Focus on the Family article on tech in the church

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The Medium Makes the Church
Source: www.pluggedinonline.com
If your ancestors could attend your modern-day worship service, would they recognize it as church? After plugging their ears to the wail of the electric guitar onstage, would they wonder why sermon and song styles have changed so much over the years?

[jksbc]

Tim,Thank you sir for all you have done and continue to do in His service. There are a lot of people who have come to know the Lord through the resources you have made available to those who do what we do. Bless you my brother.I haven't read the article because my work computer filters are radical. I can sort of figure out the focus and content of it through your post. As many are aware in this forum, I am part of a new church. We definitely believe in media and wailing guitars as tools to reach a lost and dying world. You see, I feel I can speak about this subject because I've experienced both sides. I came from a traditional church. Some acoustic guitar, fiddle, and a bass but mostly piano/organ driven services with full choir, etc. A lot of the people from that church lovingly supported my move to the new church to be Creative Director. I am answering God's call on my life. We can compare what we do with the walk of Jesus or John the Baptist. We can support contemporary worship throughout the Bible especially in Psalms. But, the only confirmation I need is results. The movement of the Holy Spirit is present in our services. People enter into worship with arms raised and voices lifted high. Most importantantly there have been hundreds of lives changed as a result of our church plant. People that would have been left completely out of the loop because everything about steeples, chandoliers, and pipe organs didn't do anything but drive them away from wanting anything related to church. Despite all of our silly arguing, it's about Jesus! It's about being saved by His grace. Knowing that God so loved us He gave His son to die an agonizing death on the cross, was buried, and on the third day arose! He is alive and working in our churches. If we have to cut our hair in mohawks for people to discover Him then we need to do just that. The thing is, I believe there is danger in criticizing others for the way they reach people for Christ. Contemporary churches are growing in this nation while traditional denominational church membership is on the decline. So, how does the traditionalists handle that? They criticize the contemporary church for being worldly. Yeah, how's that working out for ya?

[zactommo]

Maybe I am reading this differently to everyone else, but I don't see that article as attacking the use of media in our church; it seems to me like the issue is more our ability to decipher the bible as a result of the changing way we source out information, which is in fact a valid issue. The statistic are there to show that reading of the bible in declining, even in Christian churches, and I think a church is in a dangerous place when the congregation doesn't check that what the pastors says lines up with the world of God, but just accepts what the pastor says no matter what, and people become consumers of church/christianity, as opposed to participators in church/christianity.

The other big issue that I think it neglected buy the church is the effect that media, mainly advertising has on the generations that we are growing up now (including myself as a youngish person) The crux of the message of most advertisers is that you are not good enough, you don't measure up, you need my product/service to be a sufficient person, you are inferior without it. This is the message that are young people are being bombarded with thousands of times a day; no wonder we are dealing with depression, suicide, low self esteem, self harm is epic proportions like we have never seen before in our young people. IMO that is the bigger issue created by the media, and the integration of multimedia into our society.

[TSA AV Crew]

I used to really like Focus on the Family, but they have gotten too political for me over the last couple of years. Plus, I think they are as traditional as you can get, so this comes as no surprise to me. I can't read their family movie reviews as they pretty much rip apart every movie that comes out that isn't Christian.

I'm sure if they had it their way we would have "Shout to the Lord" sung in Gregorian Chant.

[TSA AV Crew]

By the way, I agree with Joe..

Too many trivial things such as this are preventing the church from growing. Who wants to be part of a group that bickers amongst themselves all the time? They get that enough at the office, work, and school. (oh and reality TV)

[jksbc]

I remember the Bible issue coming up in my former church. The scriptures used in multimedia are just as reliable as the ones the publishers put out in print. Besides, Bible reading needs to be taking place at home. I agree we shouldn't just take someone's word about what the bible says. My friend has a bible app on his iPhone. He has it with him all the time. I access www.biblegateway.com at work all the time. How many people bring their bibles to work? How many have it with them as much as their cell phone?

[Esoteric]

Yeah, the issues of media in the church and people not reading their Bibles are mutually exclusive topics. Confusing the two can be dangerous.

Mike

[Paris MkVI]

If Paul were alive today, I believe he would use a cell phone, e-mail and other multimedia resources to spread the Gospel and support the churches he planted.

Changes in presentation style are nothing new in the church. I believe God is little concerned with style, but greatly concerned with message and motive.

An effective church that is called to add multimedia to it's message format will teach and help followers of Jesus grow, so they will spend more time reading the Bible on their own, instead of having it read to them.

A church NOT called to add extensive multimedia will also serve the Lord well, meeting the needs of another facet of the community.

The issue is not multimedia or style. That's a rabbit trail, a distraction the enemy of our souls would love to take advantage of to misdirect us. The issue is the calling and direction of God, and whether we are sensitive and obedient to His sovereign leadership in our lives and ministries.

We had a recent first time response card that told us we needed to "lose the rock band" and needed to start using "traditional liturgy". Our approach in these cases is to share with them that this is how God has called us to worship and communicate, and we would love to help them find a Bible-believing church that will be a better fit for their style preference. We will willingly (and actively do) help folks find another church. It isn't about filling our chairs.

It's not about building a church. Jesus already said he would do that. It's about providing an opportunity for life change and salvation! God will do the rest as He desires. We will submit to His will and cooperate with Him as He makes the church He wants us to be.

[dmot]

More and more I find myself rolling my eyes at the stuff coming out of FOTF so when I saw the first post I expected more of the same. However, I didn't react to it the way that you did Tim, Len & Jason, and others. She did have some valuable insight.

I'm sure I would disagree with the author about what media was appropriate. I know I would disagree with her about the music. And I also feel that she "cheats" in her analysis. She uses Jesus and Paul as examples but then fails to note that people of J. Edwards day would have been equally shocked at worship in biblical times. She also fails to note that many of the original listeners of biblical sermons would also have also been using their right brain, which I thought she would have been well aware of since she mentioned the printing press in the article.

But on the other hand, she does say that we should not abandon technology. She does say that we should think about it carefully. And I agree that we need to reach both right and left side of the brain, or grow both emotionally and intellectually if you will.

She didn't say things very well. She let her bias come through. But there are some nuggets of wisdom in there.

[Pastor Tim]

Frankly, I think that the article is spot-on for the most part. What Ms. Whitmore is really saying is that we need to make sure that we don't allow the media to become an end unto itself - a position that I think most of those on this site would agree with 100%. We have at our disposal a million ways to express a message, but ultimately we need to be sure that we are, in fact, expressing the message. There are churches where the music and media are simply entertainment and the people in the chairs (can't say pews anymore) are merely spectators to what is going on. They do not engage in worship and do not become engaged in learning to know God. That is a failure of media. The unfortunate effect of a media-saturated society is that more and more we are seeing people come into the church who are either unwilling to, or possibly even incapable of, coming to an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ because they have been conditioned to stay on the surface. As Ms. Whitmore points out, that is the *cultural* impact of media. That does not make media in worship bad, nor does she claim that it does. Instead her thesis is that we cannot allow media, music or cultural style to turn us into those like the seeds sown among rocks, who have no root because we do not allow the Word of God to truly speak to us and work in us.

Media is great, but it will never take the place of diligent study and meditation on the Word of God. And whether you read the Word in an electronic format or off the pages of an illuminated manuscript is not the issue, what you do in your brain with what your read and hear and see is the critical piece.

Pastor Tim

[Esoteric]

Yeah, I am not enamored with FotF, I find many of their speakers to be very weak in their theology (a topic for another board), and many of their crusades to be misplaced. This doesn't really surprise me.

Mike

[Sysmom]

This is the second such article this month that takes a slap at media during a church service. The tone and the logic in the article seems kind of reactionary to me.

Jesus spoke without current day technology on a hill. And people came to hear Him.

1. He taught where people could come.
2. He taught where people would come.
3. He chose a hill because people would be able to hear Him from there.

And that's the truth I take away from that entire analogy. A hill was the cutting technology of Jesus' culture for any and all large scale events. It was the perfect venue for His message.

If we evaluate everything we plan by these same criteria, I'm thinking we're going to be at least close, we can always fine tune for the next one.

The would-be experts offering advice against using the contemporary culture to spread the Good News are not doing any favors for the future of the churches and pastors they are speaking to.

As one of the previous authors has already noted, I'm not so sure the author at Focus on the Family did a very effective job of communicating her *real* points.

I'll write.



deb