“Go … and I am with you always.” – Jesus

Though there’s more to the words spoken by Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20, these are the key thoughts that capture my attention. This is the essence of what he says to his followers: “I’ve given you a mission, now go do it! But don’t ever forget – I’m always with you.”

These are significant words from the Bible to us, Andrew + Annette, and consequently, for 28:20 films. We’ve had countless people ask us, “What does 28:20 mean?” Most times we only get to say that it’s from the Bible, that it’s a reminder to us of who we are and what we’re about. Not often have we actually disclosed some other parts of the story:

• Prior to 2006, I was a youth pastor working with teenagers. Annette and I actually met while attending a Christian bible college in Missouri. Our plan after getting married was to “spend” our lives on others, serving in ministry.
• We loved youth ministry! In fact, any skill or ability we have with video came out of our years in youth ministry. But we felt God moving us to a different place to do something totally different.
• Things didn’t go as planned – such is life! But out of this time was born 28:20 films.
• From the start, we never intended for 28:20 to be a long-term vocation for us. But we saw such potential that we didn’t want to succeed in business, yet forget about our own personal calling in life, and the thing we were most passionate about. So to give ourselves a constant reminder, we named our business after this verse in Matthew 28. We never wanted this to go so far that it deterred us from ultimately doing what we believed God was calling us to do.

To be quite honest, we’ve never lost the deep desire to be involved in full-time, vocational ministry. We’ve been enjoying this business, and getting to know and work with SO many great people, from our clients to our fellow wedding vendors. But overall, it’s just not where our passion lies. I know most of you won’t be able to relate to us specifically on this, but I think you can at least understand the desire to pursue that which brings you passion in life. If you’ve been alive for any length of time, I’m sure you’ve come to find, as we have, that life is meant to be lived, to be spent -– not endured.

So after much prayer and consideration, we’ve decided that we’ll no longer be booking weddings with 28:20. For approximately the next six months, we will continue to work on our current and pending projects. After that, we’re just not able to mark out a clear path right now! But because the nature of our business keeps us “tied up” for 8 months to a year in advance, and because we feel God pointing us in this direction, we’ve decided to take this step of faith now. All we know for sure is that we’re taking steps to get back to where we belong, and ultimately trusting God to get us there.

Yes, I’m sure there will be many who will question our logic and sanity, or even criticize us for our decision to go this route. And that’s ok – some thought we were a little crazy when we started doing wedding video! But we’ve never looked at this business as our own. It’s always belonged to God – he gave us the vision for it, he built it (seriously, we’re just not that smart or talented!), and it’s his to take away. But we fully trust him as we chase after our dreams, in faith. And just like it says there in Matthew 28:20, we know that as we go, he’ll be with us every step of the way.

–andrew

P.S. Thank you to each and every client and vendor that’s made this journey so incredible! We’ll be in touch soon! ;)

[For an UPDATE on the Tates' new adventure, read a post from Andrew's personal blog here.]