Photography ace Weber on the art of storytelling; two teary-eyed translators
Dan Weber will go for a week without showering to get a good story.
The video producer travels far and often to update the world church on its mission projects, sometimes to places well off the beaten path.
But whether traveling to urban settings or rural locales, Weber brings back stories that inspire and educate church members about the importance of mission, both for financial support and in understanding the church’s world mission. The tales are told in various ways and time lengths on the quarterly Adventist Mission DVD. Some have described it as one of the most well-produced video resources in the denomination.
Though it’s mailed free to every church in some countries and to all world church administration offices, many Adventist Church members still don’t know about it.
Weber, 40, who holds a photography degree from the church’s Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, said he works not only to inspire church members who view the Adventist Mission DVD, but also future video producers and other storytellers who will one day work for the church. He reflects on capturing stories, the church’s status in other countries and promoting his profession within the church in the following excerpts from a recent interview.
Adventist News Network: How do you explain your job, in a nutshell?
Dan Weber: I told my boss I’m changing my job title. I’m not a video producer anymore, I’m a ... what did I call myself? A “digital anthromissiologist.” It’s a combination. I’m a digital anthropologist with an understanding of missiology. Does that make sense? To do this job, you have to understand four things: you have to understand story telling, you have to understand technical aspects of how to tell a good story, you have to try to understand the culture that you are observing, and then you have to understand missions and the role that plays in the church. When you combine all those together then you have a successful story.
ANN: What was one of your favorite stories to tell?
Weber: I got to go to a prison in Moldova. There they call it a life detention center—they don’t believe in capital punishment there so if you are convicted of a heinous crime, you go to jail for the rest of your life. So I went to one of these prisons and out of the 80 prisoners, several of them have become Adventist. I got to worship with them inside a small cell. You can be kind of skeptical about prisoners that convert because they might be trying to get out early. But these guys aren’t getting out at all. They have not converted to Adventism to try to gain favor or to get an early release. In fact, it hasn’t benefited them because often times they are ostracized for their beliefs. Their faith is very strong.
ANN: What’s coming up on the Adventist Mission DVD for the rest of the year?
Weber: On the current [third quarter] one we go to a school reaching out to Native Americans in Arizona. We go to kind of a church plant outside of Pittsburgh, a town where the Adventist Church basically had no presence whatsoever. We go to Haiti. We do a story on Aldergove Adventist Church in British Columbia and their community outreach program where they took a $10,000 investment and turned it into a community investment of $170,000.
ANN: What about next quarter?
Weber: We’ll go to Taiwan, Mongolia, Korea and Japan.
ANN: What’s happening with the church there?
Weber: Taiwan is a cool place. The offering there is going toward establishing Hope Channel China. They have a small studio set up and they’re creating programming. And Mongolia is a cool story because the church there is really young—the first person was baptized there in 1993. You go to the churches and it’s a lot of young people and that’s kind of nice to see because you go to North America or Japan and you don’t see that. But Mongolia is still going through some growing pains. It’s still a mission field.
ANN: Are all your travels as inspiring?
Weber: Unfortunately it’s a misconception that we’re doing well everywhere around the world. We are in some areas, but there are areas where the church as a whole isn’t doing well at all. You know, the 10/40 Window [Northern Africa to the East Coast of Asia] where less than one percent of the population is Christian, let alone Adventist. But yet, you see the people that are there working and their dedication and their faith and their commitment. That is inspiring.
ANN: You work at the Adventist Church world headquarters, yet you’re not a pastor. How did that happen?
Weber: I get asked that question almost every time I go on a trip. “What do you mean you are not a pastor, don’t you have to be a pastor to work at the [world church headquarters]?” And I say “No.” They want to know what I am. I say, “I am a trained professional communicator.”
ANN: Could a pastor do your job?
Weber: I have 18 years of experience picking up cameras and going all over the world to shoot pictures. If a pastor had that kind of experience then they could do my job. I think we shouldn’t put someone in a position just because they are a pastor. I think you should put someone in a position because God has given them a talent and a skill. I really feel that God calls us all to use the talents that He has given us to help His work ... whether you work for the church or not.
ANN: How can we encourage more church members and employees to train in communication?
Weber: First of all they have to have a passion for it, and then I think they have to be willing to learn from others. We have to get the church to recognize that this type of job is important. Storytelling is a powerful way of communicating. I’m glad the [world church headquarters] has done that. What I wish is that local leadership in many parts of the world would understand the power of telling stories. We need every church member involved and to do that we need to inspire them with stories of things that are working well for the church.
ANN: You started out as a still photographer. Is that an important first step before transferring to video?
Weber: You know, some of the best camera people I have ever met have all started out as still photographers and I really think it is a natural progression because you start off learning how to compose a shot as a still photographer, you tell a story in one picture. When you move to video you’re learning to tell a story through a sequence of pictures.
ANN: What keeps you motivated?
Weber: Every time I pick up a camera bag and I get on a plane and go someplace it’s like I’m right out of school again. I know I’m going to experience something new, it’s the coolest feeling.
ANN: What was one of the toughest stories to tell?
Weber: Let’s see ... yeah, I was in Phnom Penh [in Cambodia] and one of the small groups the Adventist Church is focusing on is people who are HIV positive. A lot of them are immigrants from Vietnam and they live in slum areas. We met a woman who became an Adventist after she found out she was HIV positive. She had been in the hospital and the doctor sent her home to die. Her mother was converted and started sharing her faith with her. Her health has gotten a lot better and when I met her you couldn’t tell that she was someone who was going to die. What was inspiring to me is the fact that she has opened up her small room and does bible studies in there and we got to film that. Here is someone who has a life-threatening illness, but she’s not letting it affect her life and she is moving on and sharing her faith the best that she can. When we finished the interview I looked over at the [local church president and executive secretary] who were translating for me and they were both just bawling, tears were just running down their face because they were so moved by this woman’s story. That was hard. My challenge is always to take that kind of a story and share it in such a way that emotion is going to come through.