Lausanne World Pulse – WORLD PERSPECTIVES – Media and Outreach: The Search for Bridges of Relevance

By Ron Forseth

The mission of Outreach, Inc., www.outreach.com, is to empower Christian churches to reach their communities for Jesus Christ. To do this, we seek to identify and utilize timely and appropriate bridges of relevance by which churches can engage the culture. These bridges are comparable to the redemptive analogies found in cultures around the world and described by Don Richardson in his book Peace Child. The idea is to identify those openings in the hearts of people by which the concepts of the gospel can be conveyed and take root.

Before Outreach decides to encourage thousands of churches to rally around an opportunity, certain criteria must be met. Substantial resources are required to promote an effective outreach and churches have much competing for their attention. In the case of movie-based bridges of relevance, such films need to meet the following three criteria:

  1. The highest standard of excellence in production quality.
  2. The right content which empowers a direct and powerful presentation of the message of redemption. 
  3. An appeal not just to the churched or the unchurched, but to both types of moviegoers.

In the cases of The Passion of the Christ and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Outreach concluded both movies had met these criteria. (The broad appeal of Mel Gibson’s The Passion developed with the controversy and hype surrounding it.)

 

These movies allowed churches and Christians to confidently say, “Go see the movie, then come discuss its meaning with me.”

Other movies, including Left Behind, A Walk to Remember, Polar Express and many others have relevant spiritual content, but for a variety of reasons did not rise to the level of The Passion and Narnia. There may be hundreds of movies that provide an opportunity for individual churches to do an outreach of some type, but thus far Outreach has found two films which meet the requirements of a national outreach.

(Note: While Outreach has supported the promotion of Every Tribe Entertainment’s End of the Spear and sees it as an excellent film presenting a story worthy of national attention, it was difficult to confidently anticipate that it would indeed capture the widespread attention of society. Gratefully, at least in limited measure, it has.)

In the cases of The Passion and Narnia, Outreach used comprehensive resources to gain the attention of churches and direct them toward effective outreach. These resources included: cover stories in Outreach Magazine, the development of an array of communication tools, the hosting or co-sponsoring of nationwide events to explain the outreach opportunities and the extensive promotion of the outreach opportunity via widespread media channels.

Ron Forseth is vice president of Outreach, Inc. Outreach works with forty thousand Christian churches across the U.S. to invite people to church and into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.