AN INTERVIEW

WITH SHAWN BOLZ:

ENGAGING CULTURE THROUGH THE
ARTS, MEDIA, AND CIVIL PARTNERSHIP

Shawn Bolz talks

about engaging
culture through
the arts, creativity
and working with
city governments
to have increased
influence.

DESTINY IMAGE
AN INTERVIEW
WITH SHAWN BOLZ:
ENGAGING CULTURE THROUGH THE
ARTS, MEDIA, AND CIVIL PARTNERSHIP

Shawn Bolz talks about engaging culture

through the arts, creativity and working with city
governments to have increased influence.

DESTINY IMAGE
Interview by Anthony Colson
Reclaimd Magazine

Shawn, how are you?

Im doing great.

Shawn can you talk about the marriage of the

prophetic and arts to minister to cities? Can
you talk about how the prophetic and media
blends in with Expressions58?

Sure, we started the church about ten years ago

because I felt that Jesus said, I am homeless
in Hollywood, and Im homeless in the enter-
tainment industry. We know that inherently
the arts are prophetic, they are a pulse on cul-
ture and often are a voice for those who dont
have a voice. The arts do an amazing thing in
that they are express the deepest thoughts and
intentions of the human heart around them.

When we started the church, we really want-

ed to influence people who were going after
the entertainment industry or the arts moun-

3
tain more than people who were just going
after a faith-based expression of the church for
those things. We realized when we got here,
just how many people were actively involved
in the music, film, television and video games
industry. We were shocked to find so many
believers that were already connecting their
faith to their craft. They were believing that
God wanted to do some transformation or
revival through them, but not knowing how
to bridge that gap. The people that we found
are only this generation of many generations
that have come before them all the way from
the start of Hollywood and Mo-Town.

These are a generation of Christians who are

believing that God wants to change the ex-
pression of how humans love through having
a faith based connection with Jesus.

At that time in 2008 there was a survey just

among film and television industry people in
the studios. A Christian group asked them,
How many of you are in your job because

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you feel God sent you here, and not because
its just a job for you? The number of people
from Los Angeles within the film and tele-
vision industry that said they were there be-
cause of, sent by, or connected to their faith
was 18,000. Those numbers come at a time
when people are saying that Hollywood is
godless and we need a revival in the entertain-
ment industry. I was looking at those num-
bers thinking, Oh my gosh, there is already a
revival. Most revivals that we see that arent
for the church, but the world around us, are
usually happening for almost a decade before
they come out on the surface. There is always
a lot of time spent planting seeds, watering,
sprouting and beginning to bear fruit. Usual-
ly, by the time revival of any kind yields no-
ticeable fruit people have been paying the
price for revival for years.

When we came to Los Angeles, we realized

that we only had to water and provide rein-
forcement for what God had already been
doing. We started to see how the arts gave an

5
 intersection and a voice to things that peo-
ple werent ready to hear in a sermon or a
church activity, but were ready to hear it in
their core, in their spirit.

I believe that all these

entertainment mediums, whether it
is the arts, fine arts, entertainment,
television, film, or even sports
athletes are preparing the hearts
of people to receive a greater
encounter with God.

Some people are not necessarily ready in an

obvious way. Jesus shared stories so that we
could relate to the kingdom culture inside of
Him, and get sensitive to Him so that people
would be able to receive from Him when He
was ready to share His life with them. That is
happening again. I believe that all these en-
tertainment mediums, whether it is the arts,

6
fine arts, entertainment, television, film, or
even sports athletes are preparing the hearts
of people to receive a greater encounter with
God.

I have heard you say that some of your core

values are love, creativity, and justice. Can
you talk about those core values, and how
they bring wholeness and restoration through
the arts?

Its funny because when we first started the

church, a group of us had already been on
a journey planting different types of mission
bases in war zones and red-light districts across
the world. In the Congo, we have schools
through the Justice Rising group, which is
now a branch of the ministry that started au-
tonomous to us, but they were with us for
a long time. Justice Rising started schools
throughout the war zone area of the Congo.
Another group started building houses for
girls of human trafficking in places in Kenya
and Ecuador where there wasnt any outreach.

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There were literally zero outreach groups in
some of the places we went too.

We couldnt even find other Christian groups

that would even take care of the people groups
that were in those areas.

So we have seventeen focuses around the na-

tions and three bases. We started the church
and realized that Isaiah 58 gives you 26 guar-
anteed promises if you love people who are
unloved, the stranger and the foreigner.
While America is worried about Syrian in-
vaders bringing Islam terrorism into our
country, we are trying to figure out how to
love these people. Lets put all the politics, the
racial war and the religious war aside and rec-
ognize these are humans, and the Bible gives
more scripture about how to love a foreigner
than it does on how to be afraid of their reli-
gion. How do we just love them?

We had to look at our core values when

we built the church because a church cant
be based on missions alone. We had to fig-

8
ure out who we are as a people. Our desire
is to love the poor and do social justice in a
kingdom way. However, we also want to see
Gods Kingdom transformation for business
people and those in the entertainment indus-
try. So we came up with this three-stranded
cord: love God, love yourself and love your
neighbor. Love was the key. We must learn
how to have a healthy identity in our love
towards others, and that starts with ourselves.
How do we love ourselves, and love others
unselfishly?

We took those core values and assimilated

them into all of the programs we have at the
church.

Now about a year ago I gave the church over

to our senior pastors, Jonathan and Jennifer
Toledo. I am still on the senior leadership
team, but Im no longer doing the senior pa-
storing. When they first started the church
with me they basically said they are not cre-
ative people, and they didnt know why were

9
there. They just knew that God sent them to
be with me. They knew we were supposed
to do the justice mission together, but they
were not sure how they were going to do the
church. They wondered how they would ap-
peal to the entertainment community to go to
church because they didnt feel a part of that
community. The Toledos have three kids
who now are all actors, and very creative.

As the church leaders, we dont necessarily

have to be creative as far as being creative in-
dustry-type people. Instead, we need to have
ingenuity and bring fresh ideas to the table.
We have to access God as The Creator, which
is the first way that God introduced Himself.
We have to access that part of God whether
we feel like artist or not.

On the topic of justice, we have a kingdom

message of an undiluted gospel that automat-
ically shares a redemption to Gods original
plan. The redemptive plan of God brings jus-
tice to peoples lives. One of the themes that

10
we have that Jennifer Toledo has been famous
for saying is, Injustice is a violation of love.
Love corrects every area of injustice when its
done well. Thats one of the themes of our
church. We are not just trying to do humani-
tarian aid. We are working to see the correc-
tion of injustice according to what Jesus paid
for and the price He paid on the cross. That
changes the whole mentality of justice.

You cant look at people who cant have an

education and simply think, Hey thats sad,
let me give a few dollars towards it. There is
something in your heart that begins to have
certain core issue causes. Each one of us is dif-
ferent, so our core issue causes are going to
be different because God is going to minis-
ter through us differently. The average per-
son can do something, even in a bite-sized
piece towards injustice where they can feel
empowered doing it because they are shar-
ing in Gods heart over a particular issue. We
can feel empowered in our calling to love Je-
sus and love the world around us. The whole

11
 earth is groaning and waiting that we, the sons
of God would rise up and love the way Jesus
loved, and actually bring a kingdom that was
Gods original plan and idea. That is seen best
when there are radical acts of radical love on
the earth that are seen as Gods idea first and
not just acts of human kindness.

The prophetic intersects when you actually

hear Gods idea and when you see the Father
had an original plan for all of humanity. He

The average person can do something,

even in a bite-sized piece towards injustice
where they can feel empowered doing it
because they are sharing in Gods heart
over a particular issue. The whole earth is
groaning and waiting that we, the sons
of God, would rise up and love the way
Jesus loved, and actually bring a kingdom
that was Gods original plan and idea.

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was seeing and thinking about us for all of
eternity before He created us. First Corinthi-
ans chapter two teaches us that we share in the
mind of Christ, we hear the deep thoughts of
the Father through Holy Spirit, and that Holy
Spirit relates those deep thoughts to our spirit,
to the depths inside of us. That bridge right
there, just knowing the thoughts of God over
humanity, begins to cause a transformational
cycle in how we live our lives.

A lot of what you are saying in the justice

area brings to mind a passage in Zechariah
that reads, Speak to each man the truth to
his neighbor; Give Judgment in your gates
for truth, justice, and peace ( Zechariah 8:16
NKJV).

Can you talk about some of the things you

have been experiencing with city develop-
ment and how that correlates to Isaiah 60:3?

We were trying to intersect with the city for

the first couple years when we got here. Fi-
nally, after a couple years we got invited to

13
a series of meetings where we got to see our
city map. The city of Los Angeles put togeth-
er a map of how the quadrants of the educa-
tion department, the jail system, the inner city
missions, the disaster relief, the police force,
the fire department and how they all work
together within the city.

There is a very conscious map that cities pay

a lot of money into planning because they
want to be successful, grow and be healthy
as a city. When we looked at this map, and
we were listening to them we noticed the
church was one of the smallest pieces of the
map. However, Christianity has almost 4,000
churches in Los Angeles. I asked, What role
does the church play here, and they an-
swered, None, and its really discouraging
us. They went on to tell me that churches do
a lot of good things, but they are not doing it
in context or relationship to the city in real-
ly informed ways. That is frustrating at times
because they love Christianity, what it brings
to the city and the moral compass it brings,

14
but there isnt a direct relationship. Christian-
ity was the only one of the quadrants on the
city map that had an aspect of isolation on it.

We were saddened by that and asked what

could we do. The fire marshal who was in
charge of all disaster relief for the state of Cal-
ifornia at the time brought up getting a few
hundred churches to host disaster relief pro-
grams. He explained when they have a di-
saster churches are usually the first to help.
However, if they could understand how they
could be positioned for their community
to have community impact, it would bring
more church growth by just even hosting di-
saster relief. The reason behind it is, the av-
erage person should have so much food and
water stored up before a disaster happens in
the state, and 70-90% of people in the state
doesnt even know that. He went on to say
that they have no one to champion the cause
with them.

They do all these training and activation pro-

15
grams, but they need leadership to help them
get people to show up. Think of just that little
piece of it, and there was much more that they
gave us. They also talked to us about foster
care and other issues pressing the city.

As the church, Expressions58, there is so much

that we already do organically that it would
be really easy to add other programs. There
are mutual intersections between the city
and the church that would create easy part-
nerships from what we saw just in that one
meeting alone. So over the next few years,
we let a couple of those ideas play out, to the
point where we became a champion to local
churches to help be a part of the city.

What is really interesting is that we were a

very small church. We have about 600-700
people now, and only about 200 people at
the time. We were championing the mes-
sage from the city to hundreds of churches,
really seeking to get their involvement with
the various needs and programs to city had.

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We hosted an anti-human trafficking out-
reach that for a number of years was one of
the main ones in our city. The outreach was
called Night Light, and we would teach peo-
ple how to look for human trafficking. We
worked with local FBI force and the local po-
lice force to teach the average person to look
for signs of human trafficking so that they
could report it. Even being aware of human
trafficking is a community responsibility. We
cant end the issue of human trafficking if we
dont know how to see it or report it. We
ended up making numerous reports that led
to many successful arrests of captors, and free-
doms for women.

All of that happened because we chose not to

simply look at what we wanted to build in our
vision, but since the city was our vision we
needed to hear their vision. Solomons rule is
a great illustration of being a people who hear
from God and have Gentiles running to us.
Isaiah 60 is directly referring to Solomon, his
rule as king, and is prophesying similar lan-

17
guage of what happened to Solomon. Many
theologians believe that Isaiah was directly
referencing Solomons life and that is what
Israel is going to look like in the days ahead.
We have been grafted into that true gospel.

Solomon had every king or every kings am-

bassador come and watch just how he ruled
and reigned. They made pilgrimages to see
how he divided justice, especially though var-
ious hardships that would happen at different
times through his reign. They also wanted to
see how he built. Not only in the natural sense
of construction, but how he built his govern-
mental system.

Even the Queen of Sheba, who was the most

powerful woman leader in the world at that
time, went to visit Solomon. When she met
him, she told him that she knew God was with
him because God favored him and the people
of Israel so much. Many commentators be-
lieved she converted to Judaism after watch-
ing how Solomon ruled and reigned. She

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brought a significant portion of her wealth as
an offering to Solomon and the Jewish peo-
ple because she was so impressed that God
was with them. The proof that God was with
them was the wisdom and the level of insight
that was coming out of Solomon concerning
how to reign. We know that what she per-
ceived as intuition and wisdom was actually
revelation and understanding of Gods heart.

I believe that we are going to come to a place

where we start to have understanding, wis-
dom, and revelation from Gods heart con-
cerning not only how to do church, but how
to influence and affect Gods original plan in
the world around us. This means we will be-
come life coaches, counselors, therapists and
people who are great advisors leadership and
rulership level people around the world. For
the last eight or nine years, I have spent time
developing leaders, meeting with leaders, and
advising leaders, even at the presidential level
in various nations. It is amazing how recep-
tive people are, even if they are of different

19
religions and mentality. When truth comes,
it is palatable to any religion, group or back-
ground. We are not accountable for how
they use that wisdom. However, immediately
there is a heart connected when the Spirit of
Truth comes, and we share in a fellowship of
His truth together. When that happens, it is a
wonderful thing.

I have seen that happen with corporate lead-

ers in multi-billion dollar companies, and
those in the entertainment industry where I
have spent time with, consulted and prophet-
ically ministered to people. Some of them in
the highest levels of society, and others in the
slums of different nations. Truth works either
way and is transformative when it comes with
the Spirit that is from God. Words of wisdom,
words of revelation and words of knowledge
are those prophetic truths, those now words.
People need to know what God is thinking
about them because that knowledge moves
them into His plan.

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 Isaiah 60:1-3 is such a great scripture because
it shows that the result of the glory of God be-
ing upon you is that leaders from around the
world begin to look at you and ask, Wait,
what has happened to you because I need all
kinds of solutions, ingenuity, innovation.
Due to the glory of God on you, you have all
of that.

Gentiles come from afar not only because you

have light, but that light of God produces the
substance of Gods mercy, planning, love, and
light. Also, leaders come because they want
to see how you are doing it. They want to see

I believe that we are going to come

to a place where we start to have
understanding, wisdom, and
revelation from Gods heart concerning
not only how to do church, but how to
influence and affect Gods original
plan in the world around us.
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what is different with you and hear the wis-
dom thats coming from you. This could be
on the lowest level. Yes, I have talked about
a huge level example of presidents and mov-
ie stars. Even on the lowest level of everyday
life, like where we work, that we are would
become a light. When people ask us for ad-
vice and they are thinking about two different
solutions we can shine light over a whole new
solution that they never thought of. Revela-
tion is one of the deciding factors that brings
that level of connection.

Shawn, the first time you see Holy Spirit

poured out on flesh wasnt to preach or even
prophesy. The first time you see Holy Spirit
poured out on a company of people is in Exo-
dus 35 when God pours out Holy Spirit on Be-
zalel to design artistic works, cut jewelry and
other works of artistic craftsmanship. How do
you see the anointing flowing through people
to write plays, or create art that changes the
conversation?

22
I love what you are saying because you are
preaching my message. I say the exact same
thing about Aholiab and Bezalel how the Spir-
it of God comes on them so they can create
everything that would allow people to con-
nect with God through the Temple of God.
When you go to the temple, you are going to
a connection place where people can be pres-
ent with God in their own heart and mind.

Now we are the temple in the New Testa-

ment, so a great resource of the Spirit of God
comes and builds on us so that we can build
the culture around us.

I love the question, because it makes you

look at people and ask how are they building
so that the effort is kingdom oriented. The
power of a story or the power of something
within the arts preaches in a way similar to a
picture speaking a thousand works.

If one movie has a message of healing or hope

in it, can preach a thousand sermons to some-
ones life or be like ten counseling sessions for

23
them. It can be like five life coaching sessions
teaching them how to live or be.

There is a new movie out called Hacksaw

Ridge, by Mel Gibson. The movie is a true
story based on a very celebrated Seventh-Day
Adventist, who joined the army but doesnt
believe in shooting or killing people. So this
young man enters the medical profession be-
cause he wanted to do something for his peo-
ple, and he felt the call from God to do some-
thing to at least help the people involved in
the war. The movie is very violent, but beau-
tiful in that it shows him leaning into God so
he could continually get one more person off
the battlefield. When you are watching it, es-
pecially as a man, you are left thinking, God
help me be that person that has faith to do im-
possible things where everyone else might be
dying around me. Even when I was watch-
ing it, I felt inspired to be that type of person.
So, even if the movie isnt inspirational, may-
be it helps you grieve over certain things.

24
A movie that helped me grieve through some
things in a way I didnt expect was the movie
The Shack. By the time this interview is out
the movie should be released to the public, but
when I watched it, I was able to connect with
God to grieve over things that I would have
never connected to Him in the first place.

Those are just two faith-based movies. Let

alone that we have friends who are weav-
ing biblical themes into television series and
movies that are very secular. An example is
Spider-Man 3 in which the Sandmans whole
character and story line is one of true forgive-
ness and release. Many directors in Hollywood
are trying to show the virtues of forgiveness
through many of our television shows and
movies by highlighting what it looks like to
forgive and what it looks like to end up in
a place of bitterness by refusing to forgive.
These directors will show the contrast be-
tween having an open heart and the conse-
quences of not keeping your heart open in
forgiveness. We are seeing the distinction of

25
people living really ugly and good decisions
on purpose as a way of reinforcing to human-
ity what happens when you get trapped in
bitterness and isolation as opposed to living a
life where your heart is open and you forgive
yourself. Also, it is beautiful for us to watch
friends of ours who are portraying kingdom
values and messages consistently in a way
thats affecting tens of millions of people. The
idea that seventy million people can watch a
movie opening day weekend and see the same
thing be affected by the same thing, and all be
connected by the same message is powerful.

I just feel that God is going to release even

more projects in the future that connect hu-
manity to some of the ideas of Gods orig-
inal value for them. I believe it will happen
through movies, music and songs that come
over an entire generation where we all cele-
brate. It is just something that comes over us
that we wouldnt have been able to enter into
without that pop-culture message.

26
Shawn, I want to respect your time and ask
your one more question. In Hebrews 10:22
it talks about coming to God with our hearts
sprinkled with the blood of Jesus to cleanse
our hearts of an evil conscience, and our bod-
ies washed with the pure word. It also talks
in another place of the fresh water coming
from our mouth when we speak. I want to
ask what it means for you as part of cultural
transformation to wash our cities by proph-
esying over them what God says about them
instead of what the media or statistics say?
What does it mean for you to get the heart
of God for a city and wash that city with the
prophetic word?

I love that, I mean, its such an exciting con-

cept right? I think it is much simpler than we
think. Every definable inheritance of Jesus is
a city, region, nation or people group. Even
in the Old Testament, God told people that
He would give them cities, and talked about
those cities. In the book of Revelation, Jesus
speaks to the seven churches in the seven cit-

27
 ies. Jesus is always inheriting a city, so I be-
lieve that cities are important.

When your city takes you seriously

and sees you as a giver, not just a taker,
they are more inclined to involve you
in more levels of favor and authority.

However, I think there are very few people

who understand their individual role in their
city. Whether you work in a coffee shop, or
whether you have authority in a real way in
your city, you are still someone who can rep-
resent the value of what God wants to do in
your city. I have a friend who is a fine artist
up in Oregon. One day when he was in the
spirit he began to see bronze sculptures that
were supposed to be built to remind the city
of its identity. About the same time, the city
was looking to create some art. Every city has
a budget towards the arts. In some cities, up
to ten percent of every building built has an
arts budget requirement built into it. It is cra-

28
zy how much art goes into buildings. Some
of the art is the architecture itself while some
is actually fine arts.

Well, my buddy found out about this at the

right time and right place that the city was
looking for someone to build some monu-
ments to brand the identity and core values of
their city. My friend went to the city and re-
quested to be able to present some drawings.
The city thought it would be a really fun if
one of their resident fine artists that was do-
ing well would have a role to play with creat-
ing the monument.

He ended up making over twelve monu-

ments, all beautiful, and many of them incor-
porated eagles due to the amount of eagles
in the region. If you drive around the city,
you will end up driving past all of his mon-
uments. Each one of the monuments plays a
part in taking you through a journey around
the city.

That is a minor way of influencing a city, but

29
I have heard of others that are more ethere-
al or philosophical. One of our friends is a
House of Prayer leader in Washington state.
Well, he has faithfully been praying over
the identity of his city and asking city offi-
cials how he could pray for the city and city
leaders. The city leaders didnt respond that
much, but he was simply trying to be present
with the leaders and let them know what he
was praying for. Well, a building had opened
up when the bar that occupied the space was
closed down suddenly by the police force.
They didnt know the details as to why it was
closed. The city had talked about letting my
friend take over this building for their House
of Prayer because they needed a permanent
space. When they actually got in the build-
ing, my buddy found tunnels where children
had been trafficked for prostitution in this
club. They eventually opened up those areas
to be private prayer rooms, they redeemed
the whole building and the city is now part
of the story. The city is really proud of it, es-
pecially in regards to the redemption there.

30
So redeeming the identity of a city could be
something as simple as redeeming a building
or physical space for the city.

Another example that I love is what Bethel

does for the city of Redding in California.
Their Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry
picks up the trash all over the city and saves
the city over almost one or two million dol-
lars by doing trash pick up. How cool is that
right? I mean, if you save a city over a million
or two million dollars, you are automatically
on their grid, and they will think about you
in your favor.

When you do favors, and you are known as

the one who does favors, not just for your
benefit, but because you believe in the city
you are contributing in, it causes your city to
take you more seriously.

When your city takes you seriously and sees

you as a giver, not just a taker, they are more
inclined to involve you in more levels of fa-
vor and authority. Ive seen this in a number

31
of places, and I believe that we are going to
be seeing it more and more as more Chris-
tians run for office. More Christians are say-
ing they feel called to run for public office,
which is new. In the past, there has been this
separation between church and state. It is re-
ally beautiful to see Christians not only desire
to speak into their city but become part of
governing their city to have a voice in a real
contributory way.

32
SHAWN BOLZ is an author, a TV host (see him on
season four of Dreams & Mysteries on Daystar!) spir-
itual adviser, producer, and minister. He is passionate
about seeing individuals and groups learn how to be
the most connected, best version of themselves through
their relationship with God. Shawn has been a pioneer
in ministry, including the prophetic movement, since
he was in his teens. His focus on having a genuine re-
lationship with God, creativity through entertainment
& social justice have brought him around the world to
meet with churches, CEOs, entertainers, and world
leaders. Shawns style of speaking & coaching, accom-
panied with his unique expert perspective on the issues
of love, creativity and justice, have kept his calendar
full. Shawn lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Cherie
and daughters, Harper and Hartley. He is an author of
several books including best selling Translating God
& Keys to Heavens Economy. Shawn Bolz is also the
founding pastor of Expression58 Christian Ministries,
a ministry focused on the entertainment industry and
the poor in Los Angeles California where he lives with
his wife, Cherie and their two daughters.
ANTHONY COLSON is the Publisher/Editor In
Chief of Reclaimd Magazine: a magazine for a genera-
tion in revival. To learn more, visit reclaimdmag.com