 The series began development with production staff approaching Troy Schmidt, a pastor at First Baptist Church in Windermere, Florida, to work as both a writer and a consultant for the show. One of Schmidt's initial roles was to be an "on-camera Bible expert" for the series, one of many aspects of the pilot episode that was rejected by test audiences. GSN was then forced to bring in many new staff members during a six-week period and made various changes to the show's format.
