Why I’m making FAITH

Hey friend,

Once upon a time, I was a pastor. My dream was to lead people to Jesus so they could live forever with Him in heaven. Then one day, quite annoyingly, I became an atheist.

Losing faith left me asking a question I couldn’t shake: if my life didn’t have this purpose, could it have any purpose at all? I felt lost. I spent months on the living room floor of a crowded apartment, watching Netflix and wondering what came next.

Eventually, I found personal development. I heard stories of people who had come from nothing and built lives which helped other people. I wanted to do the same. So I built businesses. Some succeeded. Some failed. Through every change in my bank account, the question followed me: is this all there is?

No amount of financial success filled the hole which opened when I walked away from faith. After a painful business loss, I found myself feeling hopeless again.

Later, while staying in the wilderness with a close friend, I spent hours talking about it. Then something occurred to me. I hadn’t always felt hopeless. Once, I had felt purposeful, loving, and loved. Back then, success meant sharing messages which matter with as many people as possible.

Faith had been central to my life. I felt I had a purpose, and it was up to me to partner with God to fulfill it. I began to wonder whether I could try believing again. In my own experience, faith helped me become someone I wanted to be. I wanted to use what I built to make a difference.

That is where FAITH began.

I wanted to make a comedy with the warmth of Ted Lasso and the pace of The Office. A show people could love whether they went to church every Sunday, had walked away, or were still figuring out what they believed.

Ezra takes over his dad’s struggling small-town Texas church after tragedy shakes his father’s faith. Every week, another terrible idea to grow the church. Good intentions. Terrible execution. His attempts create the comedy. What he learns gives it heart.

The question beneath it is simple: if Jesus were a local church pastor today, how would he lead it? How would he lead and teach? What should a church leader do when loving a person conflicts with following tradition?

Ezra begins by trying to save a church. To save his community, he discovers he has to upgrade himself and become a little more like Jesus. I know this world from the inside. I lived it, lost it, and came back to it.

One of the moments that made me believe this could happen was getting Adrian Grenier involved. When Adrian understood the concept of FAITH, his exact words were:

“If you film your proof of concept here in Austin, put me in it. That sounds like something I want to be part of.”

So I wrote a new character for him: Tyler, a rival church pastor. Having Adrian become part of this story helped us take the idea off the page and bring it to life.

The pilot is finished, and Adrian Grenier is in it. Season 1 is already 48.4% funded. We have a clear budget and production and financing plan for Seasons 1 and 2. The next step is to complete the remaining funding before Season 1 production begins.

One star is already connected to the project. With the remaining funding, we plan to secure one more recognizable actor before cameras roll, then carry Season 1 through production and post-production to completion. The plan also gives us a clear path toward Season 2. If you would like to explore becoming a partner, get in touch. More specific investment details, including our investor deck, are available upon request.

My ambition is for FAITH to become the Ted Lasso of faith-based comedy: clean comedy for adults, with characters people love, laughter that brings us together, and a hopeful view of the world. I believe there is a hungry audience for entertainment that takes both its comedy and its heart seriously.

There is a commercial reason to take that audience seriously, too. The Chosen shows what a faith-centered series can build. Its creator puts Season 1 production at about $8 million, a substantially larger production than the first season we are planning. Angel Studios reported $116.3 million in licensing royalties paid to The Chosen, LLC through May 2024. Those are company royalties across the project, rather than investor profit or Season 1 revenue alone.

In 2022, original investors also received a distribution of $120 for each $100 invested, according to the company’s 2026 shareholder letter. That returned their original investment plus 20%, with their ownership continuing. It is an encouraging example of a faith-based show creating both cultural impact and a financial return. It does not predict FAITH’s results or make an investment secure.

Our approach is to pair a much smaller production budget with recognizable talent and a finished pilot people can judge for themselves. A cast audiences know gives them another reason to watch, and gives distributors a stronger reason to consider buying the show. The aim is to make a thoughtful business out of stories we believe the world needs.

That is why it matters to me that Sasha Yelaun designed FAITH’s finance plan. Sasha has more than 40 producing credits, with films featuring some of the biggest names in the industry: Nicolas Cage in The Old Way, Anthony Hopkins in Eyes in the Trees, and John Malkovich in Chariot, among others.

His experience connects our creative ambition to the practical work of making independent films with recognizable talent. He brings that perspective to how we budget, plan for cast, and structure the financing for FAITH. I want this show to have both a meaningful mission and a considered business plan behind it.

There is another part of this story I carry with me. When my dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, I was terrified of losing him. Months later, sitting in his living room, he looked at me softly and said, “Son, I’m ready to go meet God. I’ve done what I feel like I came here to do.” He was 62.

His words broke my heart. They left me thinking about the time we have, the purpose we carry, and what we still have to give to our families and communities.

I hope FAITH brings people with different beliefs together to laugh, learn, and experience hope. Faith in God. Faith in a brighter future. Faith in our ability to help build it alongside one another.

My hope is you’ll believe the same thing about yourself. God is not done with you either.

I can’t make this show happen alone, and I don’t want to. Thank you for taking the time to understand why it matters to me. I hope you’ll watch the pilot, share it with someone you love, and help bring this story into the world.

With love,
Sterling