The popular Hollywood actress, who is best known for her roles in family-friendly rom-coms on Hallmark and Great American Family, says her Christian faith is the foundation of her life. Jen Lilley has appeared in some 18 Christmas movies, including two new ones this year: Great American Family's A Little Women's Christmas (Nov. 23) and Hulu's Operation Mistletoe, which is currently streaming. She's also heading a new innovative crowdfunding company, Raise the Reel, which offers fans the opportunity to be extras in a new rom-com movie, Holiday Hearts, shooting next year.
Lilley isn't shy about her faith.
"I could talk about Jesus all day long," Lilley told Crosswalk Headlines.
Lilley grew up in a Catholic church but doubted God at a young age and didn't know what she believed about faith. Her spiritual journey took a turn at age nine when her parents left their Catholic church for a contemporary Protestant one.
"They're clapping their hands, and they're raising their hands in worship, which, for a little girl who was Catholic, [I was thinking,] 'What's going on?' And so it was really lively and fun."
In the new church's Sunday School, she said, she learned about the Old Testament story of Elijah, and was surprised to learn that Elijah received the Holy Spirit.
"I just remember being so awestruck that Elijah in the Old Testament had the Holy Spirit," she said. "Because I never realized as a young child that outside of Moses and Jesus and the 12 disciples, I didn't know that people had the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, and how much more so can you have the Holy Spirit in the New Testament?
"I was so jazzed as a nine-year-old that I went home, and I was like, 'What does this Book say?'" she said of Scripture.
She marked through her Bible with a yellow marker, reading first about Elijah and then Elisha.
"And so then I was like, 'What else does this book say?' And so I spent the entire summer of turning nine to 10, I read my whole Bible cover to cover."
Her friends would come to her house and ask her to ride bikes.
"And I'd be like, 'I can't. I'm in Leviticus -- I'm never getting out of it,'" she told Crosswalk Headlines, laughing.
"I read the whole Bible at a young age, and then I just was pretty on fire ever since," she said. "And I just really love Jesus. I love the Holy Spirit. I know that He is still active today. You know, I've seen God heal, I've seen miracles. I've seen cancer disappear; I've seen people get out of wheelchairs."
Lilley's new company, Raise the Reel, is a new fundraising model for movies that gives fans the chance to visit the set and even be an extra. The company's first movie, Holiday Hearts, will begin shooting next year. The main roles, she said, involve well-known talent.
Crowdfunding is needed, she said, because the current movie-making model is broken.
"It gives people the chance not only to help fund movies but to actually be part of the filmmaking process," she said. "People can be in a Christmas movie with me."
Photo Credit: ©Facebook/Jen Lilley
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.