Electronic Media, Technology, and the Church

[Brian Spahr]

I am very interested in the use of electronic media and technology in the church. Yesterday I came across this short bog post that sparked a few thoughts.

Click Here for the full post.

Mark Batterson is the Sr. Pastor at National Community Church in Washington DC. They are a large multi-site church that meets in movie theaters along metro stops around DC. The only permanent meeting space they have is a coffee shop called "Ebenezer's" on Capitol Hill. Last year I spoke to one of their pastors who shared that their primary evangelism efforts are done via internet. He called it "e-vangelism". They are very intentionally going into the "virtual" world where people spend ridiculous amounts of time and trying to connect with them through the internet. They webcast their service as part of that outreach.

I don't believe that watching a webcast of a worship service is anywhere near the same experience as physically gathering in worship, but I also think that we might learn something from those folks who are using this powerful medium of the internet to plant the seeds of relationships. In the blog post Batterson says,

"For what it's worth, 54% of our attenders visited theaterchurch.com before coming to a service. This is old news but a healthy reminder: your website is the front door to your church! It's your first impression. Especially with our demographic--about 66% of NCCers are single twenty-somethings."

Those stats are particularly striking to me considering the results of the recent study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Our natural tendency as human beings, I think, is to look at technology and immediately (and sometimes only) consider what it is going to make obsolete because it often threatens our comfort zone. Email is going to make snail mail obsolete...electronic books are going to make "real" books obsolete... chat rooms are going to make face-to-face conversations obsolete...PowerPoint is going to make hymnals obsolete...etc. There are certainly cases where this is true. The new medium is simply more effective or more efficient than the old and the old becomes obsolete. Cassette certainly made 8-track tapes and Vinyl (although some would argue vinyl has never adequately been replaced) obsolete and then CDs have done the same to cassettes. The question of what a particular technology or medium will obsolesce, however, is only one question to ask of our media and technology. Marshall McLuhan (google him if you don't know who he is) identified four things to consider when evaluating the use of any technology:

1. Determine what the technology enhances.
2. Find out what, if anything, the technology makes obsolete.
3. Figure out what the technology retrieves.
4. Determine what the technology reverts into when pushed to the limit.

I think all of these are important to consider when we think of using technology in the church or in any frame of life. Looking again at the internet, you would be hard pressed to find any church leader that would say the preferred way to be the church is on the internet. Even LifeChurch.TV who has an "internet campus" ultimately views the internet as a means to make connections with people that will hopefully lead to face-to-face meetups. Going back to the question of "what does this technology obsolesce?" If this is the only thing we consider in our use of technology, then we may miss the possibility of what that same technology might enhance or retrieve that was lost with the use of any prior technology.

This is turning into a book. Sorry. If you want to read a book on the subject, I highly recommend The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture: How Media Shapes Faith, the... by Shane Hipps.

Thoughts?

[Lars Hammar]

Does anyone remember the old article in The Lutheran that completely attacked the use of visual technology in worship? Here's the link to an abridged version of it. I remember when it came out, as I knew several pastors who were growing churches with young adults and using all sorts of technology took issue with it.

I also remember reading Tom Bandy talking about how part of the fear of technology is that it isn't just a different way to convey the message, but it actually changes the way people experience it, learn it, absorb it. It's almost a different message when conveyed in pictures and videos etc.

In my experience, the biggest fear of technology has been it's perceived as being transient, unstable, unrooted. For example, when worship is done out of a hymnal that's created by the denomination, and all the songs, words etc. come from that one book, it's standardized across the country and seen as controlled and stable. When music, words, pictures, videos are pulled from diverse sources on the internet it's viewed as the beginning of the end of stability, tradition, and denominational unity. There's also a concern I've heard voiced for ideological or doctrinal control, "How do we know the media convey the right theology, politics, justice issues?" And, I've even heard critics say that technology shouldn't be used in churches because some inner city churches are too poor to afford them, and it contributes to a "digital divide" (I wondered, isn't this what mission funds are for, to help congregations get the tools they need to grow?)

I think that what technology makes most obsolete is centralized structures. With internet technology, anyone can preach, sing, post, and there isn't a committee somewhere to approve/disapprove of it like they can with a book that you want Augsburg Fortress to publish.

[Justin Rimbo]

Heh. Sounds more like an emerging answer . . . really, it's an ongoing conversation, isn't it? --Oops, another buzzword. It's another example of technology being transiently unstable -- just as soon as you've got a grasp on what it is, it changes. That must be terrifying for mainline traditional churches!! Not mostly because it's something new per se, and not even because they don't have any control over it (although, yeah, they're most definitely scared of that) but because it involves the actual process of living in community, relying on the gifts and knowledge of your ministry "target" to enrich your worship life . . . ok, I'm done.

[Lars Hammar]

Misuse is true. I look back on the stuff I used to do with PowerPoint when I first started using it, and now I cringe. I used animations, spinny letters, bullet points the slid in with each sermon point. It was such overkill. Now I use MediaShout, and never bullet point sermons. But when I first got the stuff, it was sooooo cool, I just had to make the word "Worry" spin around and blast into pieces for effect.

There really is a truth that less is more. And if you aren't "native" to the technology, it can take a long time to learn just how much less to go with.

[Kim]

These are my observations of why we use electronic media in worship specifically, but I think they also apply to other technology venues such as websites, blogs, podcasting, etc:

- 1 Corinthians 14: 10-11, "There are many different languages in this world, and all of them make sense. But if I don't understand the language that someone is using, we will be like foreigners to each other. If you really want spiritual gifts, choose the ones that will be most helpful to the church.”
Electronic media is a form of communication, a language of images, symbols, icons and metaphor. Shane Hipps, author of The Hidden power of Electronic Media writes, “as images displace the written word for communication, our thinking patterns and preferences change.” If we don’t incorporate this language into the church, we will be like foreigners to a growing segment of the population.

what NOT to do
- don't try to compete with tv
It’s pretty much impossible for most churches to try and compete with popular electronic media culture, but too often that is our motivation.
- don't underestimate the power of electronic media
It is very easy for an image to undermine the message. The use of electronic media in worship is not for entertainment, but to reinforce the message and to engage participation. At its best, it’s thought provoking, indigenous and authentic.
- don't use technology for technology's sake
Many in church leadership assume that while the methods of delivering the message may change, the message never changes. Their approach to the use of electronic media in worship is that of a technology tool. Often they will purchase pre-packaged solutions from experts to take advantage of the tool. Not only can these steps leave a congregation with an expensive package that no one locally really knows what to do with, but it also misses the point of the impact electronic media will have in the church.

what TO do
- think globally, act locally
There are so many resources available online: free and to purchase. However, all the resources in the world won’t help if you don’t dedicate the time and resources to develop media in terms of your local context.
- be relevant
Don’t to it because someone else is doing it, do it because you have people willing to share their gifts and willing to take a chance and step out of their comfort zone.

p.s. if you work with electronic media, please read Shane Hipps

[Dennis Meyette]

I agree with what you all had to say about this topic. I use all kinds of different media in worship, but not as a means to an end. It is a tool and nothing more. One more thought.... I have discovered (by trial & error) that LESS is MORE!!

~Dennis

[Thomas Knoll]

I don't want to oversimplify this, or imply that I think mine is the right answer, because I don't. But my own perspective on technology and the church leans much more toward 'being fully christian as who you are where you are.' In other words, I would be leery of a church pulling together their 'technology strategy' if none of the players 'got tech'. On the other hand, if your community is full of people on facebook, then encourage them to live out their faith in that space. If someone is interested in podcasting, invite them to use that gift to share the ethos of the christian community with the surrounding community. To me the question is, how do I become fully Christ like in all aspects of my passions, hobbies, and relationships?

[Thomas Knoll]

Why would any pastor have two personalities?

(To me, this is the problem with the religion of Christianity--Christians having two faces.)

[Thomas Knoll]

If I were in that situation, I would manage relationships in facebook the same way I would in real life. If I no longer have any interaction with any of the members of that congregation, I would remove them. If I did maintain any of the relationships, they would remain.

I don't think you're wrong in asking the question. I really do understand where you're coming from. I just think we should always strive to be 110% who we are created to be. I would hope that there is only one version of me, whether between creator or creation. And the majority of social media allows one to reflect this online as well as offline.

Currently, in the TwinCities, there's a big horrrahh about facebook and students. The UofM admitted that admission counselors look at prospective students online profiles. Also, in at least two communities, kids and adults have been charged with various crimes related to underage drinking, due to information gathered from facebook.

A lot of articles talk about how the kids should be more careful about what they allow people to see online. Very few people have addressed the issue that the kids shouldn't be doing anything that would affect their careers period (whether the pictures are online or not).

[Justin Rimbo]

I've been having this same discussion with a friend, in the context of whether or not youth directors should be "facebook friends" with their youth. I've taken the stance that the me you would see on facebook is the same guy you would meet in real life, so if someone sees me swear on facebook, they can hold me accountable in real life. If someone reads in my blog that I'm thinking of quitting my church, that means I'm ready to share that information.

[Justin Rimbo]

Exactly, and part of the reason I'm open with things on the information superhighway, and part of the reason I'm friends with kids on facebook is so that THEY might learn that the internet is public. Heck, my MOTHER-IN-LAW has a facebook page now. Now that's scary. If kids think that the internet is their private info-sharing playground where parents or (even worse) strangers don't read about them, someone needs to call them on it.

[Brian Spahr]

I agree. I think one of the big mistakes is using technology to "speak the language of the people" when in some contexts it simply is not the "language of the people." I made the mistake of trying to get people to use an online social networking site at my internship congregation to "try to stay connected" during the week. It was a worthy experiment, but most of the people I was encouraging to use this technology weren't used to communicating through this kind of media. I got lots of phone calls about how this thing worked...so there was interest, but the fact that folks called me on the phone should have been a clue. They were much more phone and email people then they were social networking website people.

To me the question is, how do I become fully Christ like in all aspects of my passions, hobbies, and relationships?

To this I simply say AMEN.

[Thomas Knoll]

I'm hearing that it was their language. ?