Should church media look different than secular? Now, I’m not talking about the media that the members enjoy privately, which is a discussion for another day, but what sort of promotional or instructional videos the church should use. A recent article at Christianity Today asks just that question, sparked by a video that has been on YouTube for a while. Though this topic is discuss quite frequently, some of the points made by the editorialist are insightful and new to me. Here are some quotes:
Which brings us back to that baptism video. It illustrates Postman’s thesis that television has become the metaphor for all discourse, and, as Stefan Schoerghofer writes, that “off the screen, the same metaphor prevails. People no longer talk to each other they entertain each other.”
As this metaphor has entered Christian worship, we use video clips to make the message more compelling. We can be seated just a few rows from the pulpit and be more likely to think about the quality of video than the preacher’s words.
The baptism video, though it was posted on the internet, was clearly designed to be shown in a worship service. (”If you haven’t signed up yet,” says the pastor, “I’m sure that after this video you’ll be really excited about it and want to sign up. So don’t everybody rush to the information center at once after the service. Be careful. Please form a line.”) The pastor cannot help using the ironic vocabulary of cheap comedy. And the video is subject to the temptations inherent in the medium: words that have to be bleeped out, pushing a baptismal candidate off the edge of the pool, showing a (thankfully) blurred image of what is supposed to be a naked candidate, and getting drenched when a candidate cannonballs into the pool. This is the vocabulary of Comedy Central, not the discourse of discipleship.
Coming from a youth-ministry background, sometimes I do wonder about this, and with the popularity of the pragmatic church growth movement I’m sure many have considered this. I am a firm believer in giving our best to God and following our convictions informed by Scripture, and I can only hope that others in ministry serve in kind, no matter what methods they use and conclusion to which they come. It is hard enough to encourage others to live true to our convictions, let alone judge them for uninformed decisions.
For another interesting article see this post on contemporary worship and is (in)ability to bring in the crowds.
