The Christian executive producer behind the hit TV show doesn't see it as evangelistic, but believes it can open the way to faith.
The cast and crew of When Calls the Heart are currently shooting season seven of the Hallmark Channel show in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The program's annual two-hour Christmas movie will launch that next season on December 25th, with the other episodes to follow in the new year.
The prairie romance regularly generates an audience of three million and has a die-hard core of 500,000 fans known as Hearties. So what's the secret behind the show? In an interview with the Greenlines Podcast, co-executive producer Brian Bird claims it's the acronym H.E.R., which stands for HUMOR, EMOTION and ROMANCE.
Plenty of all that in every episode and it helps advance what Bird and partner Michael Landon Jr. want to do: "bring faith, hope and love to the marketplace." Both men are Believers and feel that even though this is a secular show, it is, as Bird's former pastor - Rick Warren - put it, "breaking down barriers in our culture." Bird says that opens people up to the message of the Gospel.
"My personal goal is to stir up soul cravings in people who watch our show, and if we're doing our job, God will do the rest."
Amen to that! Bird covers a lot of ground in his interview, both about faith and the show. Among points of interest for Hearties - his view of former cast member Lori Loughlin, who departed after her well-publicized legal troubles, some pending nuptials in this coming season and insight into the spin-off show When Hope Calls. We recommend you give it a listen via this link.