Executive Producer/Director Mick Richards shares the vision of Building a Difference and premieres teasers of new documentary films in Times Square, NYC.
Building a Difference Exec. Producer/Director Mick Richards shared the stage with missions and ministry leaders in Times Square, Saturday June 18th, 2022, to kickoff a summer of outreach during the Jesus Week: Summer of Transformation concert celebration. Richards, who is also the Executive Director of the Jesus Week Movement, helped emcee the massive event reaching over 10,000 people throughout a 6-hour concert.
At various times during the event, Richards rallied the audience, shared the vision of the Jesus Week movement, inspired people with an extremely moving testimony of his life, introduced the Building as Difference series and premiered special previews of a NYC missions series currently in production in NYC. The film series will be released in its own complete volume of shows as a part of Building a Difference.
Jesus Week Concert Celebration
Premier of “Prayer Park” in Times Square
“This event was a powerful celebration of the diversity of creative outreach events that will happen all summer long throughout the NY Metro area during Jesus Week: Summer of Transformation,” Richards explains. “It was six hours of incredible music with extraordinary leaders and artists sharing love and encouragement to over ten thousand people in the heart of New York City.”
Several previews from the series were shown throughout the concert event causing both excitement and emotional responses from a standing-room only crowd. One of the most moving was “Prayer Park,” a feature about McPherson Square in Philadelphia, known as “Needle Park” and one of the worst drug haven parks in the United States. The feature told a very real story of what happened during a week-long strategy to help bring complete transformation into the park.
Richards was also able to share his story with the Times Square audience. “One of the biggest moments for me personally was sharing my own testimony of how God took someone once living in the complete depression and darkness of addiction, believed to have been completely abandoned in the universe without purpose, and then breathed life and total transformation into my soul. He then took me out of a destructive mess to embark on a crazy adventure throughout the world, studying creative mission movements and the heart of those who sacrifice their lives to help bring real transformation to people in desperate need.
“What I discovered as a result not only woke me up, but it saved my life and put me on an indescribable path so desperately needed to put my own heart back together. That complete journey is reflected throughout the entire series of Building a Difference. Its purpose is to help give the audience a chance to experience something just as powerful in their own lives.”
Richards had another surprise for the audience of Times Square. As he was sharing the journey of how Building a Difference got all the way to New York City, he brought out “Uncle Dave,” as he is known as the humorous and beloved character on the series. David Vartanian is also a Co-Exec. Producer and Co-Founding member, which is why the crowd cheered when Richards explained that he was the reason the series got its start on TBN (Trinity Broadcasting Network) to premiere for the first time before a worldwide audience.
Mick Richards honors “Uncle Dave”
Premier of “Prayer Park” in Times Square
Jesus Week: Summer of Transformation is partnering with hundreds of organizations to launch creative outreaches all throughout the NY Metro during the summer of 2022. “It is a saturation to transformation movement that unites organizations and churches to a single cause unlike I have ever seen,” explains Richards. “Any organization or ministry that will register a creative initiative in their neighborhood will receive thousands of free outreach resources for their event. All they have to do is go out into their communities and be as creative as possible.”
Building a Difference has been filming in NYC for about five years. “We have been studying creative missions movements and city transformation strategies for a new series,” explains Richards. “And we are anticipating that this will be one of the most powerful of stories we have ever shared with our audience.”
To learn more about the film series, visit: BuildingaDifference
To learn more about the Jesus Week Movement, visit: JesusWeekUSA.org.
To see samples of videos and media, visit: JesusWeekUSA.org/medialibrary
