I was reading an article called Taming the Image in Leadership Journal when a line struck me as one I should go back over again.
"In a discarnate age, the only option Christians have for presenting a credible, authoritative, and transformative gospel is to embody Christ. We need to be wary of trying to transmit a message of embodiment through a medium of disembodiment."
Stephen Downey writes, "A video-streamed sermon on the Incarnation would be ironic at best and offensive at worst."
Do we stop using video, power point, music, and media in our churches? What are your thoughts?
I don't think using those things as additions to the worship service is a negative thing, necessarily. I love the music in our services, and I've always tried to find a niche in the music ministry at whatever church I'm attending. That being said, I have been to some churches in the past where the media almost overwhelms the message. At what point is it too much? Not sure there's a bright line. But I don't think that using media necessarily means we can't present the gospel in an effective manner. I'll have to roll this around in my head some more, see if anything else comes out.
ReplyDeleteI attended a service at Lake Pointe Church a couple of years ago and watched a young man get baptized on the "big screen." I just stared at it like "what in the world are they doing!" It left an empty feeling.
ReplyDeleteLater, walking around the building I came across the area where they do the baptizing and saw it was intimate with places for friends and family to be near.
I wondered at the time if they were doing more harm than good by streaming the baptism to 3000 people.
Like you Lisa, I think there is a line, but my concern, like the author of the article, is that the line is becoming blurred.
Thanks for sharing!! Let us know if you come up with any other thoughts on this topic!
This isn't directly related to the topic, but is somewhat akin. Following the terrible devastation by tornadoes in Tuscaloosa and other parts of the South, I saw numerous blog posts letting people know of families who needed help and opportunities for readers to provide that help. In that instance, the Internet - that medium of disembodiment - allowed believers to be the hands and feet of Jesus to people they otherwise might never encounter in their daily lives, to minister to needs they might otherwise never have known about. The intangible medium allowed people to reach out to meed needs in a tangible way.
ReplyDeleteGood point.
ReplyDeleteI can even think of times in the church service where my heart is moved by a video. Not that the emotion is what we seek through our worship, but the medium of film may help open my mind to new possibilities and be a way for the Holy Spirit to change me and my thoughts.