To spread the gospel, varied methods are adopted by the church. In the past, it was through gospel tracts or one-on-one oral communication; nowadays, many churches use relational evangelism and organize activities to attract people. An urban house church is spreading Jesus through Christian movie reviews or short films, which have shown good results.
Pastor L of this church said that when they evangelized in the past, they often hurried to explain the main points of the gospel, such as "what sin is," "why we are sinners," and "how Jesus redeemed our sins," which they considered very important. But after explaining these things, they saw discomfort in listeners, who found it difficult to accept all this unfamiliar information in a short time, let alone digest and absorb it. Though they kept preaching, many people were unwilling to continue learning.
Spreading the gospel has become increasingly difficult, and, regrettably, people leave as they are overwhelmed by being forcibly fed, he said.
But it's different to use movies to spread the gospel. The pastor said, "People resonate with them as they are telling stories."
Pastor L and his team carefully select movies, based on which they preach the gospel of Jesus. "In our view, this method is still very effective, although it is also subject to many limitations. For example, it can’t be carried out on a large scale due to venue constraints. Nevertheless, we still highly acknowledge the effectiveness of gospel movie reviews."
Some movies are good, but they often last about two hours. After watching them, people have no time to communicate, let alone talk about the gospel.
L said, that after extracting the essence, they have turned some good movies into ten- to twenty-minute movie reviews or condensed them into short videos of about twenty minutes. After watching the reviews, attendees still have time left to discuss and share their knowledge of God. Speaking of their original intention, Pastor L said, "A good movie must be about human nature, so it can be used to spread the gospel, as belief in God is also a part of human nature."
The method of Christian movie reviews has been applied in Pastor L's church for several years, even becoming a cultural export attempt. Many people, especially urban white-collar groups, are interested in movies, and movie reviews happen to meet their needs.
Some overseas churches acquainted with Pastor L have sought advice from him, even taking their movie reviews to play at gospel rallies. "They said it worked very well," Pastor L said. "Though at that time they lacked preachers to give sermons, people just need to watch the reviews and then discuss together, even with some making commitments to Jesus."
- Translated by Abigail Wu
