Film and Radio Guide (Oct 1945-Jun 1946)

34 FILM AND RADIO GUIDE Volume XII, No. 1 Can Pictures Be Used Efficiently in Church Work? BY REV. CHARLES J. FISHER Pastor of the Independent Fundamental Baptist Church, Detroit, Michigan By way of introduction, I would like to say I have been in the Gospel ministry for 23 years and remember when the church in general tabooed any type of motion picture. In fact, I was one of the opposers. It wasn’t so much the equipment that I opposed as it was the pictures. But as time went on certain producers began to get a vision of the churches’ need and slowly this field has been developed. This is all a long story, and I am not going to try to tell it, but bring you up to date with some practical ilkustrations. We are a down-town church in the heart of Detroit, Michigan, where we have a transient people, and child delinquency is at an all-time high. We tried earnestly to meet the challenge by organizing a weekly Children’s Bible Club. We went to the public schools, invited the children on the streets, and called in the homes ; we gave parties and used games and many methods, but were unable Rev. Charles J. Fisher to hold the children from week to week. Our average attendance was about 24 children per week. Then we borrowed a 16-millimeter sound projector and began a planned program. We used C. O. Baptista’s films. Cathedral Films, some news, educational, and scenic films, and appropriate comics for bait, and it sure ly brought results. Our attendance last year averaged 115 children per week. We arranged our program and previewed it after our regular prayer meeting service, that the adults might also see what we were doing for the children. This also increased the attendance at the prayer meeting. We also used our projector in the open air by putting a screen on the front of the building and showing pictures, thus reaching many strangers who were just passing by. I have found much advantage in using films wisely. I say wisely, because we are not trying to compete with the motion-picture houses. Our programs are planned in conjunction with the objects of our church, which are: first, to glorify God; second, to edify Christians; third, to win souls for Christ. This all takes much prayer, common sense, and the help of a good man like Edward F. Knop of Cosmopolitan Films of Detroit. Visual Program at Owensboro, Kentucky BY J. L. FOUST Superintcndenf of Schools, Owensboro, Kentucky The Owensboro Board of Education and the principals of the various schools have become increasingly interested in a visualeducation program of such a nature that all of the children of the schools will be benefited and that the adults in the various communities of the city will be given the advantage of viewing pictures that contain valuable information and suggestions on community life. The system has thirteen schools and it is the plan of each school to own one or more filmstrip machines and the system as a whole to possess one or more