Cineplex Church
Plush seats, the silver screen and the smell of popcorn popping aren’t the usual things associated with going to church on Sunday morning. But, as two area churches have recently shown, going to church in a movie theater isn’t as strange as it seems. After meeting for three years at Washington High School, the Massillon Campus of RiverTree Christian Church moved its services to the Great Escape Theatre on Aug. 3. A month later, on Sept. 7, Canton Baptist Temple opened a branch campus at the Regal Interstate Park Cinema 18 in Green...
While it’s not uncommon for churches to meet in secular venues such as strip malls or schools, they usually do it until they’re able to build. In the case of The Summit or RiverTree, they’re happy to use the theaters indefinitely. It’s a marriage that, although unlikely, works well for both parties, said Roger Schuler, pastor of the RiverTree Massillon Campus. Theaters like it because churches are good tenants, and their space is vacant on Sunday mornings. Churches like it because it’s a comfortable setting for only a fraction of the cost of a new building and a mortgage.
I like the economics of the idea. I also like how it provides a familiar setting for the world to hear Christ's good news. I think the Apostle Paul would have approved. Though I wonder how the generation of my grandparents would feel about this development.
I remember when I was a boy (8 or 9 years old?), my family spent the Christmas holidays with friends in Atlanta, GA. It was the only Christmas week I ever spent away from home. I have three solid memories from that week. #1 - I got sick. Somehow I picked up the flu. The timing was lousy for everyone. #2 - I played Monopoly for the very first time. Spent most of the night playing the game. I remember being really upset when I lost. #3 - All week long we talked about going to see a movie at a local theater. The only fly in the ointment? Me. I wasn't sure it was ok to go see a movie since we would never ever do that at home. I remember my Mom and Dad being incredibly sensitive about it and talking it over with me several times. It was one of the first times I remember ever being given a choice - and I saw it as a monumental moral choice between good and evil. It was a big deal to me. Having said that, I can't remember either the movie or the final decision. Did I end up going to the movie? (My dad reads this blog daily. I expect him to fill in the blanks of my recollection, so check out the comments to see if he remembers.)
Now fast forward 4 decades. I enjoy seeing movies at the theater, though I don't have much time to do so. And I think it would be cool to see men and women come to Christ on Sunday mornings at a local theater. Crossroads is still in the evaluation mode regarding the multi-site concept. But if our church should decide eventually to become one church with many locations, it just might be possible that one of those locations could be a movie theater some day!
