Hosting a film discussion (Part 1): Setting expectations

There was one question that I was asked more times at Forum than any other aspect of practical ministry: how do we run a film discussion? And so I’ve decided to write a set of posts for any CU or church that is planning to run a film discussion evening.

There are, of course, other ways to engage with films – over a pint in the pub after watching a film in the cinema, for instance (in many ways this is the very way of engaging with film. But this set of posts will focus on running an evening of showing a film in the hope that it will lead to discussions.

The key point of this post is this: be clear on the reason for running a film night.

There are plenty of different evangelistic activities a CU or church can host. Some are predominantly social events, others encourage guests to consider Jesus after a talk. But a key principle is to try and make sure that the gospel content of the evening matches its feel. We want to try and minimise the uncomfortableness of a ‘gear crunch’ when the conversation turns to spiritual things. It’s not generally helpful for anyone to think about the Christian message in this setting.

What, then, should be the expectations for a film night? I basically think you can realistically hope to do two things.

Firstly, we can demonstrate something of the life, warmth and generosity of the gospel during a film night. We can model good hospitality, enjoy a good film and enjoy each other’s company. As a bear minimum I want guests to go away thinking that the people they’ve spent the evening with are interested, warm and generous people that they’d like to hang out with again. This principle in itself will affect the way you structure the evening, as I’ll intimate in later posts.

Secondly, we can begin to plant questions in people’s minds which can only ultimately be satisfactorily answered in Jesus. Films are brilliant because they tell stories about the things that really matter – life, death, love, hate, friends, enemies, childhood, ageing, beauty, ugliness, good, evil, vengeance, forgiveness… the list goes on! And these categories ultimately only make sense in the Christian worldview. Films provide a non-threatening and easy way of allowing people to express an opinion regarding these important categories. I ideally want people to leave a film discussion thinking about one or more of these big issues and beginning to ask why they believe and feel what they do regarding them.

I remember going to watch a film in Preston with a group of non-Christian students. I’d tried to engage them in conversation about the big issues of life on several occasions but failed. Yet on the way back from the cinema, we had one of the most exciting, honest and transparent conversations I’d ever had. The film unlocked their tongues and their hearts, and I was naturally able to share something of the hope I had in Jesus. It doesn’t always happen like this, but over time film discussions can prod away at friends’ minds and hearts.

More soon.

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