Written by Why would a church (especially a church as young as ours) host such a huge, FREE, event for the whole community? After all, it costs our church a lot of money, people and time – and the return is close to nothing. For some people it doesn’t make much logical sense.
But for us, it makes perfect sense. Craig Grochel (pastor and author) made a statement in one of his books that has peeked my attention. He says “To reach people no one else is reaching, we must be willing to do things no one else is doing.”
There are scores and scores of people living within 10 miles of our church that are not going to any church … and it doesn’t even bother them. If we are going to reach them with the message of Jesus Christ and demonstrate to them the Gospel lived out, then we have to be willing to do some things that no one else is doing. We have to discover some unique ways to go to them.
It also bothers me that there are scores of people, living within 10 miles of our church, that are asking questions about: Life, Good, the afterlife, social justice, natural disasters… that we are answering… and they are not here at our church on Sundays to get the answers. They have questions we have answers to…and yet they won’t give us a shot until we start doing things that no one else is doing in order to reach those no one else is reaching.
One of the ways we are attempting to reach people no one else is reaching is by offering Movies in the Park to our community.
Below are some of the real reasons why our church is investing in offering Movies in the Park to the families of our community:
>We love Huntersville. My family has lived here since 1996.
>Huntersville is a family town. Families are moving into the area all them time.
>The economy has been rough on families and it is always a blessing to get something valuable for free. Most of the local activities for kids cost the parents an arm and a leg. For every family that can afford all those great activities for their kids, there are 10 other families who will never be in a financial position to participate.
>Our culture and pace tend to isolate families from the blessing of meeting new people and deepening relationships.
>Huntersville needs opportunities for it’s people to gather for some fun and the chance to meet new neighbors.
>My family loves movies. I have four kids between the ages of 7 and 13 and movies are such a big part of us. My kids could watch a good Disney movie over and over for years.
We could spend $10,000 on a church mailer, advertising our church and inviting people to come, that would end up in everyone’s mailbox. But I know what I do with those mailers. They end up in file 13 (trash). Movies in the Park gives us a chance to look people in the eyes, shake their hands, give them a hug, pray for them, throw a Frisbee with them, laugh with them and serve them. While we are interacting with all the people, we can also give every individual a personal, authentic invitation to come check out our church on Sunday because we have earned the right to be heard.
People are skeptical. Our hope is that people ultimately encounter Jesus as the living God. Because people are so skeptical, they live their life guarded and isolated from the influence of Jesus and His church. Our ultimate goal is not to trick people into coming to church or even coming to our church. It sometimes takes an event like this to begin to break down walls and allow for a new image of the church to be demonstrated in our community.
I ADMIT there is great risk for us, as a young church, to invest in such an endeavor. It might fail. It might be a total waste of time and give us no return. But…we we want to try something (and do it well) that no one else is doing in order to reach those (for Jesus) who are not being reached.
This is not the only unique thing we do, either.
>We’ve started, and maintain, a food pantry at Blythe Elementary School that directly benefits special families whose kids attend Blythe.
>We created a spectacular Easter Egg Hunt (with food, face painting, crafts, tattoos and magic) for a local community that for 90% of them, Spanish is their first language.
>We consistently serve at Angels and Sparrows, the local Soup Kitchen for Huntersville.
>We are the only church offering SINGING SANTA to various neighborhoods during the month of December.
There is always room, among us, for one more Risk-Taker like you. We do it because we love the people of Huntersville and they are worth our efforts. This is one of the ways we LOVE GOD, LOVE PEOPLE and PROVE IT.
Because I am asking you to arrive early. We actually need all of our Radiant Lifers to see themselves as ministry partners. If you arrive at church early enough (before 9:45am), we need you to serve as a roaming greeter. Your presence make the room come alive before the official worship service begins. Your presence creates electricity and anticipation. Think about this: Our worship team and our tech team faithfully arrives almost 2 hours before worship in order to rehearse and work through any kinks. It can be deflating to stand ready to lead worship at 10am to a crowd of 5.
