Rob Loos
10 min read ⭑
“The resource we all need to survive and thrive isn’t a self-help book, a YouTube video, or a new app for our Apple watch. It’s to simply trust God, share with others, stay upbeat no matter what challenges we face, and never give up.”
QUESTION #1: ACQUAINT
There’s much more to food than palate and preference. How does a go-to meal at your favorite hometown restaurant reveal the true you behind the web bio?
My favorite hometown restaurant is a drive-in. Yes, I said drive-in, not drive-thru. Skyway is pure Akron, Ohio—a throwback to another era where you drive up and park your car. A waiter then races over to take your order and returns five minutes later with a tray that attaches to your window. My tray is filled with my usual—a hamburger on a fresh and amazing sweet toasted bun, well-cooked fries, and a Diet Coke in a large green-and-white Skyway paper cup.
It’s my favorite memory—and it’s always there in the background of my life—when I leave and when I come home.
When my Mom died, the funeral procession drove down West Market Street past Skyway. When I left for college at Northwestern, I drove by Skyway. And when I was recently back in Akron for a reunion, I took my wife to Skyway for the first time.
Her life has changed since I took her there. She now knows the joy of deep-fried breaded mushrooms and sauerkraut balls. There is something about eating a meal in the car that brings out people’s true selves and something about Skyway food that keeps it real.
Erik Werlin; Unsplash
QUESTION #2: REVEAL
We’ve all got quirky proclivities and out-of-the-way interests. So what are yours? What so-called “nonspiritual” activities do you love and help you find spiritual renewal?
My out-of-the-way interest is tennis, and it has been for a long time. When I was 11 years old, my parents wanted me to grow up to be a great tennis player, so they sent me to Dennis Van Der Meer’s Tennis Academy at Sweet Briar College in Lynchburg, Virginia.
My first day there was under the blazing summer sun in high humidity. I had to show my physical condition by running up 78 steps to the “plaza,” then up 34 more steps to the gym, where I did a series of wind sprints and then started again.
By the third time around, I was feeling faint, while the other incredibly thin, agile, and fit juniors whisked by me. I leaned against the shady side of the old brick gym and stared at the tennis courts. I’m not in the same league as these players. Why had God put me here? What was his plan? Maybe someday I would understand.
In April 2022, I was standing on those same courts, but this time with a crew of 100-plus people. I was directing a movie that I wrote called Never Give Up, which was released in theaters on September 1, 2023. It’s the true story of a young deaf tennis player who perseveres in the greatest tennis match ever played.
We were shooting in Virginia, and I thought the Sweet Briar courts would be perfect. God has a plan for everything—our location manager wasn’t aware of the spot, so if I hadn’t been there years earlier, we would’ve missed out on a perfect location to tell a God-honoring story.
What I saw as a defeat God turned into a triumph—it’s all part of his plan.
QUESTION #3: CONFESS
Every superhero has a weakness. Every human, too. We’re just good at faking it. But who are we kidding? We’re broken and in this thing together. So what’s your kryptonite and how do you hide it?
Obviously, you’re part of the DC Comic universe. As a former Marvel writer, I’m never allowed to disclose my weakness, let alone use Superman’s word “kryptonite.”
I’m kidding! But seriously, I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, and I’ve realized that I don’t trust God to the extent that he wants me to. I need to trust him more. I often rely on that non-biblical motto that many Americans embrace: “God helps those who help themselves.”
So I don’t want to rely on my own “wisdom” and cleverness anymore. God isn’t impressed anyway. When it’s all about me, I mess up. When it’s about God, miracles happen. God tells us to ask and it will be given to us, seek and we will find, knock and the door will be opened. So why don’t we? Why don’t I? I want to see miracles. I want to watch God do amazing things. I don’t want my lack of faith to be my k-word! I want to believe and trust God more, even when—especially when—it all seems impossible. My kryptonite is me.
QUESTION #4: FIRE UP
Tell us about your toil. How are you investing your professional time right now? What’s your obsession? And why should it be ours?
God has given me a hunger to write, produce, and direct. I live in Hollywood, California, and I’ve been told by many Christians that I shouldn’t be living there. Why? Because it’s Babylon, the City of Fallen Angels, the Devil’s Playground.
But what if I’m called to be here? Hello, Nineveh! Hello, Rome! Hello, Athens!
The projects I produce affect the behind-the-camera people (many of whom are unbelievers) as well as many others when the final version reaches the world. (Now, if we could just get past the WGA/SAG strike, we could get some things made).
Lately, a lot of my projects have been about amazing people who’ve been forgotten. In 2018, I produced and directed a documentary called Salt and Light: The Miracle in Hollywood about the start of what we now know as “contemporary Christian Music” at Hollywood Presbyterian Church. What? Do you mean praise music started at a mainline church? Yup! (See the film to find out how it all began.)
Right now, I’m working on a documentary on Henrietta Mears, the most amazing Christian woman of the 20th century, because few know her story. And in September 2023, a movie I wrote and directed called Never Give Up was released in 300-plus theaters. It’s the true story of the greatest tennis match you’ve never heard of—the Men’s Singles Finals of the World Games for the Deaf in 1985. Our hero is a young player who’s battling the reigning world champ. He’s lost the first two sets and is down in the third set—five games, 40-love (triple match point). At that moment, he utters a three-word prayer and comes all the way back! It’s the greatest comeback in professional, Olympic, or collegiate tennis history.
God is still calling me to Hollywood, and he tells me to keep going, keep trying, and never give up!
QUESTION #5: BOOST
Cashiers, CEOs, contractors, or customer service reps, we all need grace flowing into us and back out into the world. How does the Holy Spirit invigorate your work? And how do you know it’s God when it happens?
I was sitting in Hollywood Presbyterian Church in 2016 for a large adult Sunday School class taught by Dr. Dale Bruner—a retired professor from Whitworth in Spokane. I loved his class because he shared the Bible text from memory.
Dale announced that a band was going to perform. They were very popular 50 years ago and they were going to do a few numbers.
Really? I thought. I had a bad attitude because the first television series I helped develop was Star Search. It was a “new talent” show in the era before American Idol, America’s Got Talent, and The Voice. I had listened to hundreds of mediocre bands while trying to find the next great one.
Well, the Salt Company band—comprised of three older guys in their 70s and two women dressed kind of hippy-ish—started to play. I felt a nudge from the Holy Spirit. The song they sang was really good. I watched them closely and the years started to fall away. I saw them as their teenage selves in 1968. Wow!
Then I heard a voice say, “Make a documentary.” I looked around, but no one was there. I knew it was the Holy Spirit.
Salt and Light: The Miracle in Hollywood is the only project I’ve ever started without a budget or schedule, but God led and I followed. The movie has played in dozens of festivals, it’s streaming on Amazon Prime, and it reunited this band that founded what we now know as Contemporary Christian Music (CCM).
The Salt Company never got to fulfill their dream—until 50 years later. In October 2019, they shared the stage at The Jesus People Music Festival at Biola with the other top bands of the era. When the Holy Spirit speaks, we need to respond.
QUESTION #6: inspire
Scripture and tradition beckon us into the rich and varied actions that open our hearts to the presence of God. So spill it, which spiritual practice is workin’ best for you right now?
I’ve shifted gears a bit lately. I still read a short devotional when I get up and another when I get to work, and then my wife and I read a chapter of the Bible at night.
But I’ve taken a break from journaling. I spend my life writing, so a journal seems like a bad rough draft to me. I’ve also soured on online preachers, pundits, and Bible studies with overly spiffy graphics and dramatic music.
Our apartment in mid-city Los Angeles has plumbing issues, so we’ve been staying at a friend’s beach house on the coast. It’s amazing to hear the sound of the surf. From the balcony, I watch the sun rise and set, surfers try to catch the right wave, pelicans catch the breeze, and clouds slowly make their way inland.
I talk to God at the beach—I always have. I see his power, beauty, constancy, and vastness. I feel the clean air fill my lungs. I remember how the disciples loved to fish on the water. I talk loudly, but the crashing waves cover my tiny voice. Sitting on a chair and looking out at the ocean is the most inspirational thing for me.
QUESTION #7: FOCUS
Our email subscribers get free ebooks featuring our favorite resources—lots of things that have truly impacted our faith lives. But you know about some really great stuff, too. What are some resources that have impacted you?
I’ve been reading a lot of material about and written by Dr. Henrietta C. Mears, and I’m continually amazed. Take a look at Dream Big, which is edited by Earl Roe, or Henrietta Mears and How She Did It by Ethel May Baldwin and David Benson.
How did a woman in the 20th century launch over 450 men into ministry? Plus, she founded the Christian camp (Forest Home), started a publishing company called Gospel Light, and still had time to guide Billy Graham through his moment of doubt and help Bill and Vonette Bright launch Campus Crusade for Christ (now CRU). “To Know Christ and Make Him Known” may be Intervarsity’s slogan, but it came from Miss Mears.
When you’re done with the books mentioned above, get a copy of What the Bible Is All About, which is based on Henrietta Mears’ teachings. It’s a strong, tight, no-nonsense book that will lead you through the Bible in a year and help you understand it—even the Old Testament!
We all have things we cling to to survive (or thrive) in tough times. Name one resource you’ve found indispensable in this current season—and tell us what it’s done for you.
People are the best resource. God has been using individuals for thousands of years. I spent last week with a guy who’s deaf. He lives with the fact that he must see my lips to understand what I’m saying. He can’t answer the phone. When he drives, he has to be super attentive because he can’t hear a horn honking.
But he doesn’t let those things hold him back. He’s the most positive person I’ve ever met.
I live with a disability, too—I’ve been an insulin-dependent diabetic since I was 13—but nobody sees or hears mine unless I miss an injection or my sugar goes too low.
The resource we all need to survive and thrive isn’t a self-help book, a YouTube video, or a new app for our Apple watch. It’s to simply trust God, share with others, stay upbeat no matter what challenges we face, and never give up.
QUESTION #8: dream
God is continually stirring new things in each of us. So give us the scoop! What’s beginning to stir in you but not yet fully awakened? What can we expect from you in the future?
Early Hollywood producers called themselves “dream merchants,” although that sounds kind of crass. My job is to come up with ideas that become a film or television/streaming series that could affect millions of people.
Many times, I describe what a show is going to be. Studios, networks, and funders have to believe that I can do it and trust that I’m going to deliver an amazing project. That means that I have to lean on God for everything!
All things are possible for those who believe, right? We train for the race we’re going to run, but we can never win if we don’t start. God has been good to me—I have a career with many hours of produced scripted programming. I’m a striking professional writer (WGA) and I’m honor-bound not to pitch during a strike. But that doesn’t mean I stop dreaming—every day, always, as long as the Lord lets me.
Earlier, Rob mentioned that he feels called to Hollywood—despite others saying he has no business living in a place that doesn’t honor God.
Yet Scripture is filled with examples of righteous men and women who lived and ministered in ungodly places. Joseph. Moses. Daniel. Esther. Mordecai. Paul. Early Christians who lived in Gentile cities full of idol-worshippers. The list goes on.
If we want to bring Jesus’ light to this hurting, lost, confused world, we must be willing to leave our comfort zones. We must be willing to go.
Maybe you don’t feel called to live in a particularly “sinful city.” But where could God be calling you to be a light in a dark place? How can you love and serve people there?
Rob Loos doesn’t like bios because they feel like bragging rather than fully admitting that everything depends on God, who should be getting all the glory. If you want to find out about Rob, watch the films God has let him do, enjoy the TV and streaming episodes, and read the books he’s written. If you really need to follow his journey in greater depth, you can do so at zinghollywood.com.
