LAKEWOOD – Church on the Rock has gone to the movies.

Since August, the Church on the Rock parish has been meeting at the Lakewood Dipson Theaters. According to Pastor David Kibbe, the church was planning a special service at Dipson to celebrate its first birthday after holding a successful Easter service at the Lakewood theaters. In the midst of the birthday planning meeting, one of the leaders suggested Church on the Rock hold its service every week at the theater.

“We knew that meeting (at the theater) would allow us to meet on Sunday mornings, which we felt was an essential move if we wanted to grow,” Kibbe said, explaining for the past year the church had been meeting on Sunday evenings. “Secondly, we thought the theaters would allow us to have a really nice facility without having to spend a lot of money for start-up costs. We had looked for a facility to rent or buy, but it is just way too expensive. At the theater we don’t have to pay utilities or worry about building maintenance or plowing the driveway, so it was really cost-efficient. That’s really important to us because our leadership team had made a commitment to put our money into ministry and meeting needs rather than maintaining a building.”

With people already going to theaters, the pastor said by holding a service in one it would encourage more people to visit a church in a different setting. Before moving to Dipson, the Church on the Rock held services at Christ Church in Greenhurst after the pastor – a friend of Kibbe’s – agreed to help the church get started.

The idea for Church on the Rock came when Kibbe was serving in Uganda and had a moment of conviction he and his wife shouldn’t return to the south, where they had been working earlier, but stay in Western New York to make a new non-denominational church. The turnout has been good, according to Kibbe, with services attracting anywhere from 150-170 people.

Currently, Church on the Rock is looking for ways to be give back to the community.

Church services start at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday and last about 70 minutes.