What does popcorn, a local movie theater and a teenage girl questioning her faith in God have in common with a Sunday worship service? They were key ingredients in the unique launching of a new Bible study being conducted at Northside Baptist Church, Cullman.
Pastor Paul Hicks came up with the unusual idea of holding the church’s Sept. 10 worship service in the local movie theater in an effort to pique members’ and local residents’ interest in a Bible study series the church is presenting titled “How Now Shall We Live?”
Components of the eight-week study include a workbook, leader guide, videos and a trade book. Northside’s Sunday service centered around the viewing of one of the study’s videos — “Katy’s Metaphysical Adventure” — an hour-long film about 15-year-old Katy, who has encountered ideas that contradict the faith of her family.
The movie is based on a story that appears in the study guide book and producers of the Bible study series, LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, are giving churches permission to air the movie on cable television or local channels.
Hicks not only decided to air the video on a local cable channel but also decided to show the movie on a large theater screen for his church members in place of their regular Sunday morning service. Dress attire was casual and attendees were served popcorn and soda prior to the movie’s viewing. They were also treated to a song by Caley Cheney, the 16-year-old actress from Franklin, Tenn., who played the leading role of Katy in the film. In addition, representatives of LifeWay came from Nashville in recognition of the innovative approach that Hicks took to motivate his congregation about the study.
“Our goal with producing this series was to develop an unusual medium in which to share the gospel while at the same time addressing the issues of our culture,” said Gary Hauk, acting director of LifeWay’s Discipleship and Family Group. “Our challenge was to develop a tool that would help Christians live their faith in a changing world and learn how to apply the Bible in their lives.”
The study guide was co-written by Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey. Colson, a former presidential aide to Richard Nixon, became a household name during the 1970s Watergate scandal. After serving time in a federal prison, Colson founded Prison Fellowship Ministries. Pearcey is a fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center for Renewal for Science and Culture. In their coursebook, they emphasize that competing worldviews are the bases for today’s spiritual battles.
“Christians must exercise a Christian worldview in the face of the prevailing secular worldview,” Colson said. “They need to get serious about seeing the world the way God sees it.”
The study is designed to help Christians use a Christian worldview as a road map for life. It tells readers how and why their faith should be brought into all aspects of their lives. The five areas of Colson and Pearcey’s book — “Worldview, Creation, The Fall, Redemption and Restoration” — make up most of the study sessions.
Colson believes the mindset of America today is naturalistic, explaining that, “there is a natural explanation for everything. Naturalism is people playing God,” he said. Colson deals with this message in the film. “This mindset (naturalism) influences many of the issues and debates surrounding Christians today such as abortion, evolution, the existence of truth, the sexual revolution, movies, television, music, the place of the family and the role of work,” he explained.
LifeWay editor Dale McCleskey, who co-wrote the project’s adult leader and study guides said, “The real battleground is the battleground of ideas.”
Northside member Elaine Beck brought her friend, Flora Bright, to view the movie. “Our pastor is young and enthusiastic and is ambitious about bringing the word of God to us. He’s doing a lot of things to bring people out and get them involved in church. He has wonderful ideas and this is one of them,” she said in reference to the Sunday service. “I think the movie had a great message and showing it at a movie theater was an ideal way to get people to come see it.”
Ten-year-old Whitley Reid and her 8-year-old sister, Haley, had front-row seats during the service. They sat intently throughout the movie munching popcorn and sipping their soft drinks as they watched the girl in the movie struggle with her science teacher’s belief of the big bang theory of evolution versus her parents’ and grandfather’s belief in God and creation.
Sniffles could be heard throughout the darkened theater as Katy watched her sick grandfather die while still professing his deep faith in God. He tells her he will be waiting for her in heaven where he will take her fishing once again.
“I liked it all,” Reid said. “It was so good spiritually. I think the actors and the story were magnificent.” And in response to her thoughts on having Sunday worship service in a movie theater, “Well, we’ve had church outside before and that was fun but having it in a theater, now that was really cool! My grandmother had given us $10 for snacks and when I heard Bro. Paul say they were free I said, ‘Hallelujah!’ I had to give the money back to my grandmother, though.”
And what kind of response did the pastor receive from his members regarding the worship setting? “Many of them came up to me afterward and said, ‘Now we understand why you wanted to view it here.’ It did its job — it got everyone excited about participating in the Bible study,” he said, adding that the first session, held that evening, had 61 participants.
Hicks is pleased with the response from the congregation but even more so he is thrilled with the profession of faith made at the end of the service by 9-year-old Rickey Foster. “He told me that seeing the movie helped him to really understand the gospel,” Hicks said. “(Rickey) didn’t walk down the theater’s aisle, he hustled. There wasn’t a moment’s hesitation. Winning souls to Christ is what this study is all about,” Hicks said.
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