Church takes ministry to the movies 'The Passion of the Christ' as a religion lesson By Anna Krejci News-Chronicle The general public is invited to view Mel Gibson's film, "The Passion of the Christ" at no cost. Heartland Church in Howard has purchased seats for an entire theater for an afternoon screening of the movie. The film portrays the final 12 hours of Jesus Christ's life, concluding with his death when he is nailed to a cross. The church wants to encourage people who might not otherwise pay admission to see the film, according to James Kocian, a Heartland Church member. Kocian also owns a marketing business that is donating its services to the church. By sponsoring a viewing that is open to the general public, the church also hopes to introduce itself to potential new members. The church is not trying to compete with other churches for members, Kocian said, but Easter is a time of year when people who do not regularly go to church might attend worship and might consider attending Heartland Church, Kocian said. The nondenominational church, founded in 1998, has grown steadily to 150 members, said the church's senior pastor, Scott Werlein. He emphasized that a primary reason for hosting the screening was to give something to the community because he said often people perceive churches as taking from the community. Werlein said this movie has the potential to reach people who have never been to church or do not regularly follow films based on Biblical stories. Gibson created a quality film that is reasonably accurate, he said. Werlein said studying the movie that has garnered a lot of attention, and might have a Hollywood flare to it can beneficial. "We want to be culturally relevant," he said. The church will host two question-and-answer sessions open to the public at 6:30 p.m. on March 16 and 23 at the church to address the context of the movie since it only captures 12 hours of Jesus Christ's life. Kocian, who used to be a worship leader at the church, said he expects people will question the role of the crucifixion and whether the movie is anti-Semitic. Kocian said he does not believe it is. He and Werlein saw the movie on its opening day. While the Jews accuse Jesus of blasphemy and the Romans physically nail Jesus to the cross, neither group should be assigned the blame, rather Jesus' violent death was a sin on the part of "mankind," Kocian said. While the church is asking its members to see the movie and inviting the public to the free showing, it is not trying to promote the industry. "We're promoting the movie, but we're not movie-promoters," Kocian said, he added that the church is not receiving any perks for sponsoring the screening. "Two hundred-forty people on a Saturday afternoon isn't gonna make or break ÔThe Passion of the Christ,' " he said. Kocian said the church wanted to schedule the screening in late March, but the movie theater would not sell them tickets that far in advance. Kocian said the theater manager was afraid they would not be running the film then if it should not be a big seller. "The fear was this movie would come out and flop before it ever got started," Kocian said. "This is such a powerful story and we feel such a burden to share that story with the general public," Kocian said. Heartland Church has 160 tickets remaining for the 3:45 p.m. showing on March 13 at Bay Park Cinema in Green Bay. Tickets are distributed on a first-come-first-serve basis. For more information, call the church at 662-0071.