Voices of God: top celebrities, artists and clergy come together to record the Bible

THIRTEEN years ago, God prepared Blair Underwood for a role he didn't know he would have to face again. It was 13 years ago when Underwood co-produced, directed and starred in the short film The Second Coming, where he portrayed Jesus Christ. Little did he know that project was preparation for the second time he would have to take on the role of Jesus. More than 10 years after The Second Coming, he was asked to record the voice of Jesus in the dramatized audio recording, Inspired By ... The Bible Experience.

"I realized in the first 10 to 15 minutes of the recording [for The Bible Experience] that it wasn't about whatever the life of that project [The Second Coming] was, it was now completely about putting me in preparation for this project because this is much more extensive, it's much more expansive," says Underwood. "It's all of Jesus' words as far as we Know, or what's been documented at least in the Bible."

A project truly of Biblical proportions, Inspired By ... The Bible Experience is a dramatized audio recording of the entire Bible, filled with compelling music, state-of-the-art sound effects and engineering that are used to bring the word of God to life. An all-star cast of more than 200 African-American celebrities, musicians, notable personalities, renowned and ordained clergy dramatize all 368 characters in the 66 books of the Bible. "The Bible Experience is a very unique product because I describe it as a cinematic product inside an audio format," says Louis (Buster) Brown, Grammy Award-winning music producer and one of the executive producers for the project. "We ingest things that happen in the past and even in this world based on our sensibility," explains Ron Belk, new media and technology entrepreneur who is also an executive producer for the project. "What we do with the sound design is we put you in that scene and we give it to you so your brain cannot desensitize it, because it's there and the environment supports it."

One recording session that was particularly moving for many involved in the project included the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. "The first time he [Underwood] opened his mouth, you believed that Jesus was in the room," says veteran actor/director Chip Hurd, who served as senior director for the project. "If ever there was an anointing to give him the gentleness of Jesus, the authority of Christ and the humility of the son of God, it was like all being anointed and given to him every time he opened his mouth," says Hurd.

With more than 1,500 recording hours logged, production on The Bible Experience began in December 2005 and production on the New Testament concluded last June. The New Testament is scheduled for release in mid-October, while production on the Old Testament is still underway and is scheduled for release in fall 2007.

Often working 17-hour days, seven days a week, the project was a true labor of love for many involved, particularly the production staff. In addition to Brown, Belk and Hurd, television/film producer Kyle Bowser and Emmy Award-winning casting director Robi Reed also served as the executive producers for The Bible Experience. "The day we started I tried to look down the road and think 'Oh, my God how are we ever going to do this?,'" says Hurd. "Yet every single day [of recording] was full of joy, new discovery, new excitement, and the common denominator was we all loved God."

The brainchild behind the project is Kyle Bowser, who about three and a half years ago purchased an audio Bible on Christmas Eve that he found uninspiring. The audio Bible had about 65 discs, but Bowser only fully listened to about three discs. "After listening to those first couple of discs and feeling that sense of disappointment, I started thinking, 'How can I make it more engaging, more exciting and more interesting to listen to?'" he says.

Bowser had already been talking with friend Ron Belk about a new technology, application that Belk created, and how they could take entertainment content and make it available through that new technology. They started to hash out the different elements that would be needed to not only re-energize the audio Bible, but also attract people to the product. The key elements would involve well-known entertainers and compelling music, which is why Bowser and Belk approached Reed and Brown. In the process of working on The Bible Experience, the four executive producers came together to form the company Inspired By Media Group in hopes of combining their natural talents and gifts to be used for the glory, of God. "We formed Inspired By Media Group basically off the idea of The Bible Experience. We needed to have a company that would kind of focus its energies on creating urban faith-based and healthy-family-lifestyle content" says Brown. "And Inspired By Media Group is the apparatus by which we do that."

The Bible Experience initially began as a smaller project. "We submitted to our publisher a list of 20 celebrities and our deal was that we guaranteed that we would have five of those 20 celebrities," says Belk. "As this project began to take shape and as we began to put calls out, overnight there was a tidal wave of inbound calls front people saying they had to be a part of it."