About "Digital Storytellers"

[purple]

So I have to be honest and say that transitioning from using the screen as a blank piece of paper to fully utilizing it's potential is a little difficult for me. Not because I don't think it should be implemented, but mainly because it is new to me. I really appreaciated the new perspective on using media.

One of the assignments for my class at Northwest Nazarene University, was to read the "Digital Storytellers" and write up questions for each chapter. There is one of them that I would like to ask. In chapter five page 104, it sounds like pornography can be a media tool used to point people towards God. The sentence: "Not that we must use the 'more profane forms,' and get our hands 'dirty' in order to point people to the holey places where God really is, but that we see all forms as capable of transmitting the Good News of the grace of God through Christ Jesus" made me realize that perhaps the authors didn't mean using pornography literally in churches, but the second part still interests me. Can all forms be used to reveal the Good News?

Malloree

[Len Wilson]

Hey purple,

Thanks for posting. Let's look at the bigger context of what I was trying to communicate, in pp. 102-105. There's a whole lot of thinking in the church, some unaware and some aware, that some mediums are more holy than others. The example I gave in the book on p. 102 talked of a pastor who wanted screens on the sides, subservient to the wooden cross in the middle. This is OT theology. In the OT, God existed in a place - the Holy of Holies. If someone wanted to experience God, they had to go to the Temple. It's the creation of a "house" for God. It's the separation of the sacred and secular.

Jesus changed all of that. He brought God - Himself - out of the Temple and into the street. That's the essence of the Incarnation. Street theology. Going to the secular place for the sake of people. As believers, we know God doesn't reside in a place, but abides with us through the Holy Spirit.

The implications of this are radical for the church. It's scary, really - so much so that we as the Church continually want to return to OT theology and construct new "holy of holies" where God can reside. It's safe that way. If we stay inside the walls of a church we don't have to confront sinners and tax collectors - or can we say alcoholics, sex addicts, gamblers and criminals, etc. Name your vice.

So this is one problem - to recognize the bad theology, and to realize that to do as God did in the Incarnation, and to model Jesus, means to break down our safe walls, and to engage the culture for the sake of transforming it.

Where this interfaces with media is that for many, digital media - TV, movies, etc - is full of profane content. To follow Jesus means to be willing to engage the medium that is known for such content, but to use it for redemptive purposes, for the sake of those for whom it is a means to communicate. So it is not that we would use pornography, but recognize that the medium of television and the movies and the Internet, where pornography has flourished, is also capable of redemptive stories.

Of course, porn also existed in the print age, but that's a historical and sociological argument, and this is primarily a theological one.

Reaction?

[purple]

Thanks for the explanation. It makes more sense to look at the form as the Internet rather than pornography.

Also, I totally agree with leaving the safety of the church and engaging the people where they are at. I'm the only person in my family who currently goes to church, but I have felt closest to God when I am interacting with them in their element.

It is interesting to me how in some churches there is the claim that we need to follow Jesus' example, yet what action occurs doesn't show his example. How do you show someone that God values them or even that you value them if your not willing to really find out who they are in their own element? Instead they seem to believe that those who actually come through the church doors come first. In my opinion those in the church are have value too, but there needs to be equal attention given to those in and out.

[tww]

Jesus changed all of that. He brought God - Himself - out of the Temple and into the street. That's the essence of the Incarnation. Street theology. Going to the secular place for the sake of people. As believers, we know God doesn't reside in a place, but abides with us through the Holy Spirit.

The implications of this are radical for the church. It's scary, really - so much so that we as the Church continually want to return to OT theology and construct new "holy of holies" where God can reside.

Wow, Len. I've read the book, but I missed this. Never really thought about it this way, but that's good stuff right there. Keep up the good work you guys are doing!!!

[pfenneran]

no doubt - that is good stuff....

[purple]

Since we all seem to pick out different things, I wonder what were some things that you guys picked out that surpised and interested you the most?

Also, I think this website is awesome. It's great that we can have conversations about questions we have had about the book "Digital Storytellers". As well as bounce ideas off each other for ministry ideas.

[Bcpickin]

I thought it was awful.

[pfenneran]

Originally Posted by Bcpickin

I thought it was awful.

Could you define "it"?