Da Outreach

Many Christian organizations are doing a good job preparing outreach tools for the upcoming release of The Da Vinci Code movie. Here is a Newsweek article about some of those efforts. It explains:

Campus Crusade for Christ, an interdenominational network of campus ministries, created a 20-page magazine disputing the movie's claims and professing Christian beliefs. The organization is printing more than a million copies, which will be given free to unbelievers and can be bought at cost by Christians. Outreach, a provider of church evangelism tools, is selling dozens of items, from bulk direct-mail postcards—"Got Questions?" one reads, showing a picture of the Mona Lisa with a milk mustache—to bookings with New Testament scholars.

Julie Scheving, a 46-year-old resident of Holland, Michigan, disagrees with the movie's claims but plans on buying tickets for friends so she can start a conversation about religion. She explained, "Any spiritual conversation is better than no spiritual conversation."

Mike Licona, director of Apologetics at the North American Mission Board, was part of the boycott efforts against The Last Temptation of Christ. Now he is taking a different approach (the Newsweek link includes a video clip of a NAMB outreach video). He explained, "I think it was a mistake. ... It created the impression that we weren't interested in truth or critical discussion."


Another group, Focus on the Family, also has a website with outreach materials. It is great to see all of these attempts to spark dialogue about religious issues. These efforts will likely be much more effective than leading boycotts or protests.