That question has a straightforward answer: ‘No!’ But can I offer that answer in a more interesting way? Certainly, because the answer is ‘no, but’. There are a number of ‘buts’ in fact. The cinema is not the new church:

• but films are providing the world of stories within which many people live their lives
• but cinema is often far more captivating (and usually a much warmer and more pleasant place to be) than church
• but churchgoers are often more stimulated by films than Bible studies (if there are even Bible study groups to go to)
• but the cinema is one of the places (in addition to night-clubs and sporting events) where large groups of people in their teens, 20s, 30s and 40s will be found over the weekend.

This article looks at those four ‘buts’. It also invites us to think about the significance of all this for thinking about God, faith and the world today. Finally it offers some tips for today’s preachers and worship-leaders.

The Four ‘Buts’

Films are providing the world of stories within which many people live their lives

At the time of writing The Golden Compass, the film version of the first volume of Philip Pullman’s trilogy, His Dark Materials, (Northern Lights in book form) is about to appear on screen. It is a reminder, following hard on the heels of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – plus many other stories which have found their way into film – that good stories grab our attention. It has always been so. Human beings are storytellers and need to have stories handed on to them so that they can begin to make sense of what happens to them. The Bible’s stories have, until recently, been well-known. Biblical narratives have been the stories within which people did their sense-making – whether people considered themselves believers or not. There have always been lots of other stories too (classical Greek myths, for example) but the Bible has been dominant in Western culture for some time. When knowledge of Biblical stories is less common, as is now the case, then a wider range of stories gets used. The Bible no longer has the authoritative claim on the value of its stories that it once had in society. The Lord of the Rings, film versions of Jane Austen’s novels, the Star Wars films, the Bourne trilogy, may in fact be the narratives in relation to which people make sense of who they are, what they believe about life, what values they hold and what they aspire to.

Cinema is often far more captivating (and usually a much warmer and more pleasant place to be) than church

One of the most charged aspects of the debates now going on about faith and popular culture is whether ‘alternative’ or ‘contemporary’ worship makes church a part of the entertainment industry. Instead of providing opportunity for those gathered to encounter God as the ultimate source and mystery of all life, and as the Father of Jesus Christ, new forms of worship, it is said, make us feel good and pander to our consumerist desires for music and feelings that we ‘like’. Well it’s a half-truth. ‘Religion never was designed to make our pleasures less’ (Isaac Watts). Religion has been keeping people entertained for a long time. You’re not necessarily spiritual, religious or holy simply because you suffer. Perhaps we’ve underestimated the ‘feel good factor’ in faith. Yes, it won’t do just to ‘make people feel comfortable’ as if that’s the goal of Christian mission. But if salvation doesn’t have a major feel good factor within it, then we have misunderstood it. Perhaps God’s message of salvation is better heard when people are actually captivated by a good story and made to think and laugh and cry. Haven’t preachers known that for some time?

Churchgoers are often more stimulated by films than Bible studies (if there are even Bible study groups to go to)

Let’s face it: many Christians, and many people who might even be sympathetic to Christianity, are voting with their feet. Thoughtful films are doing more for and to people than many of the sermons preached, the services led or the study groups convened. Now we have to be careful here. This may sound as if churches are to ‘provide services’ (not necessarily of a worshipful kind) which ‘meet clients’ needs’. But faith and churchgoing go deeper than this. They are to do with ‘living’ a tradition of belief which shapes us as people, because we believe that in and through it we encounter God.

So ‘church’ is not simply to do with ‘what we get out of it’. That said, if the experience of ‘church’ doesn’t actually feed people spiritually and isn’t a structured way, in and through which people can meet others, and meet God, then it literally isn’t doing its job. I know a great many people that it’s quite easy to call ‘spiritual people’ because of how they are trying to live and the values they are seeking to espouse, some of whom were Christian once but are now ‘fed’ in many ways other than church. Films are, for them, part of that feeding process. It’s true for Christians too. Sometimes what we offer (aesthetically and intellectually) in the church is staggeringly poor. Admittedly, what is produced in the name of ‘art’ or ‘popular culture’ is not necessarily good but it is very often more stimulating and connected to the issues of daily life than much of what passes as ‘contemporary’ worship or preaching.

The cinema is one of the places (in addition to night-clubs and sporting events) where large groups of people in their teens, 20s, 30s and 40s will be found over the weekend

This is true for many people in the 13-40 age-range. This doesn’t mean that these activities are inevitably enjoyable or useful. It could be argued that these are some of the main ways that people fill their time (or at least, those who have money) simply because there is so much leisure time available. Even if this is true, we should not underestimate the way in which how we fill our time (in work and leisure) relates to how we ‘make meaning’. In other words, as sociologists and psychologists of religion point out, what we choose to spend our time doing (and spending our money on) at the very least shows what we think is important and gives shape to our human existence. It’s too easy to say that spending money on shopping, sport or cinema is all part of consumerism (‘bad thing’). Of course Christians will want to ask hard questions about how people spend money (and hopefully we ask hard questions of ourselves first.) However, some of these ‘non-religious practices’ overlap with more explicitly religious ones. They may sneakily have replaced them. Or, more positively, the way that we use them may show that those of us who adopt a faith perspective should start being able to show creatively how sporting practice, cinema-going or clubbing are (or can be, or are like) how people make meaning through religion.

So what?

So far so good; but so what? Here are three things to consider. First, this whole situation is worth looking at through the lens of theology. By that I mean that all these creative, potentially life-enhancing practices are worth examining as practices inspired by God, the Holy Spirit. There’s surprisingly little in the Bible directly about art. Where arts and crafts do appear (e.g. Ex. 31 and 33), they’re related specifically to fashioning things for religious purposes, but the sense that God’s Spirit is alive and active in the world stretches us further than this. There is enough elsewhere about the Spirit in the Bible to suggest that the wild creativity of God won’t be easily contained. We need to look at all the arts (and beyond) to find out where God speaks. God’s voice is being heard in the cinema. Questions arise: through which films? in the films, or in discussion afterwards (or both)? These are questions about how God’s Spirit speaks through film, not whether.

Second, we have to start looking much more seriously at the multiple ways in which people, inside and outside of churches, ‘make meaning’. Gone are the days when church is a clearly defined – almost separate – ‘total institution’ through which people live the whole of their life. A ‘faith perspective’ may indeed be all-encompassing. Indeed, for Christians, a Christian faith perspective should affect every part of life. But how that faith perspective comes to bear on all that we do as Christians is very different from when films were frowned upon unless shown in church, or when churches provided the whole social life a Christian might need. Christians are now no different from most others in British society in so far as they interact routinely with a wide range of artistic and popular culture. They ‘make meaning’ differently by virtue of how their Christian faith interweaves with all other material (Christian or not) which they ‘consume’. One key task for the churches today, then, is to understand how this happens. Only then will we as Christians be in a position to demonstrate how faith ‘works’ in the context of contemporary living. If we summon people to church and then do not enable people to connect what faith is with how they live, then what hope is there of commending faith in a realistic way?

Third, we have to learn how to conduct conversations in a constructive and creative way with what people are actually watching and listening to. In the case of film, that means going beyond trying to commend faith through showing or discussing tried and tested ‘Christian’ or ‘safe’ films. There are limits to how many times Chariots of Fire can be recommended. It also means going beyond trying to find simple Christian meaning in other films (‘of course, what this films is really about is…’). Good works of art are never reducible only to what their author intended, or to a single meaning. Whatever the director or screenplay-writer intended, then, isn’t the last word on what a film ‘means’. Exploration of Christian themes happens in many different ways in response to film. Themes are important, but feelings are too. It is not only films which can easily be labelled ‘religious’ or ‘spiritual’ which provoke theological reactions. I have tried to explore this in Theology Goes to the Movies (Routledge 2007).

‘Dos’ and ‘Don’ts’ for preachers and worship-leaders
Lastly, where does this leave worship-leaders and preachers? I have insufficient space to develop the points fully, but let me be punchy and direct in conclusion. These are points based on fifteen years of working with faith and film, having some successes and making quite a few mistakes!

• Go to the cinema yourself. Don’t simply watch films on DVD at home (though do that too), or make do with others’ verdicts on films.
• Don’t try and turn the church into a cinema. Be hyper-careful if you ever show clips in worship. (Does this clip make sense out of context? Is the technology being used good enough?)
• Be careful when you refer to films. How much story-line do you need to give to make the point you want to make? Are you spoiling the film for the hearer? Are you implying that your reading is ‘the’ meaning? (Have you checked your reading out with anyone else?)
• Don’t try to be as entertaining as a film (or any other form of entertainment) in preaching or worship-leading. Worship is a different activity.
• Use films as more than ‘illustrations’. Taking films seriously means not just mentioning them as decoration for a sermon or talk. It means using them as stimulus for a theological conversation the results of which then find their way (perhaps via a study group) into worship.

Films, then, are a major stimulus of contemporary theological discussion. They will not always deliver what Christians want and not all films are worth lengthy discussion but they, and the cinemas in which they are being viewed, are highly significant in society today. Churches have much to learn, and much to offer the moment anyone says ‘hey, did you see…?’

Clive Marsh is Principal of the East Midlands Ministry Training Course, author of Theology Goes to the Movies (Routledge 2007) and editor of the Inspire book series ‘Conversations’, published by the Methodist Publishing House.