Pornography is an epidemic in the nation right now, and the church is no exception. A national survey reveals that 68% of men in the church watch porn on a regular basis. Around 40 years ago, you had to go to a store to buy pornography, but the internet and smartphones have made it much more accessible.
That’s why Jeremy Wiles had a passion to put together a video project called the Conquer Series to combat this issue in the church. So far, the Conquer Series has helped at least a million men walk away free from pornography addiction—and Jeremy says that’s a conservative number!
Jeremy is a talented cinematographer, and you may know him from the various commercials and movies he has done. But in my opinion, the Conquer Series is one of his most impressive projects. With only $52,000, Jeremy created a video series so compelling that I was stunned at the quality. You can watch the trailer by clicking here.
I interviewed Jeremy recently for my “In Depth With Stephen Strang” podcast. You can listen to that episode right here or in this article. One of the things we discussed in that interview was how God led him to put together the Conquer Series through his production studio, Kingdom Works.
“The idea behind the project was we wanted to use the theme of war and battle as an analogy for sexual integrity, because it’s really a war,” Jeremy tells me. “Dr. Ted Roberts says that sexuality is the war, and pornography is the enemy’s nuclear payload. So Satan is devastating the church with pornography.”
But with only $52,000 to spend on filming, Jeremy needed God’s guidance on how to put this project together. Because of the war theme, he wanted to include a veteran who also owned a ministry. The problem was he didn’t know of anyone like that.
“It just happened that we came across Dr. Ted Roberts, former Marine fighter pilot in Vietnam, and he leads a ministry called Pure Desire,” Jeremy says. “So I saw God’s fingerprints on that the entire time as we were in production.”
With God’s help, Jeremy stretched his shoestring budget out to cover six or more hours of content for a 10-week course. With scenes involving battles and fighter jets, Jeremy had to get creative. He even went to local Vietnamese restaurants to ask people if they wanted to film scenes about the Vietnam War.
But to Jeremy, all the struggle of putting the project together was worth it if men got free from the trap of pornography.
“The series walks you through the neuro addiction—what happens with the brain when a guy watches pornography,” he says. “And that’s a place that the church has been stuck a long time because the church has very much made this a moral problem. But it starts off as a moral issue that quickly becomes a brain problem. So you have to address this area of pornography addiction from both a spiritual side and a scientific side.”
Another problem Jeremy made sure the series addressed was that defeating pornography is not merely a behavioral issue. It requires a heart change.
“That’s where guys get stuck,” he says. “They’re Christian men, they don’t like what they’re doing, and they’re ashamed. But they keep going back to what makes them feel good, which is pornography, and you have to cut that noose off their neck. That’s a very difficult process to do, so men need accountability to get through that, and that’s really what the Conquer Series is about.”
Jeremy tells me that around 40,000 churches host groups that go through the Conquer Series. Some men buy the videos to watch at home by themselves, with other struggling men or with their own sons.
But I first heard about the series at the National Religious Broadcasters long before it came out. Jeremy had a blog about it called “Science Proves Premarital Sex Rewires the Brain,” which we posted on Charisma News. That article was one of our earliest blogs to go viral. We knew his series met a need because that blog generated around $50,000 in pre-orders before the filming was even done!
Now, Jeremy and Kingdom Works are going beyond this 10-week video course to help the body of Christ.
“We’re producing more series like the Conquer Series that lead men into deeper healing, lead marriages into healing, help with parenting and so forth,” he says. “We’re working on a series for women healing from the pain of betrayal, because often … the church will help the guy, and they forget about the woman. And she’s broken and she carries that trauma with her. Trauma stored up in the body becomes deadly, so we’re bringing healing courses to women.”
The studio is also working on two feature films, one of which will come out sometime next year. I expect great things of those movies.
I believe the body of Christ needs to pay attention to up-and-comers like Jeremy and what they’re doing for the kingdom of God. With over a million men and counting experiencing freedom from sexual sin, I look forward to what Jeremy and his team do next.
And please, if you or someone you know is struggling with a pornography addiction, don’t be ashamed to reach out and ask for help. You can visit conquerseries.com for information about the series as well as additional tools to overcome addiction.
Be sure to listen to my full interview with Jeremy, where I ask him in-depth questions about what it was like growing up with a famous father like Rick Wiles and how he came to Christ. Click here or scroll to the top of this article to listen!