I remember when going to a movie theater meant sitting in a huge auditorium, I liked to sit with my friends in the balcony. You would wait patiently, not for the previews and adds to end but rather for the curtains to swing open revealing the screen on which you would watch the opening movie. This would then be followed by an intermission before the main feature would begin.
I remember the ladies with flashlights showing people the way back to their seats after they were late returning from the intermission or late arriving. I remember the cloud of smoke that filled the place. I remember people applauding after a good movie.
As times changed in the motion picture industry the theater I used to go to as a kid, was divided to make four smaller theaters so more movies could be shown at the same time. The sound quality was better, the seats were more comfortable, the picture was clearer, it was non-smoking. But the screen was smaller, the buzz of excitement was gone, the event was feature film only, the applause was gone. It was better, it was worse, it was different.
My dad remembers when newsreels were part of the movie experience, My grandfather (98) remembers silent films. Much has changed over the course of time, we now have movies with CGI and other innovative technologies.
The movie industry is innovative and adaptive.
I often hear conservative preachers lament the demise of culture and morality and blame Hollywood for it.
Yet we worship a God who created the world and according to Scripture (Acts 2, Peter quoting Joel) created us to be dreamers and visionaries. So why has the church stopped dreaming? Why have so many churches decided to live in some time period and culture other than that of March 18, 2010? Why isn't the church taking the lead in creating a vision of the future?
