Why Should Churches Host a Movie Night?

Jesus told stories. We call them parables because they were succinct and communicated a larger principle about the kingdom of God. From that fact alone, we can interpret a great deal about the power of a simple story. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, God in flesh, used stories to communicate valuable truths about Himself and about how we are to live in relationship to God. There is power in story. Stories teach us history, and they tell us truth.

They inspire us and challenge us. We are motivated by stories and moved by them. Little boys dream of being heroes and little girls dream of living happily ever after because of stories they hear curled up on their parents’ laps. Stories can make us angry and they can cause us to cry. Stories shape us; they give us a way to tell others who we are.

Before we could even hear the actors speak, movies were telling stories. Movies have characters, settings, and plots. They also make us laugh and cry; they make us angry and motivate us to change ourselves or work harder to change the world around us. They are a powerful and influential medium. Movies are part of a much larger cultural phenomenon: we are people who like stories so much that we will spend great amounts of time, energy, and money to get lost in them.

Simply put, films do a great job telling stories in our culture. So why wouldn’t we, the church, celebrate and leverage the impact when those films tell the greatest story ever told? Leveraging the power of story and the medium of faith-based film is a great way to maximize your church’s growth and outreach potential. They also provide a starting point for group discussions and Bible study centered on the characters and themes in a movie they’ve just enjoyed.

Movies also provide an incredible outreach opportunity. People like movies but don’t often like church, or at least they think they don’t like church. They catch a preview of a film and are excited about it in a way they’d never imagine being excited to walk into a sanctuary. When you open a movie night for your community, you provide these people with a new and compelling reason to visit a church, opening the door to conversations, new friendships, and the opportunity to share the gospel in a unique and powerful way.

So host a movie night and allow the power of a story to change lives in your community.