I imagine that some may disagree with me on this.......
There is a lot of excitement on church web sites about the Disney release of the Chronicles of Narnia movie. Like with the Mel Gibson Passion movie, a lot of churches are buying blocks of seats and saying it is one of the greatest evangelistic opportunities we have. I am seeing all types of Christian evangelism paraphernalia and evangelistic flyers, doorknob hanger invites etc. being produced for the Narnia movie. However, after the Passion movie, I wonder why we didn't learn our lesson. George Barna ended up discovering that virtually nothing changed after the movie hype was over and the "greatest evangelistic opportunity we have had in 2,000 years" (as one company was advertising the Passion movie to be), really didn't happen the way we had hoped. I am sure some came to faith in Jesus as a result, and for that I am joyful ( I haven't heard of any personally, even knowing a church that made a huge effort in trying to use the film that way).
Now we are again seeing some of the same hype about the CS Lewis story which has some great metaphors about a savior-figure dying and coming back to life etc. I personally look forward to the film and am glad they made it. But, I guess I just don't see it as a great evangelistic opportunity. I imagine that millions of people will see it, and marvel at the wonderful story and get emotional as Aslan, the lion God of Narnia comes back to life. For those that know the inside story, we know the CS Lewis used the metaphor of Aslan being like Christ is there in the story. But you need to know that metaphor. To most people, I wonder if it will simply be like Gandalf coming back from the dead going from Gandalf the Gray to Gandalf the White sort of a thing. A wonderful story, but not life changing to the movie attendee.
Seeing all the growing hype, I also just wonder why the church gets so excited about movies to do the job of evangelism, especially in a film that will be a stretch for someone to directly associate it with the resurrection of Jesus. My bigger hope from the Narnia movie itself in terms of evangelism, would be that people get interested in other writings of C.S. Lewis and the read the book Mere Christianity . That to me, would have more direct impact than the actual movie.
I sort of find it kind of sad that the church has to get so excited about films to do evangelism, rather than being excited about the ongoing relationships we have with those outside the faith for evangelism. It feels weird that I would invite someone to a movie to explain what I believe in rather than letting my life and what I can be talking them about personally would be.
The movie I actually look forward to in terms of evangelistic opportunity is the Da Vinci Code movie coming out in May 2006. The reason is that although it directly will raise the issues about the church, the resurrection, the origin of the Bible and origins of Christianity that will make us very uncomfortable (and are false) - the good part is people will see this film by the millions and questions will be directly asked about what Christians believe. Questions like what in the movie was true and was a lie? etc. I think there will be great opportunity if the church is ready to respond to these questions. This is the movie I would want to go to with non-Christian friends and then have it as a springboard of discussion for. I would schedule to have some open forum discussions afterwards at church or some preaching to the church about the questions it raises to prepare them how to answer when discussion about movie comes up in the workplace or in friendships. I hope that the church is ready. I hope we we teach our churches how to be ready to respond to these questions.
So, that is the film I personally think has more post-movie evangelistic opportunity than the Passion or Narnia movies. It shouldn't scare us, as the truth of Jesus is the truth. It should make us go "Hey, that's not what really happened! But here is what we believe..." But this all means Christians have to take effort to do their homework to have intelligent answers and not rely on a movie to do it. Millions will see this movie. Tom Hanks as the star and Ron Howard directing, it is certain to be a good quality film. There will be millions of teenagers seeing this film and it strikes at the heart of Christian belief at a popular level and that should disturb us with the claims it will teach. 
So we better be ready for it and I hope even excited about it. Because isn't when these direct questions come up about our faith is now when we will have great times of actually discussing and intelligently explaining to others what we really believe? I hope we will be ready. There are good book out there already with lots of answers to what the Da Vinci Code raises - such as Breaking the Da Vinci Code by Darrel Bock etc. So, I would recommend making sure we are ready to address the issues this movie raises.
Please understand, I am going to the Narnia film and do hope God uses it. But I guess I don't think we should get so hyped like for Narnia to be the evangelistic tool of the century like we did for the Passion film, when evangelism really occurs through the Spirit in relationships not a movie for the most part (again, I know God can use anything). But I think the potential for evangelism will be greater with the Da Vinci Code than perhaps any other movie released yet. That is why I am excited about its release. That truth will then have to be discussed as a result and Christians will really be ready to discuss what we believe to our non-Christian friends who may ask now that they have some direct questions that will arise from the film. I hope so.......
