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Pastor Holds Church At Movie Theater

POSTED: 12:08 pm EST November 10, 2006
UPDATED: 4:54 pm EST November 13, 2006

The Rev. Dan Smith uses an extremely unorthodox way to preach the Christian gospels. He wants to attract young people turned off by conventional churches.

NewsChannel5's Ted Henry reported Smith will do almost anything to convince those turned off by religion that being spiritual can be cool. He wants to attract the unchurched.

"I have some people who haven't been to church in 10 to 15 years or forever, saying man that this is cool," Smith said.

Another interesting element is where the church -- Momentum Christian Church -- is located.

The congregation meets at the Cinemark movie theater on Canal Road.

"A lot of time when you walk into a church it feels kind of solemn, but when you walk into a theater, it feels like something exciting is about to happen,” Smith said.

Momentum Church is new to Cleveland and people are finding a wide array of activities for kids, teens and adults.

"I am a younger person, I like a more upbeat type of church," one member said.

Another member said, "We've been here ever since it started. It's different. It’s not like being at church."

Smith said he didn't grow up religious.

"It was kind of a shock to anybody in my family when I did become a follower of Jesus," Smith said.

Dan Smith's videos infuse religion and rap music and they have been played on VH1 and CNN. They are a big hit for everyone except reserved believers.

"I am very much doing this because I didn't understand much about Jesus growing up and when I did finally understand it, it was somebody who really made a story accessible to me," Smith said.

Some might consider this approach a bold church experiment because of everything -- a movie house, video games, Hip Hop, comedy, plus the teachings of Christ. But Smith thinks it is his life's passion to bring what he has to offer to both the unchurched and the disillusioned.

"I'm just kind of saying what Jesus said, if you would sum this whole bible up it would be about two things, love God and love people," Smith said. "I think that's what spirituality is all about."




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