Church Movie Night

Our church has been talking about ways to "reach out" into the community. For a few years, Ben and I have discussed the possibility of hanging a large sheet or tarp from the side of the building, and then projecting a movie onto it.
We finally got our chance!

Sponsored by our church youth, we hosted a FREE community Movie Night 2 weeks ago. We sent out postcard invitations to all of our VBS attendees from the past 2 years. We were able to get the local (Erwin only...it's AM) radio station to advertise everyday for 2 weeks, for free! We also created extra postcards and fliers for church members to hand out, mail, or give to friends.

We began the evening at 7:00pm with "games" for everyone to play. There was basketball, crochet, ladder ball, badmitten (sp?), a football, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, hoola hoops, bingo, and a cake walk. Members of the church baked or purchased items for our cake walk - yum! We also had an icee maker and a popcorn maker donated for our use on Friday evening, and we provided bottled water and kool-aid. At 7:30pm, our worship band also played several songs for some extra "entertainment".

At 8:30pm, we began cleaning up the games. Ben had prepared a short message to give. Unfortunately, many of the younger kids were running around and people continued talking and "mingling" amongst themselves. I felt bad for Ben because he ended up cutting his message short. People weren't listening and he said he couldn't concentrate for all of the little kids running around. We've decided that next time, on August 15th, we'll corral everyone inside the church for the message. This will also allow the sound "crew" to get the movie set up and ready.

At 9:00pm, we started the movie, Bedtime Stories by Disney (featuring Adam Sandler). It was a great success! We used a large painter's canvas (9x12) that we drapped from the side of the church building. We used our regular morning projector and speakers for the video and sound. We can't wait to do our next one, "Back 2 School", the week after school starts. Instead of giving away cakes, cookies, and other yummy treats...we'll be giving away school supplies.

We realize that doing the "Back 2 School" night AFTER school starts is a little different, but we weren't able to schedule it before...unless we did the weekend before. The reason we decided against that is because almost half of our congregation (seriously!) are either teachers, asssitants, or principals...(including Ben and me)...it's crazy, I know! We figured we'd all be in panic mode trying to prepare for school, haha, so we're doing the weekend AFTER.

Here are a few pictures that my dad took for us throughout the evening.

People brought blankets and chairs to sit on (in the parking lot) during the movie. We are currently trying to come up with a good family movie to show. Feel free to leave any suggestions in the comment section. We had almost 100 people total throughout the evening...we hope to have even more in August.