2004: The Passion of the Christ
Highest Response to the Christian Enquiry Agency
Highest response rate to the Christian Enquiry Agency. Of
the many hundreds of people who saw 'The Passion of the Christ' film over 2,600
people have sent response cards to Christian Enquiry Agency (CEA) asking about
Jesus Christ. 'We have never known anything like this before and had to pull
out all the stops to cope with the demand for information about Jesus. Whilst
the demand stretched our resources considerably, it is great to be able to help
so many people,' said Andrew Taylor at the CEA Enquiry Office.
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Around 150,000 response postcards were placed in cinemas
across Britain in an ambitious outreach campaign to reach people who don't
attend church. Churches snapped up thousands more of the cards for outreach.
Those who sent the enquiry card back to CEA received a free copy of the 'True
or False' booklet produced by CPO, which relates to the film, plus a personal
letter offering further help and ideas. These include a free copy of one of the
gospels in a magazine format, details of local Alpha courses, a telephone
helpline, prayer and contact with a local Christian. Hundreds of people are
coming back with questions and requests for help.
Commenting on the campaign, Jeff Bonser, the CEA Director,
said 'We felt it was vital to provide an opportunity for people to find out
more about Jesus while they were still in the cinema and thinking about what
they had experienced. Cinema is the most popular form of cultural activity
outside the home, attracting over 80% of the entire population in one year and
more than 60% of all cinemagoers are under 35. This is the age group that is
missing from churches and the film offered a great opportunity to reach them
with the reality of the cost of God's love for us all.'
Unique content on rejesus website
The response postcard also referred enquirers to the
evangelistic website, www.rejesus.co.uk/thepassion.
The website has background notes to moments from the film, covering the Last
Supper, King Herod, the shadowy 'devil' figure, and other details - plus a
special page on 'what happened next'. These pages have received thousands of
hits.
The website is designed for churches to use in their
evangelistic work by simply including a link from their own website and putting
www.rejesus.co.uk
on outreach materials.
Deo Gloria Trust was one of the many organisations involved
in the funding and distribution of the Passion of the Christ reply
cards. |
