By Steve Rabey
Religion Correspondent

The Denver Broncos are not playing in this year’s Super Bowl, but Colorado will be represented during the broadcast of America’s most watched event. A new ad from a Colorado Springs-based ministry designed to make viewers reconsider Jesus will air Sunday.

The title of the 60-second “He Gets Us” ad is “More.” It delivers a fast-paced, visually jarring look at the human quest to acquire money, beauty, toys, technology and pleasure. It concludes with two lines of text:

“There’s more to life than more.”

“What if Jesus shows us how to find it?”

The final screen reads, “HeGetsUs.com.”

The ad seems to echo the teaching of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke: “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

The message of the ad is “despite all the noise, what if Jesus has what we’re looking for?”

The purpose of the ad is “to invite all people to move one step closer to the authentic Jesus, wherever they are,” said Tyler Johnson, a former pastor who serves as Chief Impact Officer of Come Near, the ministry behind the ads.

Filmed in Los Angeles, the ads are based on insights from research data, a national study with 5,000 respondents and 30 focus groups in six cities, including Denver, that delve into Americans’ views on spirituality and felt needs.

The ministry hopes that viewers who go to HeGetsUs.com will start a “micro-journey” toward Jesus through the site’s articles (“Jesus 101,” “Christianity Unpacked”), videos (“What’s the noise?”) and FAQs.

People who go to the resources page will find information about reading the Bible along with an invite to “Connect in a Group.” Those interested in the group option are directed to churches across the country that have Alpha groups that explore Christianity using material created by Alpha, a British evangelism project.

Nearly 20 Colorado churches are on the list, including nondenominational, Lutheran, Catholic and Anglican congregations. The two in the Springs are First Presbyterian Church and Communion of Saints, formerly New Life Downtown, which was formerly affiliated with the New Life megachurch.

This will be the fourth year for the “He Gets Us” Super Bowl ads and the second year that they’ve been produced by a Springs ministry called Come Near, which took over the project from another ministry.

Come Near is named for a passage in the New Testament epistle of James: “Come near to God and he will come near to you.”

The ministry doesn’t track how many have professed to becoming Christians, but it does track viewer responses, including nearly 10 billion video views, more than 56 million online visitors, and 2 million Google searches for Jesus in the days after the ads air.

Come Near is a 20-employee nonprofit that has no physical office. Its chief executive is Ken Calwell, the former Pizza Hut marketing executive who introduced America to stuffed crust pizza.

Calwell was an executive at Springs-based Compassion International from 2017 to 2023 before joining Come Near. Four more employees live in Denver and the Springs, where the group held its June board meeting.

The ministry doesn’t reveal its budget, but Super Bowl ads aren’t cheap to create or air. This year, 30-second ad slots were going for $7 million to $8 million each, and all slots were booked by September.

The campaign will continue with ads during broadcasts of soccer’s World Cup this summer, and more ads are scheduled for Christmas time.

Since the “He Gets Us” Super Bowl ads started airing in 2023, they have been intended to cut through negative stereotypes people have about religion and introduce them to the “authentic” Jesus, who was not “safe or predictable.”

“What’s interesting is that the way Jesus is often talked about today doesn’t always match how he shows up in the stories about him,” the nonprofit’s website says.

“In those stories, Jesus spends most of his time with people who are worn down, stressed, or quietly overwhelmed. People carrying too much. People anxious about money, health, belonging, or whether they’re getting life right. He notices the ones others overlook. He challenges systems that add pressure instead of relief, especially for people already living close to burnout.”