Editorial: Seeing a church foyer through a movie theater lobby

I found myself thinking about church foyers while I sat waiting in a movie theater lobby earlier this week. The two places are similar and dissimilar in interesting ways churches ought to consider.

The following are some of my observations. I don’t have prescriptions, but I do have questions.

Bottom line: We don’t pay enough attention to how people behave in our space. By doing that, we aren’t paying attention to people, to what they need when they enter our space, what they carry with them when they enter our space, how they are formed in and by our space, how they leave our space.

This is a good time for church leadership to ask these kinds of questions. It won’t be time wasted.

How I ended up people watching in a movie theater lobby

I took my daughter to watch a movie with her friends. Rather than drive back and forth during the high-traffic hours, I stayed, sitting at a table on one side of the lobby. As I watched the repeated pattern of people entering and exiting the lobby, it didn’t take me long to think about church foyers.

Those repeated patterns quickly became predictable. If we will just sit and watch people enter and exit our church foyers, their patterns will also become predictable. You may be surprised by the predictable patterns in your own foyer. You may also be troubled by them.

Event venues have several things in common, whether they be movie theaters, concert halls, sports stadiums, convention centers, or churches. And, yes, I know a church is not simply an event venue, even if we use church buildings that way, even if we behave in them as though that’s all they are.

Church buildings are sacred spaces. A particular worship happens in them, even if they’re not the only place people—including churchgoers—worship. And we shouldn’t think a form of worship isn’t happening in movie theaters, concert halls, sports stadiums, or convention centers.

Observations

Back to the movie theater: People arrived mostly as families and couples. Some arrived as singles and either joined others or went to the movie alone.

They almost all arrived with little time to spare before the movie started they came to see.

There were a lot of young families and young people.

People arrived in waves and left in waves. When a movie was over, they didn’t hang out in the lobby to talk with each other or anyone arriving in the next wave. For that matter, most didn’t hang out at all. They made straight for the doors and left.

There wasn’t much variation in clothing, mostly shorts and t-shirts. All but a few were dressed casually. I noticed a couple of medical professionals dressed in scrubs who came to the theater either straight from work or before going to work.

Retractable belt stanchions were used to funnel people from the front door to the center ticket scanner and then in the back-and-forth amusement park and TSA fashion to the concessions counter. No one was confused by this. No one resisted it. They funneled in and through as if programmed to do just that. And funneled out again after the movie.

Only one person spoke to me, an employee going home for the day who said, “Hi,” to me on his way out the door.

No one invited me to see a movie with them, though that probably would have been weird.

This wasn’t all I observed, but it’s enough to draw important comparisons.

Similarities

Now, go back and replace “movie theater” with “church foyer” in the last section, because most of my observations could have been in either place.

People attend church services and movies for different reasons. Or they should. So, assuming they do, they should behave in a movie theater lobby differently than they do in a church foyer. But I noticed uncomfortable similarities between that lobby and church foyers I’ve been in.

For example, many people don’t go to church to hang out. They get there as close to the start of the service as possible, rush in, sit looking at the front of the room for an hour or so, and leave as quickly as possible when the show—I mean, service—is over.

In a church with more than one worship service, attendees of the different services often don’t interact much with each other. They’re effectively separate congregations.

Should what happens in a church building cause people to want to arrive early, hang out before and/or after the service, and interact more with each other? If so, how should that be accomplished?

Differences

A difference: I didn’t see a single theatergoer lost in the lobby or confused about where to go. Guests are frequently lost or confused in church buildings.

Should every person entering our church building be able to navigate it without needing to think about where they’re going? Should any person be able to get through our building that easily? Or do we need our minds engaged when we enter a church building? If so, how?

People go to movies to be entertained. People should attend church for other reasons, but many don’t. How much of the way our buildings are laid out contributes to people expecting entertainment in them?

There’s no long-term or ongoing commitment to a movie theater … unless you become a member of one. Plenty of people approach church the same way, there only for the service and gone as soon as it’s over … when they’re there at all. Church should be different, shouldn’t it? How?

Should people be expected to make a long-term commitment to church? How should we go about encouraging such a commitment? And to what exactly should the commitment be?

Movies tend to be more attractive than church worship services. They’re clearly more attractive to young people and young families.

Should our ministries be more entertaining, so we can attract more young people and young families? If we are, how will that affect the message our church is charged to communicate? Are we only as good as our ability to entertain?

My questions aren’t about logistics or bottom lines. They are about worship and discipleship and who’s doing a better job facilitating both. To address these questions, we do well to pay attention to the people around us, whether they be in a movie theater lobby or our own church foyer.

Eric Black is the executive director, publisher, and editor of the Baptist Standard. He can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed in this opinion article are those of the author.