Sunday Services at a Theater Near You

Churches Trade Hymnals and Pews for Silver Screen and Stadium Seating

Reston Town Center has its first house of worship: a nondenominational church that began meeting last month in its Multiplex movie theater.

Reston Community Church, a small evangelical congregation, moved its Sunday morning worship service from a Herndon elementary school to three screening rooms of the 13-screen facility in March.

The churches uses one screening room for its contemporary-style worship service and the other two for its children's programs, said the Rev. Ben Arment, founder of the four-year-old church.

He said the church wanted to increase its visibility by moving to the popular town center.

"A lot of churches have the mindset that they have to meet in a church building," said Arment. But his church, which averages about 85 attendees on a Sunday morning, makes full use of the unconventional setting, he said. It projects song lyrics, Bible verses and video clips onto the giant screen during the services, and its band uses the theater's Dolby sound system.

The church's new home illustrates a growing trend among smaller churches, some of which are finding sanctuary in front of the big screen on Sunday mornings.

A few other churches in the Washington area have moved into movie theaters. The National Community Church has worship services at the AMC Union Station theater in the District and at the Regal Theater inside Ballston Common Mall.

Journey's Crossing has Sunday worship services in movie theaters in Silver Spring and Gaithersburg, said Mark Wilkinson, pastor of the five-year-old church, which also has services in a coffee shop in Northeast D.C. He said he hoped the church could expand into more movie theaters and other such nontraditional church locations in coming years.

The market has shown so much potential that movie-house companies are looking to attract more churches, said Lyle Schaller, a consultant to churches.

"Since people typically don't go to the movies on Sunday mornings, why not rent it out?" Schaller said.

National Amusement, the Massachusetts company that owns the Reston Multiplex, said it now rents out its theaters to churches in five locations nationwide, including Reston, and it is seeking more of those arrangements.

"Arrangements such as these are beneficial to both our company and to the communities within which we operate," National Amusements spokeswoman Wanda Whitson wrote in an e-mail.

This isn't Reston Community Church's first foray into putting God in the box office. Before meeting at Oak Hill Elementary for two years, Reston Community Church -- then operating under the name History Church -- had its services at the United Artists movie theater at Fairfax Town Center.

Arment said the church is glad to be back in a movie theater.

"The screen is a big part of our service," he said.