Mason Beasler
AFA Journal staff writer
Above bottom right, Phil Vischer
July 2020 – As COVID-19 spread from China and soon infected the world with sickness and fear, one organization stepped up to the plate to provide a new kind of support.
Since November 2019, Minno, a Christian streaming service has offered faith-based videos through their website, gominno.com. Among many other titles, Minno boasts one of the largest collections of the classic VeggieTales videos.
Co-founded by former Amazon executive Erick Goss, Minno strives to offer wholesome, edifying content for children everywhere. Withstanding a culture inundated with pornography and immorality, Minno has sustained a mission of supplying parents with children’s videos that can be trusted.
Seeing the need
“Minno was really born out of the recognition that there’s a need for a platform for Christian families,” Goss told AFA Journal. “We had a lot of people find us just because of the need for content from a Christian point of view.”
In response to the 2020 worldwide virus woes, Minno added Church at Home, a new feature, completely free.
This addition gives families access to valuable Christian messages and teachings, even if stuck at home. But Church at Home is much more than your pastor’s Sunday morning sermon. It supplements corporate worship with assets that parents can use to help drive faith-based conversation and education.
“The first is a church-at-home video,” said Goss, “which is usually about 30 minutes and consists of worship music and Bible lessons. Then we offer a free downloadable chapter with activity guides from our Laugh and Grow Bible for Kids, which was written by VeggieTales creator Phil Vischer.” (See feature story in AFA Journal, 12/19.)
Also included in Church at Home are three free shows as well as downloadable activity packs for kids. The entire feature is updated weekly, so families have access to fresh content each Sunday morning.
Serving the family
Named after the Greek word menō which means “to abide,” Minno strives to encourage believers to live a life daily abiding in Jesus Christ. In the constant busyness of the 21st century, this isn’t always easy. To help families find this daily residence in God and His Word, Minno also offers paying subscribers a five-minute daily devotional video.
“It’s one of the most popular features on the site,” Goss said. “We include a Bible verse, a teachable moment from one of the shows in our catalog, and then some prayers and questions for parents to ask their kids.”
Minno also works with churches and offers them a one-month free subscription for their congregations. The company understands that not every church has multimedia capabilities, but in the words of Erick Goss: “That’s what we do every day!”
“Minno is here to help,” Goss continued, “and to be a support and a partner for helping [people] understand what faithfulness looks like during this time. What we really want to be is a catalyst for parents and kids to talk about Jesus.”
Reaching more than 160,000 people and 137 countries in less than two years, Minno is just getting started with its mission of uniting families around the Rock that is Jesus Christ. 
A pastor’s perspective
Dr. Jeff Farmer is president of Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches of North America, an association with more than 40,000 churches. He believes pastors will find Church at Home an invaluable asset.
“This is a resource for pastors,” Farmer told AFA Journal. “If pastors become familiar with it, they’re going to want to use it because it not only helps their own home; it helps all their congregants and their families in the church. It’s multi-generational, it’s fresh every week, and it’s fun.”
