Ice Age: The Church

Today we hosted our first of three Summer Movie days. The theater was full of movie goers for the 1pm showing of "Ice Age". We decided a while back that we wanted to make use of our uniqueness in this theater. We expect to be doing many more of these types of outreach events.

Earlier this week we posted signs at the theater that we'd be hosting this free movie at 1pm and boy did people find out! We had a full house for the showing and everyone seemed to be pretty receptive. I LOVED seeing our people interact with so many from the community. As people were filing in we had some of our folks in the hallway handing out balloons to the kids (kind of an accident b/c I happened to have the helium tank and balloons for my message but I made a note to make this a regular thing with these movies!)

The movie started at 1:15 p.m. but we advertised 1pm because we don't know until Thursday before the day we rent exactly WHICH movies will be showing. Theyv'e promised to have a few options each time and today we decided to go with Ice Age. It was a good choice as far as attendance. Before the movie our people handed out flyers about our church and I walked around checking to be sure that no one was charged for their ticket. It also gave me an opportunity to share that we were the ones who rented the theater and allowed people to engage in conversation. Several families asked more info from that quick conversation.

At about 5 minutes before showtime I went to the front of the room and the music was brought down while I did a quick hello. I explained who we were and what we were about... I then invited them all to check out the church in the future and thanked them for joining us for the movie and ended by encouraging them to enjoy the show. What was cool was that as I finished, the audience clapped. They were genuinely thankful that the church took the time to do this for them.

Even if they don't come to the church I know that we now have a few hundred people with a positive vibe about our church in the future.

The movie was cool and people had a great time. This entire movie series will end up being picked up by one young couple in our church who answered the call a few months back when I put out a request for funds to do some outreach projects. One young couple gave sacrificially to see these movie events happen. I am so proud of our people!