Dozens of sceptics are signing up for Christianity courses as Sydney Anglican congregations begin to see the fruits of coming to grips with Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code.
Parramatta Cathedral's the Rev Bruce Morrison points to a community response to a recent Challenging Da Vinci event that shows the church is scratching where people are itching.
"About half of the 90 to 100 people who attended were new faces, either invited by St John's people or else they had seen the advertising," he says.
Dr Greg Clarke from the Centre for Apologetic Scholarship and Education (CASE) delivered a short talk that exposed the flaws in the novel, while leading listeners on to a deeper consideration of Jesus and his claims.
The large contingent of new comers who braved the cold and wet evening to hear Dr Clarke speak included a couple from Germany who were responding to a brochure they had been handed.
"He is an atheist and she is full of profound theological questions even though she is not yet a Christian," Mr Morrison says, describing a deep conversation with them after the event.
"They didn't fill in a card but they turned up at LifeWorks [evangelistic] course on Tuesday evening and they are enthusiastic to keep coming along.
In all, seven people that evening indicated their desire to take part in a LifeWorks series.
"There are others who were at the Da Vinci seminar who had come recently to church and are now coming along to LifeWorks," Mr Morrison says.
"Among them are three Muslim men and a Persian Iranian girl " about 30 guests in total. As you can imagine we are having fun."
Mr Morrison wonders what the result would have been if the rain had held off.
"At the time I thought we could have got higher numbers and I'm pretty sure that they would have been higher if it hadn't been such a bitterly cold and wet night."
Carlingford Code breakers report new interest in Jesus
St Paul's Carlingford reports similar levels of interest at a Challenging Da Vinci event run weeks before the film's release.
"Feedback from people has been very positive," says event organiser Don Coles.
"In terms of numbers we had 130 people altogether. We estimate at least 30 were visitors."
Carlingford rector the Rev Bruce Hall reports the parish is coming into contact with people who have had their conversion triggered by The Da Vinci Code.
"One of my neighbours has been praying for and speaking with a young man on the subject," he says.
"This young man went to the movie and decided as he was watching the movie that he wanted to become a Christian. Obviously there was a lead up to that, but something in the movie prompted his final decision."
As the speaker at both events, Dr Clarke says tools like the Challenging Da Vinci campaign have a good chance of getting through to the community.
"It's shown that there are lots of great points in our culture at the moment for making contact in the gospel," Dr Clarke says.
"People want spirituality but they're only receiving the popcorn version. We need to continue offering them the meaty gospel truth."
Click here to view the ministry resources available for taking advantage of the Da Vinci Code phenomenon.
