Cinematic lessons: CedarCreek finds faith discussions in secular films

A CedarCreek Church pastor suggests the power of storytelling is that it’s sneaky.<\/p>\n

Secular movies can often be tied to spiritual themes, Ben Snyder said, because people often see themselves, their struggles, and their hopes through film.<\/p>\n

“You just sit down and you watch a movie, and what I do is I just try to uncover what's causing the tension, and where do we relate to that, and what might God say to that tension in our life?” said Snyder, lead pastor at CedarCreek.<\/p>\n

“I think all truth is God's truth,” he continued. “So whether we see it that way or not, his truth, the true principles of life and the ways that we were created are woven through our life stories, and movies tend to capture the things that our soul most deeply wants to be true, or what our souls are struggling with.”<\/p>\n

People can explore and experience these connections this month at CedarCreek Church’s At the Movies<\/em> series.<\/p>\n

It's one of the church’s most popular series, bringing in a 40 percent increase in attendance over the previous six weeks, Pastor Snyder said. CedarCreek offers the film series each November — just before Christmas, New Year’s resolutions, and the Super Bowl Preach-Off — to place multiple “easy-to-invite experiences together,” he said.<\/p>\n

Kristen Rudisill, who teaches a religion and pop culture course at Bowling Green State University, said spiritual themes are often found in film because religion is so embedded in the culture and value systems of the creators.<\/p>\n

“Religion looks at all the big questions: Why are we here? What are we doing? Why do bad things happen to good people?” she said. \"Most [films], you can find those themes if you look for them.\"<\/p>\n

It’s important to look at messages like ethics when consuming media, the professor added, instead of just considering whether it was a good story.<\/p>\n

Her course has looked at reality shows, moral issues, sports and other fandoms as religion, religious movements, and the influence of religious traditions in film.<\/p>\n

“You can have those kinds of conversations over any film,” Rudisill said. “Hopefully, popular culture can give us examples of all kinds of stories and all kinds of characters that then we can think about what value they hold for us as we're living our own lives.”<\/p>\n

“The goal is to help people who either gave up on church, quit church, or have never been to church, to be introduced to Jesus and his way of life,” Pastor Snyder said. “The strategy is to string together or bring back-to-back, easy-to-invite events to help introduce people to Jesus.”<\/p>\n

The past two weekends have looked at themes of encouragement in The <\/em>Boys in the Boat<\/em>, the 2023 George Clooney-directed historical drama about the University of Washington’s rowing team and its run to the Olympics in 1936, and the danger of secrets in The Family Plan, <\/em>the 2023 Apple TV+ action comedy starring Mark Wahlberg about a used car salesman who must go on the run after his past as an assassin is exposed. <\/p>\n

The first film shared moments of encouragement and showed that “the right word at the right time, said the right way” can be a game-changer, Pastor Snyder explained. The second film was a reminder that secrets will come out in one way or another.<\/p>\n

“Truth is a captive of no one,” Pastor Snyder said. “God invites us to bring all of our ‘secrets,’ our sins, to him. He already knows them. And when we confess to him, we experience his renewal.”<\/p>\n

While upcoming weekends’ films are not shared ahead of time, Pastor Snyder said that “over the next few weeks, we will be exploring how to overcome pain, how to grow our faith and the significance of belonging.”<\/p>\n

Recent feedback has included being reminded not to keep one's struggles a secret but to continue sharing and working on those struggles; finding new approaches to working with colleagues in an encouraging manner; and families determining to reframe conversations with their kids. And the people who were hesitant to come to church, he said, walk out having enjoyed the experience and feeling like they learned something they can take into their week.<\/p>\n