Stop Using Media (Part Four)

| By Scott McClellan | Found in Communication | 5 Comments

This is the fourth installment in an ongoing and open-ended series devoted to convincing you, the church leader, not to use media.

Stop using media when you think you can’t communicate without it. (Note: In the context of this post, I mean electronic media such as video, graphics, music, etc.)

There’s an idea out there that in order to communicate with our media-addicted world we have to use electronic media. We have to speak their language, and their language is Bruckheimer-esque explosions, guitar amps cranked to 11, and a never-ending barrage of visuals. Friends, that just isn’t true.

Video, music, lighting, and projection are wonderful tools for communicating truth–that’s what COLLIDE is all about, after all–but please don’t buy into the deception that they are requisite for communicating truth.

Is a church or ministry without a dedicated creative arts team dead in the water? Absolutely not.

What about a youth ministry without a projector or an array of screens; is it destined to fail in reaching young people? Nope.

How about a sanctuary without a sound system or lighting rig; is it foolish to think truth could be effectively communicated in that room? Not at all.

But we often think (and approach ministry) that way. Want to reach young people? You’d better score some flat screens, some PS3s, and a rockin’ band. Want to reach influential, tech-savvy adults? You’d better have a video featuring “Must-See TV” production value and your band better cover a Coldplay song.

Please. Yes, people want “relevancy,” but don’t interpret that to mean people want “gadgetry.” People want deep, meaningful truth and they want to understand what that truth means for them. They don’t understand words like “soteriology,” “tabernacle,” or “Trinity,” so either find words they understand or teach them what those words mean. Teach them with words, images, relationships, and community. Teach them with love, grace, and authenticity. As an ambassador of Christ, you ought to be able to muster those things regardless of your media and technology budget. (And what if people do want gadgetry? It’s your job to show them there are more important things in life, not cater to their lust for entertainment.)

The next time you feel compelled to overhaul your media strategy–to take it up a notch, if you will–consider going the other way. Consider taking it down a notch. Leave your projectors off, leave the electric guitars in their cases, and save that intense media presentation for another day. See if you can still communicate spiritual truth to the people gathered at your church without burning kilowatts like Clark Griswold in Christmas Vacation. See if the Spirit of God can move independently of electronic as you proclaim truth.

Maybe you’ll find that electronic media is simply a tool among many in your toolbox instead of your only hope for reaching the inhabitants of the 21st century.

  • http://calelivingston.wordpress.com/ Cale

    I continue to both enjoy and find encouragement from this “Stop Using Media” series. Having worked in a church media department I just wish there were more open lines of communication between pastors that demand the use of media and techies/artists who better understand the correct use of media.

  • http://www.auran.id.au Auran

    Sadly, i have to agree with Cale. I’ve just recently stopped working in my church’s media department because I was getting burnt out trying to fit all of the pastor’s ideas and thoughts into video messages that were flashy and grabbed people’s attention.

    I stopped because I began to realise through series and posts like these that i was using media wrong.

  • http://www.livingmartyrs.com brad

    Great post, and great series!

    I’d love to hear some ideas for how to encourage our leadership to ‘get it’. How do you build channels for honest, forthright discussion between creatives and pastors, which can then birth well-integrated productions (or lack thereof) that really work for the local congregation.

    Pastors are bound to think they are being relevant when they’re including media, because this is what our generation has been clamouring for. Now we’re saying use discretion, discernment, even restraint. I’m sure there are pastors throwing up their hands and saying “Make up your minds!”.

    People burning-and-bailing-out is the opposite of progress. If you have the position of media creator, you should have the ability to begin a dialogue about it. I’m not naive to think that it works that way, I’m just saying it should. Is there anything we can do to make it happen?

  • http://www.collidemagazine.com Scott McClellan

    Brad,

    You raise an interesting point. Maybe a lot of media directors and media pastors in churches aren’t directors or pastors at all. Maybe some of them are only allowed to be media executors or media implementers. In other words, they simply exist to carry out the plans of a teaching pastor or someone else.

    What to do about that? Great question. What do you think?

  • http://larhule.blogspot.com larhule