by John Lane | December 8th, 2009
I have been doing alot of reading recently about the different ways pastors and churches use media in teaching. There is a phrase that I’m sure everyone has heard “The Medium changes, but the message stays the same”. There is another phrase coined by Marshall McLuhan that says “The Medium is the Message.” I believe the statement by McLuhan is correct. I have been reading recently about a guy named Shane Hipps. Shane Hipps was an advertising executive for Porshe until he quit and became a pastor.
In an article in Collide Magazine, Shane Hipps talks about how in many ways the medium becomes and shapes the message. He gives the example of Light and Worship Centers. He states:
“If your church, as a structure, is built in the round, and all of the lights are always on in your worship service, you will create an experience of community in a way that you could never create if the lights were down and everyone was facing forward. That medium itself creates a more communal Christianity, whether you want it to or not—it just does.”
While it may be good to establish a more communal Christianity, it is important to realize the implications of this idea that the Medium shapes the message. Hipps gives another example about the use of imagery.
“Images will always win. Whatever I’m saying, if there’s an image on the screen, it will always win. It will always be more powerful. It will always hijack the imagination of the audience over what I say, and sometimes I do that very deliberately.”
Now, I haven’t reached a conclusion about the use of media in the church. The idea of a communal Christianity is appealing to me; however, The idea of the worship center breading the communal Christianity rather than knowledge of the word of God is troubling to me. I also can’t say that images and video in the church are wrong; however, having images and video hijacking the imagination over to the point of view of a speaker is not appealing to me. It seems to me that it encourages a lack of thinking.
Again, I can’t say that media in the church is wrong, However, I would encourage those of you in the church to think carefully about the effects that media has on your church. We should not use images or media for the sake of using images or media. Let us approach the use of media very deliberately. Because as Marshall McLuhan says “The Medium is the Message.”
Anyway, these are just some thoughts. I don’t claim to be an expert in this area so I welcome any comments.
