Sermon, song and worship come before Sunday matinee
Ashley Gipson/Religion News Service
Issue date: 11/16/08 Section: Divine Intervention
WASHINGTON - When the medieval church wanted to communicate the biblical narratives to a largely illiterate society, it used stained-glass windows to illustrate the stories.
So as the modern church looks for ways to reach a generation unfamiliar with the Bible, the most obvious medium, they say, is movie theaters.
"Theaters are our 21st century stained glass," said Joel Schmidgall, one of the pastors of National Community Church, a congregation that meets in four campuses - three movie theaters and a church-owned coffeehouse - around Washington.
"We wanted to be in the middle of the marketplace where people are used to going already," he said.
Most people that attend National Community Church are people who grew up going to church and have since stopped going, or those who have never been to church at all, he said.
"People might not be comfortable going to a church building, but they might go and check out something at a movie theater," he said.
Churches have been meeting in theaters for a number of years, but the trend has exploded in recent years. Barry Brown, director of regional sales at National CineMedia, said six years ago, only three churches were meeting in theaters through National CineMedia. Today, they number more than 180.
"The theaters have down time on Sunday mornings, and from a church perspective, it's a cost-effective way to get some space," Brown said.
On a recent Sunday morning, worshipers filed past an empty food court in the basement of Washington's Union Station and into the movie theater that National Community Church calls home. Some stopped at the concession stand for a cup of coffee that they carried into the dimly lit theater.
As the service starts, a live band springs to life and lyrics to praise songs are flashed on the giant screen. Schmidgall used the screen to show a short film clip and to broadcast a PowerPoint outline of his sermon.
The congregation of about 1,200 regular attendees uses two theaters at Union Station in northeast on Sunday mornings; childcare is provided in the hallways. Services are sometimes broadcast to the two satellite cinema locations and the nearby Ebenezer's Coffeehouse, which the church renovated and opened in 2006.
So as the modern church looks for ways to reach a generation unfamiliar with the Bible, the most obvious medium, they say, is movie theaters.
"Theaters are our 21st century stained glass," said Joel Schmidgall, one of the pastors of National Community Church, a congregation that meets in four campuses - three movie theaters and a church-owned coffeehouse - around Washington.
"We wanted to be in the middle of the marketplace where people are used to going already," he said.
Most people that attend National Community Church are people who grew up going to church and have since stopped going, or those who have never been to church at all, he said.
"People might not be comfortable going to a church building, but they might go and check out something at a movie theater," he said.
Churches have been meeting in theaters for a number of years, but the trend has exploded in recent years. Barry Brown, director of regional sales at National CineMedia, said six years ago, only three churches were meeting in theaters through National CineMedia. Today, they number more than 180.
"The theaters have down time on Sunday mornings, and from a church perspective, it's a cost-effective way to get some space," Brown said.
On a recent Sunday morning, worshipers filed past an empty food court in the basement of Washington's Union Station and into the movie theater that National Community Church calls home. Some stopped at the concession stand for a cup of coffee that they carried into the dimly lit theater.
As the service starts, a live band springs to life and lyrics to praise songs are flashed on the giant screen. Schmidgall used the screen to show a short film clip and to broadcast a PowerPoint outline of his sermon.
The congregation of about 1,200 regular attendees uses two theaters at Union Station in northeast on Sunday mornings; childcare is provided in the hallways. Services are sometimes broadcast to the two satellite cinema locations and the nearby Ebenezer's Coffeehouse, which the church renovated and opened in 2006.
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