Reel and Slide (Mar-Dec 1918)

MAY -4 hl8 REEL and SLIDE Adds 500% to Attendance By Using Screen in Church BEING asked to write out of my experience upon the use of moving pictures in Church work, I submit herewith a few ideals and practical results gathered from three years' application of pictures to the educational work of the Church upon Sunday evenings. The average man~ has lost his interest in the old fashioned sermons that speculated about the glories and horrors of the after-death world. The once popular discussions and debates of a theological character no longer interest either professional students or the average people. The discovery that this is God's world and that he lives in it, enlarges the horizon of the Church, enables it to connect the laws of nature and the laws of life with the Creator of the universe whom we worship as God and Father. The Church, then, in interpreting God must recognize and use the agencies God has instituted for the enlightenment and elevation of the human race. And conspicuous among those agencies are the tongue, the ear, and the eye. These constitute a marvelous co-ordination of forces through which God speaks to man. And the picture speaks more forcibly than the spoken or written word. Rightly used, it will carry a message to masses of the people that would not be delivered to them so easily in any other way. In making the transition from the old thought of the Church as a "pulpit" with a roof over it, to the new thought of the Church as an educational institution; that it is to spiritualize the thoughts of men and "brotherize" the motives of the community, a tactful policy of procedure must be formulated and important steps taken progressively with due consideration to all circumstances. Our Use of Pictures The first step is a resolution to make the Church more effective in delivering its message to the people and making itself felt in the life of the community. The second step is a willingness to recognize that it is far more important to minister to the needs of today than strain every ecclesiastical effort to preserve the traditions of yesterday. The third step is a desire to so organize the Church and equip the plant with such apparatus as will enable it to speak to the people and attract them to its pews, its class rooms, and its social halls, in all of which one overarching purpose shall run, viz : — that of uniting the people in a fellowship of helpful service. The fourth step is a determination as one enters this new fieM to "hue to the line" of humanitarian ideals and say to all purely commercial temptations, "get thee hence, Satan." Equipment of such a modern Church should include a stereopticon and moving picture machine. And both machines should be of the best and most modern make, the screen to be of the opaque type with sufficiently yellow in the color to reflect all the rays of light and make the picture efficient. We use the pictures only in the evening service which we emphasize as educational Minister of Universalist Church in City of 4,000 Gives Results of Three Years Work With Films and Slides — Plan Proves Success By Rev. G. H. Ashworth Pastor, First Universalist Church, Sycamore, III. and which we put upon the lecture basis, but never omit the "devotional introduction" to the evening's program, which includes special sacred music. Increase Audience 500 Per Cent If I give a stereopticon lecture upon the Yellowstone National Park; Glacier National Park ; Mt. Ranier National Park : or the Rocky Mountain National Park, I follow the lecture with one or two reels of moving pictures covering some of the same scenes as shown in the still pictures. Our scenic programs always draw good audiences and through them I endeavor to emphasize the majesty of the mountains, the grandeur of America, the magnitude of the world, and connect all created things "The picture speaks more forcibly than the spoken or written word," says Rev. Ashworth with the Divine Hand that is directing the course of human history. If I speak upon the story of Abraham's Sacrifice, I follow the "sermon" with one Churches may select entertainment pictures with care. This is a scene from "Snow White" — shown in Dr. Ashworth' s church. {Lea-Bel Film Co., Chicago)