NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - Two Virginia churches are taking their message to the movies and even the men's room, trying to reach 18- to 34-year-old men.
"Most people live in an R-rated culture," Pastor John Redmon of Open Door Community Church in Newport News, Va., told the Associated Press.
"Movies. Music. Personal issues in people's lives. We want to reach out to people where they're at."
That mission has church members putting ads on everything from matchbooks to urinal partitions in bars, strip clubs, convenience stores and professional wrestling programs. Onscreen ads running prior to movies also have proved successful, with Open Door's membership growing from 26 to 150 in the last five months, Redmon said. The median age is 34.
Hope Community Church, also in the Newport News area, has been advertising its new "Night Service" in bars, restaurants and convenience stores with matchbooks. The church borrowed the idea from Cincinnati's Vineyard Community Church, which used unique marketing ideas to grow from 37 members to 6,000.
