“As church leaders, we can either be a part of the movie conversation or we can ignore the conversation; but the talk is going to grow louder and more overwhelming in the years ahead. I say we join in!”

George Barna, an expert on church trends in America, has declared that “movie theaters are the new church.” This statement bothers a lot of Christians because most movies seem to have amoral, or less than moral, messages. It’s hard to believe that anything God-honoring can come from an industry that typically bashes faith and Christian values.

Well, as church leaders, we can either be a part of the movie conversation or we can ignore the conversation; but the talk is going to grow louder and more overwhelming in the years ahead. I say we join in!

You’re probably aware that Hollywood is pursuing a love affair with the Christian community. Since The Passion of the Christ earned $400 million in the U.S. ($700 million worldwide), Hollywood studios have been falling all over themselves to court church leaders and congregations with an increasing number of faith-friendly films.

In recent years, major studios have announced the creation of divisions devoted to producing and distributing movies with redemptive themes and storylines coming from a Judeo-Christian worldview.

At Twentieth Century Fox, Chairman Rupert Murdoch was reportedly so frustrated that his own studio passed on Mel Gibson’s Passion, he asked his studio executives to begin making more faith-based films, declaring the audience was deeply underserved by Hollywood. That request led to a brand new division called Fox Faith, which committed to release 18 new faith-friendly films between 2006 and 2008, most of them based on novels by best-selling Christian authors or important true stories with faith themes.

All of this might lead to some cynicism among church leaders who don’t want to see their pulpits turned into the Tonight Show, where movie-makers drop by to plug their latest films. Beyond maintaining a healthy dose of pulpit common sense, I believe some of these films represent a fantastic opportunity for ministry and evangelism.

A Night at the Movies

First, virtually everyone I know inside or outside ministry loves going to the movies. Shouldn’t that tell us films can be a terrific way to create community experiences for not only our church members, but also their non-churched friends and neighbors? Why not challenge your small groups to attend a thought-provoking film and then dissect and digest the meaning and message of the film over coffee and pie? Or organize a movie night at your own church where you screen powerful films, followed by roundtable discussions.

Sure, there is a continuing stream of Hollywood films that would not be appropriate fare for church-oriented group events, but lots of powerful films that do have church-venue-appropriate levels of language, sex, and violence often slip below our radar because we’re not looking for them. Most of us can count the really redemptive films on our fingers, such as Chariots of Fire, The Apostle, The Mission, Tender Mercies, and so on. But if you make an effort to dig a little deeper, you might be surprised at the gems you will find.

Act One: Writing for Hollywood, a program that trains Christian screenwriters, has an online list of 45 films that you probably wouldn’t have expected to have redemptive or Christian themes. You can also find links there to the American Film Institute’s top-100 films of all time (some inappropriate for church groups), all of which can lead to a discussion of how God feels about the human condition.

Communicating Through Film

Next, I believe acknowledging the importance of films—at least the good films—as an art form helps us stay relevant and informed. As pastors, we need to know what our congregations are consuming and become cultural warriors so we can reinterpret some of the messages through a biblically-based worldview.

I have used film clips for illustrative purposes in my messages for many years. Whether it be a super-serious film like Saving Private Ryan or a comedy like Bruce Almighty, the dramatic or comedic points in well-made films are of such high storytelling caliber they provide me with more effective teaching moments than I can get out of my own illustration file or from sermontidbits.com.

Two 2007 films were powerfully redemptive movie-going experiences: The Last Sin Eater from Fox Faith and Amazing Grace from Walden Media.

The Last Sin Eater is based on Christian author Francine Rivers’ award-winning novel by the same name. It was directed by Michael Landon Jr., and written and produced by Brian Bird, a member of our Saddleback Church family. The film deals with an ancient, fascinating-but-true Celtic ritual practiced in early America by Welsh immigrants, whereby the sins of a deceased person were “eaten away” by the elected local sin eater, freeing that person to go to heaven. It’s an echo of the Old Testament “scapegoat” idea, and the story revolves around a 10-year-old girl in 1830s Appalachia who desperately wants forgiveness for her sins, but who learns from a John the Baptist-like missionary that no mere man can take away her sins. God has already sent a “sin eater,” the original One: Jesus.

I highly recommend this visually beautiful and very moving film to your congregation. There is a powerful conversion sequence in the film for which you will need to keep your handkerchiefs ready and which may lead to some great conversation opportunities with unsaved friends. Fox Faith still has the movie’s Web site up, with free church resources, discussion guides, posters, and film clips from the movie.

Amazing Grace is the, well, amazing story of William Wilberforce, the courageous Christian politician in England who fought his whole life to abolish slavery in England, and his friendship with John Newton, the former slave trader-turned-Christian who wrote the beautiful hymn “Amazing Grace.” I believe it provided churches with an opportunity to discuss the importance of maintaining a loud voice in the public square, and it fueled Christian conviction about striving to end man’s inhumanity to man, which continues today in so many ways, including the evil of slavery that is still practiced around the world. Walden Media also still has a Web site up for Amazing Grace with resources for churches.

With or Without the Church

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I believe the worldwide media conversation is going to continue with or without the church. Even though it is uncomfortable to admit this, our congregations and neighbors are spending far more time at the movie theaters and in front of their television sets than they are at church. Many of our church members consume entertainment products at the same rate as those who would never darken the door of a church.

In 2006, Barna’s startling assessment led Sherwood Baptist Church (outside of Atlanta) to raise $100,000 to make a film. Facing the Giants was literally a volunteer-made film, and it went on to earn more than $10 million at the box office. Alex Kendrick, media pastor at the church, wrote, directed, produced, and starred in this charming little film about high school football and faith. Prior to making the film, Kendrick said, “If people are going to the movie theaters for their church experience, then we need to bring the church to them.”

Maybe more of us need to be doing the same thing.