Movie Night
January 12, 2008 We've begun showing a movie on Friday nights at our public meals program. A man from our church has donated a projector, dvd player and big screen - and the sound-system to go with it - and our church has covered the licensing fees. It's beautiful. Amidst the small crowd there's a single mom who stays after dinner with her daughter - whom I'm guessing is about nine. After Friday night's movie, as folks were getting dressed to go out into the cold, someone suggested we watch Casino Royale, the latest James Bond movie. I fended off the suggestion by saying, "Oh, we like family friendly movies here." To my surprise, everyone agreed. The mother, though, simply beamed. I can't tell you the joy that was on her face after I said it.
I was thinking about her all day today, that lady with her young daughter. I mean, have you been to the movies lately? The cost of a going to the cinema is simply out of her grasp and having a safe place to watch a movie with her daughter is a Friday night event for both of them. Just the thought of being able to do this pleases me to no end. I was talking with the nice church lady last week and I mentioned our movie night. She asked what I did with this, asked if we had a discussion afterwards. I simply said no, we just let folks enjoy the movies and both of us let it go. that's kind of the thing - everybody wanting to do 'ministry'. It's like, everything we do at church has to have a guest speaker - we can't just get together and have a fun time. Everything has to be... ministry. One of our more 'churchy' staff members at the Mission (who didn't last long.... they never do) once challenged me because I listened to the oldies station on the kitchen radio instead of the local Christian station.
God is love. Okay, I got that, Saint John. So I wonder then, if every time I display love in the world if I'm not displaying the nature of God. I wonder if a pretty good definition of 'ministry' might be to simply love God and to love others. Is there a time and a place to 'share the gospel' (whatever that means, exactly)? Of course there is. In the right time, and the right place, which you'll know - and you'll know exactly what to say, and how to say it - because it will be one more expression of the love of God, seamlessly flowing through you, bubbling up out of you, making you into a transparency through which God can be known. I'm not going to make that Mom pay me for a Friday night out with her daughter by making her sit through a gospel presentation. I love her too much for that, and I don't even know her name.
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Reader Comments (8)
what it is
Maria - Yup. The thing I like most about Jesus is the way he just seems to like hanging out with folks.
Nancy - I think so too.
we developed a beautiful, fun graphic for our's that you're welcome to if you'd like it. just shoot me an email and i will gladly send it along to you. we call it "neighborhood theater" - we also found a place (in our little town this is a hard to come by item) that had a popcorn machine (one of the theater ones) and that made a huge impact because the smell of the popcorn is almost as good as the movie.
some of the great "family movies" we have shown have been "holes", "chitty, chitty bang, bang" (be prepared though as it's LONG, dang we forgot how LONG it was! and that the queen does a bit of a dance in lingerie...) and if we do it again we'll probably use "evan almighty" as that has such a great story.
Letting people relax, enjoy themselves, and be human. Sounds like love to me.