We recently connected with Nathaniel Mervar and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Nathaniel thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

The year was 2016 and I found myself as a freshly-graduated student from high school. Homeschool high school, I might add—with an ambition to turn my hobby for film into a business—Because of Jesus Films.

Throughout high school I had entered several online stop-motion contests and had done quite well. I even entered one of those films, “Two Friends, Two Different Destines,” into a film festival and won a couple of awards. Now however, I was ready to launch into the live-action genre.

In December of 2016, Because of Jesus Films created the pilot episode of the “Agent 316” Series for an online film contest. The short didn’t win anything, but I had my first live-action film completed and an audacious idea to turn this short into a ten-episode series.

It wasn’t until 2018 that I revisited the idea. Even then, I was hesitant to launch into such a time-consuming, resource-draining endeavor with my crew, which was comprised of my four siblings.
My parents however, were quite supportive of this film project. They stated this could be the one time in my life I could attempt something of this magnitude with all my siblings and I wouldn’t regret the investment.

With this nudge, cameras started rolling in 2018-2019 for the “Agent 316” series. Eight episodes later, Because of Jesus Films was on the verge of completing this project, but life happened and Episode 10 was shelved for five years. However, we had promised ten-episodes and we meant to deliver. Thus, cameras began rolling once more in 2024-2025 to bring the series to fruition.

Now, as the summer of 2025 rapidly approaches, the Lord has seen fit to start guiding us five siblings into different directions as we press on in life.

While the “Agent 316” series never made the financial return I hoped it would, the memories made and the lessons learned with my siblings were priceless! As I go through life, I am learning the most important things in life, well, they aren’t things.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

In my mind, this journey into film started when I was about fourteen years of age. After watching a stop-motion film from another home school family, I realized I could take my room full of Playmobil® figures and turn them into movies of my own. But then again, I was involved in drama for many years before this with “The Academy of Arts.” Also, from a young age I have always been writing down stories or making up stories in my head. My imagination was quite vivid as a child and I was an avid historical fiction reader. Add in some artistic abilities, an eye to detail—and film was a natural place for those gifts to flourish.

At the heart of my filmmaking endeavors is my desire as a Christian to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is no secret that entertainment is front and center in today’s technological era.

To quote the Hay’s Code of 1930, entertainment “enters intimately into the lives of men and women and affects them closely; it occupies their minds and affections during leisure hours; and ultimately touches the whole of their lives.”

Understanding this, Because of Jesus Films seeks to use the power of cinema to proclaim a biblical Christian worldview in a compelling and truth-centered format.

As a Christian, the gospel is what I aim at to drive my every day life. For the Bible teaches me there is a God who has revealed Himself in His Word. In this book, I find that God has a moral standard I am called to live up to. Yet, I fall miserably short of that standard. He tells me in His Word that taking His name in vain, stealing, lying, hatred which is as murder in His sight, lust which is as adultery in His sight, are all sins that will drag my soul down to eternity in Hell. Yet, He sent His Son to live the perfect life I could not live, die on the cross for my sins and rose Him to life again. All who repent of their sins, that is, turn from them, and put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved! This is the grand truth I desire to be at the heart of my films.

While many film companies claim to be “family-friendly,” I am proud to say that our content is truly wholesome. No innuendoes, no taking God’s name in vain, no foul language, no gore, just good old-fashioned story-telling with a dash of adventure, humor and a whole lot of truth! After all, when you have five siblings behind the wheel of a film company called Because of Jesus Films, family-friendly should be a given!

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

There are bigger things to live for than simply making a paycheck. Now, don’t get me wrong, paychecks are necessary to keep a business alive! For that matter, paychecks are necessary to keep the creative alive in putting food on the table.

However, I have watched many a creative sacrifice their beliefs and vision to simply scale up their business. When they reach that pinnacle financially where they hoped to create content dreamt of—their path is strewn with things once valued that were sacrificed in order to take the next step. Thus, at the pinnacle of the journey, the very messages they hoped to proclaim were discarded to reach the “mountain of success.”

Because of Jesus Films has been a side business for nearly ten years. This is the first year we might turn a small profit. I have worked other jobs that have paid the bills while this has remained a passion project. I am proud of the content we have created. We have stayed true to our commitment to biblical values and the proclamation of the gospel.

This creative journey hasn’t culminated in the full-time business I dreamt of about a decade ago. But we have never deviated from our mission and that to me is success, no matter where the dollar sign falls!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

There is something invigorating about coming up with a story idea, writing it down and then walking through the entire process of directing, filming, acting and editing—taking it all the way to the delivery of the final product.

It is an exhausting journey, but always rewarding at the finish line!

I have heard it said anything worth doing in life is hard; I wholeheartedly agree! Embrace the hard and you won’t be disappointed in the long run.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://BecauseofJesusFilms.com