No Small Endeavor with Lee C. Camp 260: Unabridged Interview: Nicholas Ma
May 8, 2026
Nicholas Ma, filmmaker behind Won't You Be My Neighbor and Leap of Faith, explores faith, community, and empathy through cinema. He recounts making Leap of Faith with pastors wrestling over real theological and cultural divides. Conversations about vulnerability, staying present in pain, and choosing relationship over certainty shape the film. He reflects on friendship across difference and the slow work of change.
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Sometimes Silence Is A Compassionate Response
- Sometimes the most compassionate response is not explanation or confrontation but bearing witness and sitting with someone's pain.
- Artie explains he remained silent because he couldn't find words that would neither create more pain nor paper over real difference.
Cross Difference Friendships Are More Durable
- Friendship across difference proved durable because participants learned to love parts of each other they couldn't fully understand.
- Ma argues friendships based on difference can adapt if people change, unlike activity-based friendships that may collapse when shared activities stop.
Invitation Led To Real Inclusion In Pastor Network
- After the film, Molly invited James, a Black pastor from a historically Black church, into a Northwest pastors group that had never included a Black pastor.
- That single relational invitation changed group dynamics and demonstrated concrete integration stemming from friendship.