Three times in my life I’ve been involved with church projects that use movies to teach Gospel truths. Perhaps reading about them will encourage you to try something similar.
1. Vermont Avenue Filmfest--Michio Nagai, elder and minister for the Vermont Avenue Church of Christ on the old Pepperdine campus, introduced me to the possibilities of movies at church.
He conceived and carried out a variation on the gospel meeting that he called Filmfest. He would select a theme, often a parable of Jesus, then choose movies made by religious production companies to illustrate it. A panel would discuss the various aspects of the theme, and everyone would answer questions on handouts about it.
Though we were a small congregation at that time, our numbers would double for Filmfest as members brought their friends, and members of sister congregations in the area joined us.
2. A Motion Picture of Jesus--Don Butler, a member of the Culver Palms church, has an extensive collection of commercial movies about the life of Jesus. He and Josan Wright and I put together a series of Bible class lessons using them. They included two versions of King of Kings, The Greatest Story Ever Told, The Gospel According to St. Matthew, Jesus of Nazareth and many more.
Each week, we covered a different story from Jesus’ life, from his birth to his teachings to his miracles to his death and resurrection. Don would read from one of the Gospels and illustrate the account with snippets from two or three different movies to give a variety of “takes” on the same story. Then we’d discuss it using Philip Yancey’s book, The Jesus I Never Knew.
3. Sermon on the Mount series--Mark Manassee, our minister at Culver Palms, was planning a series of sermons this fall on the Sermon on the Mount. Because the Culver Palms church includes several members who work in the movie industry, he decided to use their talents to produce short films on “The Sermon on the Mount for Today.”
Writers wrote scripts, directors directed, members acted, served as extras, decorated sets, and worked on lighting and sound. Steve and Victoria Fraasa produced the films, using their equipment for the project. It’s a wonderful way to involve people with varied skills in communicating gospel truths.
Mark wrote questions on each lesson to serve as the basis of study for our new Growth Groups, which meet during the week in various homes around the city.
These are just three examples I’m acquainted with that use movies at church. You may think of many more. We’re charged with sharing the Gospel. To do it effectively, we may want to consider the rich visual resource of movies.
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