trying their best!”
No. They are not. They are out of alignment with their mission in the Body of Christ. The analytical types have been given analytical brains by God
Kristen Collier has a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature and is the author of the “exciting ecclesiastical thriller,” King of Glory, a supernatural love story about the Second Coming. She is co-founder, animator and producer at Collier Animation Studio, whose cartoons appear on streaming TV. Collier, a Hollywood Prayer Network MI Chapter Director, is also co-director of Allendale Christian Media, a department of St. John Lutheran Church.