Video series encourages ‘blue-collar saints’

Tim Jeffries makes no bones about it: We’re all sinners.

“God willing, we all aspire to become saints. But the sinner comes first. God doesn’t desire for it to come first, but that’s our broken humanity,” said Jeffries who is executive producer and host of “Sinners and Saints,” an online video series that is now shooting its third season.

The businessman and Knight of Malta calls himself a sinner, hopefully on the way to becoming a “blue-collar saint.” He said that many times people look at an icon or statue of a saint and they seem too perfect and too far away. But many saints were some of the greatest sinners before they found their way, such as Augustine of Hippo and Ignatius of Loyola.

They were “hall of fame sinners who became saints. So, the premise of the program is to help people understand that sainthood, humble, imperfect, blue-collar sainthood, is available to them,” Jeffries said.

To help people understand that, the program has interviewed notable people as well as “folks just down the street from you.”

The show started in a studio, but now often films in a bar with a live audience, according to Joe Reynolds, producer of the series. That bears fruit for the viewers because they can see everyday people experience the same things in their lives.

“We’ve touched on alcoholism. We’ve touched on chastity, loss of a loved one. Things that sometimes perhaps, and I think Tim would agree, sometimes we just need somebody to hear that, to know that we’re not alone,” Reynolds said.

"[T]here’s so much beauty and love to be found when we share our suffering with others. And we do that in the program."

He said it is essential to have high production values for the show, despite the fact that sometimes people don’t demand or expect quality, because “well, it’s just a Catholic show.”

But Reynolds — who has been in sound and video production for more than 35 years, including live professional sports productions and the award-winning “Footprints of God” series — insists the team takes great pride in using the best people and equipment that the budget will afford. “It deserves that,” he said.

Jeffries, as host, said there have been times where he expects an interview to go in a certain direction and the conversation takes them elsewhere “because people are sharing their heart and they’re sharing their suffering. … You can’t script that.

“A lot of times when people suffer, body, mind and soul, I think there’s a tendency to feel alone, right? But there’s so much beauty and love to be found when we share our suffering with others. And we do that in the program.”

Jeffries notes, with emotion in his voice, that when he was a freshman in college, his beloved older brother was murdered — one of the most gruesome murders in Colorado’s history. However, out of that tragedy, “something that plagued me and corrupted me because of the hatred of it all, the suffering of it all, actually positioned me to do one of the most Christ-like things in my life. And that is to forgive the murderers,” he said.

“The cross, the most feared and reviled and loathed symbol of the Roman Empire, (Jesus) made beautiful. My brother’s murder was horrible. I’m still haunted by it. But with God’s grace, you know, as a broken sinner, he presented me this opportunity to pull some beauty from it. And that is to forgive, which was only possible in concert with Jesus Christ,” Jeffries said.

“Sinners and Saints” airs a new episode every two weeks on Formed, a digital evangelization platform from the Augustine Institute. It is posted on YouTube a week after that. It’s also available online, along with other resources, at sinnerssaints.tv.

The series has won three Telly Awards, which honor excellence in video and television across all screens. The awards have come in the “Religion and Spirituality” and “Online Series, Shows and Segments” categories.

As Jeffries, Reynolds and their Arizona-based team begin taping season three, they hope to reach tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands. Although in its early days, the show has an aggregate audience across multiple platforms of about 1,000.

Gunty is associate publisher/editor of Catholic Review Media, the news outlet for the Archdiocese of Baltimore. This story was adapted from an interview on Catholic Review Radio. To listen to the radio episode, go to bit.ly/4qBgyh3.