New Medium for Rev. Schuller’s Message : Religion: The Crystal Cathedral minister’s ‘Hour of Power’ film will screen in theaters to help offset cancellation of TV program in Russia and Europe.

As they entered the theater at MainPlace/Santa Ana, passing the popcorn stand and posters of upcoming attractions, Wilfred and Clara Landrus were reminded that the leading man they came to see Saturday morning was the same one who appeared at a drive-in theater they first went to in Orange almost 40 years ago.

Wilfred Landrus, 76, recalled that one Sunday in 1955, their 4-year-old son had mumps and couldn’t be taken inside a church.

“So we decided to go to that crazy drive-in church in Orange,” Landrus said, where the Rev. Robert H. Schuller was preaching from a pulpit atop a snack bar to a parking lot full of cars outfitted with speakers attached to their windows.

On Saturday morning, the Landruses were among about 125 members of Schuller’s congregation--now based at the enormous Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove--who showed up for a preview of a film that was a composite of edited segments of Schuller’s “Hour of Power” television ministry.

The same film will premiere in Australia at 4 p.m. today, as Schuller, a leading proponent of Christian positive thinking, launches a new program to distribute “Hour of Power” films worldwide. His goal is to have screenings in 2,000 theaters within two years.

Schuller has turned to film as an alternative to spread his message to those he calls “the unchurched” after his weekly television show earlier this year lost 10 million to 15 million viewers when it was taken off the government-owned station in Russia. The television ministry had lost another 200,000 viewers when “Hour of Power” was dropped in January by Europe’s Super Channel network.

Schuller, who brought his international board of directors to Saturday’s viewing, also expressed a sense of deja vu.

“I haven’t made much progress, have I?” he joked in memory of the church’s drive-in beginning. “But at least we have a roof over our heads.”

Although the movie program was born out of adversity, Schuller said he is so impressed by the effectiveness of the concept that he intends to continue showing films of Sunday services in movie houses even if he recoups the loss in TV viewers. “It is far more impacting than a television program,” he said.

Schuller and Ray Cotton, another longtime minister who is directing the venture called “The Hour of Power in Cinema,” said they hope the movies will attract people who are intimidated by traditional churches.

“A lot of non-church people are hesitant or fearful of going to a church. But they’ve all been to movie theaters,” Cotton said. “It is their turf and takes away some of the stigmas and unknowns.”

He said 20 theaters scattered throughout the United States will begin regular Sunday morning showings on Nov. 6 of the “Hour of Power” films, including Edwards Newport Cinema in Newport Beach and another theater in Westminster yet to be named.

Ultimately, under an agreement with Edwards Cinemas, all Edwards theaters in Southern California will participate, according to Schuller spokesman Michael Nason.

Cotton said refreshments will be offered at many of the showings and members of local churches will serve as hosts to greet those who attend.

Unlike regular church services and “Hour of Power” television programs, there will be no calls for offerings at the theaters, Cotton said. Although going to the movies is less convenient than watching a television sermon at home, the atmosphere at the theaters will be less formal than at church, he said, with people welcome to come dressed casually or in “mall attire,” rather than their Sunday best.

Before the film rolled Saturday, Schuller, reading an announcement that will introduce the show to newcomers, urged those attending the preview to participate as if they were an extension of the congregation shown on the screen.

Some adjustment was required for regular churchgoers. Those who entered after the film had begun nervously whispered to one another that they were blinded by the darkness and carefully sought out empty seats. And only a brave minority, including Schuller, sang and applauded in concert with the choirs and audiences on film.

But afterward, everyone seemed satisfied that the new movie had hit potential. “The photography was just great,” one woman gushed when Cotton asked for reactions from the audience. Another suggested that “The Glory of Christmas” and “Glory of Easter,” two popular holiday productions at Crystal Cathedral, could make a “double feature.”

Fred Swann, who for 13 years has played the huge organ at Crystal Cathedral, said Dolby stereo made the music much more satisfactory than the sound produced by a small television speaker. “It is more comparable to being at Crystal Cathedral,” he said.