As LifeSprings Christian Fellowship prepares to move into the Empire Theaters in Waterloo, they traveled on Sunday, August 14, 2011 to Niagara Falls, ON to attend Church at the Falls at 10am. There, they got to experience how a LifeChurch Campus does church in a theater. Overall, it was a positive experience and gave us a much better idea about what moving into a theater will be like.
A couple of positive things that we encountered at Church at the Falls included being greeted as soon as we walked in, their engaging and interactive worship band, getting to hear an excellent message from Craig about learning to speak boldly about what you believe deeply. I found that the Church @ the Falls really took advantage of the kind of socializing going to the movies brings out in people, such as spending time talking to them before and after the service. Finally, when the service started and the theater went dark, everyone was able to focus on what was happening at the front.
I found that the message was good. Craig explained that people speak boldly about what they believe deeply. Some biblical examples were taken from the book of Acts (Acts 9:28, 14:3). This truth is true about a lot of things. For example, if you deeply believe that people should not eat meat, you will speak boldly about being vegetarian and vegetarian dishes. Another example is politics: if you deeply believe that a certain political party or view point is the best way to run the country you live in, you will speak boldly about it. Deep beliefs generate bold speech.
I have a few comments about some of the points in his sermon. First, if you believe deeply in Christ as Saviour, you will speak/preach boldly to yourself, encourage people, lead people to Christ, and lovingly correct people. My one comment is just to be careful about what you are speaking as you don't want to be boldly speaking heresy to yourself out of ignorance. A biblical example of this is in Ancient Israel where the people were preaching boldly to themselves about stuff that sounded good but wasn't true, such as I am a child of Israel and God would never destroy Jerusalem or send us into exile; the temple, His home, is here after all. In 582BC that bold preaching proved to be very unhelpful because they were exiled and the temple was destroyed. Just be careful that in preaching to yourself, or speaking boldly about Christ to your non-Christian peers, that you know the truth before you start speaking it.
The final point was if you don't speak boldly, you might not believe as deeply. This is true about all religions, I think. If you deeply believe that your religion or spirituality is the key to having a fulfilled and abundant life, you will speak boldly about it and lead people to it. Hence why books like the God Delusion exist. Richard Dawkins deeply believes in atheism and thinks that it is the way to have an abundant life on earth, so he writes books and tries to lead people away from theism to atheism. In the same way, believers in Christ will lead people to Christ by default. They are not the people out with the signs that say your all going to hell, because that would not be very Christ-like. No they lead people Christ by showing that He means something now beyond sparing us from an unfortunate after-life.
From being in a more non-Christian and liberal Christian environment, I've found that speaking boldly and leading people to Christ can be subtle. For example, you can voice a Christian view of a controversial issue (abortion, capital punishment, etc.) without it being blatantly Christian. A good idea is to give an answer that's complete but leaves open the possibility of people asking questions. If questions are asked, go deeper; if no questions are asked, leave it at that. Always remember, when you speak boldly, boldly speak with wisdom and love.
So, that's my take on the trip to Church @ the Falls. I can't wait to move into the movie theater with LifeSprings in September!!
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