Identifying the Gaps: What Are We Missing?
The proliferation of new media has created a dilemma. Television, video, and the Internet have challenged traditional methods of instruction, as pedagogies relying upon the combination of oral and written sources of information are now being supplemented, and at times overtaken, by images projected on a screen. It is not that the written and spoken word are disappearing—it is simply that the way in which they overlay and accompany moving and fixed images has created a new reality for those who wish to pass along the best of the Christian tradition to our emerging culture.
For the past 500 years, the Church has depended upon the written and spoken to instruct the saints in the Christian life. Thanks to the revolution of electronic media, a gap has opened between some of the best sources of Christian reflection and our most prominent forms of communication: the Internet, video, and digital art. There is translation work to be done and not just by the Wycliffe Bible Translators.
Let us consider for a moment how this gap occurs within the medium of television. If one closely examines presentations of history on television, we see the same monumental events over and over again. We are given glimpses of great presidential speeches, Neil Armstrong walking on the moon, and snippets of gunfire and explosions from various world conflicts. These events do not reach beyond the 20th century. What then of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln? We speak of them fondly, but we do not remember them with moving images because these men predate the medium. Therefore, television can only trace our history so far, and thus these historical montages expose the limits of our memory.
The Church faces a similar situation. Who remembers Luther, Calvin, and Whitefield? St. Teresa of Àvila, Julian of Norwich, or Susanna Wesley? Or to reach further, what of Irenaeus, Augustine, or Aquinas? Not only do we quickly forget these exemplary lives, we forget the immense contribution each of these saints made to the tradition of Christianity. Many of our best videos today address contemporary concerns, not the depth of our tradition. We forget the witness of these saints, and others, at great loss to ourselves. Through the creative use of video and digital art, can we bring their memory to life for all the saints?
Our preachers, teachers, educators, and artists face the tremendous challenge of bringing forth the best of our history. Encoded within written texts, important theological and spiritual writings have been lost to a post-literate culture. It is the task of our educators, artists, and visual producers to translate these writings into digital forms, and thus communicate the fullness of the Church’s historical witness to our world. Of course, this task should be done with excellence; mediocrity should not be tolerated.
The great task facing the Church today is to fill in the gaps with the aid of electronic media. We must invest our collective energy in mining the best of our historical, spiritual, and theological resources and carefully discern the terms, lives, and stories most critical for our witness moving forward. At this time in history, Christian educators must accomplish three significant goals: 1) creatively teach theological terms; 2) expose the Church to exemplary lives, a great cloud of witnesses; and 3) tell a comprehensive story that narrates the world.
Reclaiming Our Language: Teaching Theological Terms
While the seeker-sensitive movement brought about short-term gains such as introducing new people to Christ, encouraging innovation in ministry, and reigniting passion for evangelism, the setbacks have been widely chronicled. Willow Creek Community Church’s Reveal study is but one example. The changes made in our architecture, symbols, language, and communal discipline have resulted in a lack of depth for our communal and personal relationships with God. The soil of the past few decades was too shallow to allow for deep roots.
As Christian educators plot a way forward, considering the ways in which electronic media might be employed to strengthen the Church, our language will be a key concern. Theological terms must be taught in order to better equip people to participate in the rich historical and theological discourse of the Church. By teaching the meaning of words such as sin, justification, ecclesiology, and many others, we’ll help people speak with intelligible depth about the world, the Church, and the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Some may object, “Won’t teaching complex theological terms create a language divide between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’?” Yes, but no differently than in any other discourse. If one is to learn the game of baseball, for example, one must understand terms such as “inning,” “fastball,” “balk,” and “double-switch.” The same goes for economics, software design, politics, or almost any other field.
Once people are inducted into Christian language and learn the relevant terms, their understanding is deepened. Following the attainment of deep understanding, the next challenge becomes translation to friends, family, and neighbors, as we employ story and metaphor in order to bring these concepts to life. To return again to baseball, you can read the “balk” rule and explain it’s reasoning, but it gains new life when it is seen in action on the baseball diamond.
By valuing the history of our discourse and the need for our theological terms, we retain the depth that comes in instructing others in the fullness of the tradition. In the history of Christianity, the initiation of new persons into the common life and language of the community of faith is called “catechesis,” a concept the Church at large would do well to rediscover and deploy. Christian educators must use electronic media as one more means to capture, explain, and instruct the Church in the theological language of the faith.
A Great Cloud of Witnesses: Saints Historic and Contemporary
The short film “99 Balloons” (www.ninetynineballoons.com) features an exemplary story of saints who dwell in our midst. This video, produced by Igniter Media, tells the story of Matt and Ginny Mooney and their son, Eliot. Eliot was born in 2007 with an undeveloped lung, a hole in his heart, and a short life expectancy. Eliot’s parents celebrated every day of his life, thanking God for the tremendous gift of their son. Their story is one that should be told because the disciplines of the Christian life they exhibit—love, service, faith, joy, hope, and gratitude—inspire us to greater faith.
Stories like these need to be told. There are numerous saints in our communities who have lived exemplary lives as disciples of Jesus Christ. They are our contemporaries—we have witnessed their deeds and observed their lives and beliefs closely, evaluating the truthfulness of their testimony. We have measured our lives against the men and women who walk alongside us in Christian community, and we have sought to imitate their example. Their stories are easy to tell.
The challenge for Christian educators moving forward will be to capture the stories of the saints in our own time and those found throughout history. As Hebrews reminds us, we are surrounded by “a great cloud of witnesses.” We remember well the biblical stories of Moses, Gideon, Rahab, David, Samuel, and others. When we gather to worship, we join alongside the biblical heroes and heroines who have gone before us in the worship of Almighty God. But we must also remember exemplary Christian men and women who have made their mark on the Church throughout history. We are part of the same story as those saints who throughout history have lived, taught, and passed along the faith. Can we creatively remind the saints of today of those who have gone before us? Can we tell the stories of Thomas à Kempis, Athanasius of Alexandria, and St. Francis? I think we can.
Telling a Story, Narrating the World.
The Bible is a story. It begins with Creation, moves to God’s Covenant with Abraham, transitions to the giving of the Law to Moses at Sinai, tells of the rise of the nation of Israel, the coming of Jesus the Messiah, the establishment of the Church, and concludes with a vision of the New Creation. N.T. Wright has suggested we stand somewhere within the 5th and final act of God’s great drama in history. We have the opening scene of the 5th act in the story of the New Testament church, and the closing act in the vision of the heavenly city found in Revelation 21-22. We stand somewhere in between those opening and closing scenes, attempting to be faithful to our calling to be witness for Jesus the Christ while patiently awaiting his return.
The revolution of electronic media has given us a tremendous opportunity to narrate the world. We not only have the story of Scripture to tell, we also have the means to chronicle the evidences of the New Creation that began with Jesus’ resurrection. We have the opportunity to capture in video and digital art the tremendous ways resurrection and redemption are taking place all around us. We have the opportunity to tell how God is at work in the world restoring, healing, saving, and transforming us moment by moment. In telling our story, we invite others to participate and to find their role in the great Story of which God is the Author.
As my friend Jeff Parker has noted, “Mastering the art of story is the pursuit of a lifetime.” The project of “filling in the gaps” is a long-term venture, one that will take time. But we can begin to address the void now, using the best of our technology to teach theological terms, tell the stories of the saints, and narrate the world. In doing so, we will deepen our roots, strengthen our witness, and increase our capacity to tell the Christian story well. May we do so for Jesus’ sake.
Ben Simpson is a graduate student and freelance writer living in De Soto, KS. Visit his website at www.benjaminasimpson.com.