WonderfulWorks is a Christian Alternative to Cocomelon
WonderfulWorks creates safe and faith-based animated nursery rhymes for toddlers. And, there's a free gift inside this article.
Jesse Wang and I met at at the Modern Church Leader conference in Dallas, TX. When I saw the WonderfulWorks booth, I was in awe. At the time of writing this, my boy was 15 months old, so what Jesse was working on was a very timely ministry tool for a parent like me.
So, I walked up to the booth and introduced myself. From there, he told me the story of WonderfulWorks. And now, it’s your turn!
Jesse, what is WonderfulWorks?
WonderfulWorks is a streaming service for Christian families with toddlers. As your one stop shop, we offer everything from songs to audiobooks, and from videos to curriculum. Through our learning platform, we help little ones from ages 0-4 know Jesus.
— Jesse Wang
Here’s a preview of content from WonderfulWorks:
What sparked the idea for WonderfulWorks?
I was talking with my atheist neighbor and he recommended Cocomelon. I saw how secular the show was and wanted a Christian version. Unfortunately something like that didn't exist yet. So we went about starting it just as a hobby initially. After more and more people were interested in us, we became a full fledged company.
— Jesse Wang
This is a common, sweet theme I hear when meeting Christian creatives: they create because nothing like it existed before. They had a dissonance with how things were and could envision a better way.
When it felt like quitting, what helped you stay the course?
We were suspended off of YoutubeKids. There are many Christian channels doing fine, but ours was targeted because we used nursery rhymes, and the algorithm kept feeding our content to atheist moms to us who flagged our channel. We had to pivot and create our own platform. Ultimately, God is in charge and we'll keep staying the course as long as we have continued funding.
— Jesse Wang
That’s always hard to hear when Christian-created content gets suspended or canceled by other platforms. I’m thankful you took the opportunity to pivot versus sulk. And, I believe that pivot was the right move.
Where have you seen God’s hand in this?
The way our team formed was pretty unique. I was looking for someone who knew about animation and the day before I was to search for one, a new college graduate came to my young adult ministry who was looking for work in animation. Perfect timing! I looked all over the US for a Christian singing family and finally found one. God put our team together.
— Jesse Wang
Oh wow, that’s wild. God had already been training up the right people for such a time as this. I’m eager to hear that college grad’s story.
What advice would you give to fellow Christian creatives?
If God inspires you to do it, then do it. And to save yourself a lot of headache, try to find someone who has experience so you can shortcut a few mistakes down the road. You will still have growing pains, but not as many.
— Jesse Wang
That’s good advice, Jesse. Reminds me of Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 BSB, "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor. For if one falls down, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to help him up!”
We were created for life together. When God said, “it is not good for man to be alone”, I believe it.
Shameless plug! What's something cool that's been on your mind that you'd recommend to the faith.tools community?
Honestly, the only thing I can recommend with all the tools out there, is just reading our Bible. Sometimes I get lost in all the work I have to do. Our world will continue to modernize with more cool tech each year, but reading the Word of God endures forever
— Jesse Wang
Jesse, thank you for your time. I love what you’re doing with WonderfulWorks, and may God continue to bless the creation of you and your team’s hands.
Or, learn more at wonderfulworks.me
P.S. If you’re reading this and want a free Bible, check out faith.tools/bible. Or, let’s say you already have a Bible and want to dig deeper, check out faith.tools/bible-study.
P.P.S. Like this content? Are you a Christian creative? Share your story with the faith.tools community at go.faith.tools/story!