Christian Production 'The Thorn' Immerses Audiences in the Biblical Story of Jesus

A production about the biblical story of Jesus that began as a youth group skit is now a movie and a touring theater performance. "The Thorn" is an immersive experience that tells the story of God's love using music, drama, aerial acts, and dance. 

CBN News met up with the creator of the project, John Bolin, to learn what inspired this unique concept:

EFREM GRAHAM: Let's talk about "The Thorn" in terms of the size and scope of it all. So this is a traveling tour right now. How big is this production? 

JOHN BOLIN: Yeah. So the tour is 52 cast and crew. And the cast comes from all over the world... So it's a big production, but we love doing it. 

EFREM: How would you describe this production? It's The Passion story. What's unfolding on stage?

JOHN: So it's the story of the Gospel told from the book of Genesis to the Book of Acts, and it's told through the perspective of the lens of a narrator, which is told by an 80 or a 95-year-old. He's not actually 95, but the character, 95-year-old John the Beloved on the island of Patmos. And then he takes them on this journey for the next 2.5 hours. That begins with Creation. And it ends with, you know, the Great Commission.

It's been described as like a Cirque experience meets The Passion, but it's very immersive, very fast paced. We get a lot of comments from people that say, I don't love Live theater, and I love "The Thorn."

So it actually started almost 30 years ago. I was working as a volunteer youth pastor in Colorado Springs. The 16-year-old girl came and sat next to me, she held out her arms and I could see where she'd been cutting up and down her arms, and she was sobbing. So I turned to her and I said, you don't have to do that, because I believe Jesus did that for us 2,000 years ago. So I thought, you know what? Next Wednesday night, I want to do an illustrated sermon, a drama that would show two things: the price that Jesus paid so that young people would know no matter what you're going through, no matter how dark the season, no matter what it is you're struggling with, Jesus understands because he's been here. And then, number two, I wanted to show the reality of what I call the spiritual battle for the destiny, identity and calling of young people. And then it grew over the next 25 years to what it is today. 

* Click Here to learn about the Live theatrical production, to find tour dates and tickets.

* Click Here to learn about the movie.

EFREM: Wow. How many iterations have we had? 

JOHN: So it began in the local church, and then we began to get calls from other churches around the country saying, would you bring this to our church? So then we went through about ten years of we became an independent production company, and then we partnered with megachurches around the country to do the production in different megachurches. 

And then my wife and I had an idea, what if we could film "The Thorn" and put it in movie theaters? So we partnered with Fathom Productions and Fathom Events out of Denver. And we recorded "The Thorn" in 2022. 

And then we thought, well, if we're going to be in 800 movie theaters, then maybe we should do a Live tour. One final swan song. And we booked these Class A, 2,500 seat performing arts centers not knowing what was going to happen. And it was an Ephesians 3 moment more than we could have asked, thought, dreamed, or imagined. Almost every city, every show was totally sold out. People of all ethnicities, all backgrounds, seekers, where culture says the best stories are told. We're bringing the greatest story of all. 

EFREM: Why do you think it works? 

JOHN: Well, number one, I mean, I think it's good. The main reason it works, though, is because God wants it to. And if we will allow our gifts to be used by God, and if we can get out of the way, then I think the Holy Spirit does something even way beyond us.

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