Church Movie Night Part 2 of 2

This entry continues yesterday's post, by Jim David. He started a film ministry at his church by offering a once a month movie night. I really like his approach and I encourage all you out there-- does your church have a movie night? It can be a real powerful way to get discussion going and a great teaching opportunity.  If you need any help or assistance, feel free to reach out to me.

What about childcare?
Our teens provide childcare during the films (except summer months) for a small donation that goes towards youth mission trips. This really helps to give mom and dad the opportunity for a night out.

Do you recommend doing this to other churches? If so, what are the
benefits?
Yes. The benefits are widespread: strengthening existing believers, and providing another medium for reaching the community for Christ – all while providing family safe entertainment in a time where it is hard to find good safe options. By doing a monthly film event, your church will begin to get a following -knowing that there is a consistency of good quality films offered each month (as compared to an infrequent movie event offered from time to time). I would say that there are four primary factors that have made the ministry a success:

1. Our church leadership was behind the ministry and one of the success factors for us has been showing a preview of the upcoming film & short to the entire congregation so that your church family is fully aware of the film offering. Print media in program is good too, but is often overlooked. Showing the preview really speaks volumes as you have a captive audience for several minutes and your people will likely spread the word to their friends.
2. Form relationships with a couple strong local businesses (Christian & secular if possible) to help you get the word out. This has helped our ministry tremendously in reaching the community.
3. Carefully choose films that will reach the widest audiences for Christ. If you show a film that is too pushy or cheesy, you may lose your audience for future showings. Always know the content of the film and get feedback from outside sources.
4. Have a committed ministry team that’s reliable and works tog
5. ether to provide a consistent outreach to your church and community.

What are your plans for the future for the movie nights?
We plan to continue by showing the latest high quality, impacting films, and as long as there are enough films of quality, we will continue on a monthly basis. We like to whenever possible, to show films before their official DVD release dates and several distributers including PureFlix Cinema provide opportunities to do this.

For two of our films (WWJD & The Path of the Wind) we have been fortunate to have the producer/director come to do a Q&A after the film. We even had our teaching pastor host a Q&A following two documentaries (Lord, Save Us From Your Followers & The Case For Faith) we showed.

For more information and movies they've screened, check out their website: http://www.whfriends.org/pages/CinemaFaithPast.shtml