I am pretty surprised on reading about the quiet faith of three of the stars of "the Middle"
Posted on 06/25/2026 5:26:19 AM PDT by Cronos
Actor and YouTuber Atticus Shaffer knows firsthand the power of praying for others.
“A story that I have from set is that there was a guy, one of the electricians, he had a very bad event happen to him right near the end of the show, and he was devastated, and I could see it,” THE MIDDLE star recalled. “I mean, the only thing you could relate it to is a soldier going through PTSD, really, is what ended up happening, and I noticed it, and he kind of did things that I knew he was being sucked up into a pit.”
Seeing this man in such despair led Shaffer to reach out.
“I just reached out to him one day, and I said, ‘Hey, I know that you believe in the Lord. You know I do too. I’d love to just pray for you.’ And I did, and it meant the world to him, and I’m thankful that I heard that call in my heart to do that,” he said. “It helped him to cope, and it helped him to get out of that dark time.”
Shaffer emphasized the importance of listening to God’s leading, especially when it comes to helping others.
“I’m just a small portion of it, and he was able to reach out and get what he needed to get to be nourished and to get through that time, and I’m thankful that when the Lord does place those little calls on your heart, you should listen,” he said.
He added, “Ministering to someone means just being there for someone, being a person to just talk to, or even, not necessarily talking to them, you listening while they talk.”
Shaffer has leaned on his faith throughout his life as he lives with a condition called Osteogenesis Imperfecta, “a genetic or heritable disease in which bones fracture (break) easily, often with no obvious cause or minimal injury.”
“Would I be better off without this challenge?” he said earlier this year. “Obviously, for many, when one is in the thick of genuine pain, especially chronically so, it is very difficult to say, ‘I would gladly take this again for such and such a result.’ However, given that I am a Christ follower, I do believe that everything happens for a reason. I have been given the challenge of living my life with OI for a reason.”
What an incredible reminder of the power of prayer.
Atticus Shaffer (Brick) experienced a deep commitment to his Christian faith at age 15 after a series of painful bone fractures from his genetic condition. When he returned to the set of The Middle, he decided he wanted to live his faith openly.
Shaffer's quiet, unapologetic openness created a safe space on the secular set. Crew members who were secretly Christians began approaching the teenager, and they formed a tight-knit, undercover network of believers who would quietly gather to pray for one another, discuss scripture, and support each other through the grueling hours of television production.
I am pretty surprised on reading about the quiet faith of three of the stars of "the Middle"
Refreshing article!
Atticus Shaffer's on-screen mother, (Patricia Heaton) is also a believer, (very strong on pro-life issues).
“The Middle was a great show - family-friendly and funny as heck.”
Yes, I was pleasantly surprised - and this goes to show that you CAN make very watchable TV that is not filled with F-bombs
Extremely funny
I find it hard to watch anything on television now. I am extremely uncomfortable with violence, bloody gore, cursing and overtly sexual scenes. It just isn’t something that needs to be all the time, in my opinion.
I would like to encourage folks to listen to his Christian podcast - it helps him spread the message of the Lord!
I saw a video of him giving a tour of Columbia Ranch, where The Middle was filmed, right before the whole Ranch was torn down and replaced with sound stages. He seemed like such a nice young man.
Very glad to read this. We liked the show when our kids were young and lately weve been rewatching them.
“”””Shaffer’s quiet, unapologetic openness created a safe space on the secular set. Crew members who were secretly Christians began approaching the teenager, and they formed a tight-knit, undercover network of believers who would quietly gather to pray for one another, discuss scripture, and support each other through the grueling hours of television production.””””
My native Californian Christian friend was a surfer and a decade long grip in Hollywood before he and his California native wife left the state to raise their family in a better place, he said a lot of the crew was Christian and would support this story as representative of them knowing each other but trying to remain low key, he also tells me that Johnny Cash witnessed to him in a deep way, I never saw the movie but I’ve read that Cash’s deep Christian faith was left out of his bio movie.
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I have always like him - even liked his character as it seemed there was a lot of him in the character he played.
Patricia Heaton is a treasure. Even though she wasn’t his real mother, she was in his life for nine years and they were the formative ones. the other two children on the show turned out to be pretty good too. It’s nice when you see a cast that aren’t full of jerks.
We loved that show. I suppose reruns can be found streaming somewhere.
“I have always like him - even liked his character “
So funny that the “tell” he had that made others known when was lying was, “I’m lying”. LOL! We still do that sometimes.
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