The Jesus Film Project in San Clemente plans to shutter its local operations and move some workers to Florida to be closer to its parent.
The Orange County operation distributes the film “Jesus,” a two-hour docudrama about the life of Christ based on the Gospel of Luke.
It employs 180 people in San Clemente. About 60 will relocate to Orlando, Fla., where parent Campus Crusade for Christ International has its headquarters, said Tom Axelson, the group’s director of administration and human resources.
The Jesus Film Project already has an office there.
The rest of the workers will be laid off or join other Campus Crusade ministries in Southern California, Axelson said.
“We gave them all an opportunity to go,” he said. “People are not excited about leaving Southern California.”
The Jesus Film Project’s headquarters has been at a 40,000-square-foot office in San Clemente since 1994.
“We are grateful to the San Clemente community for the support they have shown our ministry throughout the past two decades,” said Executive Director Jim Green, who is moving to Orlando.
The project’s yearly budget is about $35 million, with the bulk going to promote the “Jesus” film.
The unit is making the move in phases and expects to be finished by next summer, Axelson said.
About 25 of the workers who are transferring to Florida already have made the move, he said.
The Jesus Film Project funded the production of the film “Jesus,” which was released in 1979 by Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., Axelson said. All film production was done out of its Orlando office, he said.
The San Clemente office helps distribute the film, which has been translated into some 900 languages since its release, including Swahili and Japanese, he said. The ministry’s goal is to eventually translate the film into 1,830 languages.
The ministry said the film has been seen in every country in the world.
The Jesus Film Project’s San Clemente operation coordinates with missionaries and Christian agencies around the world, which have teams of people that go into villages and show the film, Axelson said.
The group also distributes other products including DVDs such as “Jesus: Fact or Fiction?” and “The Story of Jesus For Children.” Warner Bros. retains the rights for showing the film on TV in the U.S.
