{"id":21167,"date":"1999-10-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1999-10-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/1999\/10\/01\/conversations-11\/"},"modified":"1999-10-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"1999-10-01T00:00:00","slug":"conversations-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/conversations-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Conversations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Video is no messiah<\/h2>

H<\/strong>e looked\nat me, this multimedia-user-friendly, nationally prominent,\nalways-on-the-cutting-edge preacher and said, “You know, don’t you,\nthat any church without a drop-down screen will be dead in a decade.”<\/p>

What? In my mind I immediately began chiseling away the neogothic limestone\nfrom inside Duke Chapel in order to enable us to survive into the next decade\nwith video.<\/p>

Look, I’m no Luddite. I’m writing this response to using video\nin church (mentioned in LEADERSHIP’s last two issues,\nThe Value of Video<\/a>) on a computer.\nI go to movies. But really now, the gospel of Christ—having survived Nero,\nthe Inquisition, Mao, the Total Woman, Benny Hinn, and my insipid sermons—will\nit survive technochurch? Multimedia praise, drop-down screens, TV technology\nmay be the death of us rather than our key to the future.<\/p>

The virtue of visual media is that they tend to be engaging, stressing concrete\nimages rather than abstract ideas. But they do more than that. Video tends\nto stress image over<\/em> idea. It is the nature of TV to be fast-paced,\nnot to linger, to constantly move from image to image.<\/p>

Not long ago, I watched Bill Moyers’s PBS series Genesis<\/em>. Moyers\nis intelligent and thoughtful. Furthermore, he assembled a studio full of\nthoughtful, intelligent people to discuss passages in Genesis.<\/p>

But the programs tended to be frustrating. What we got were sound bites,\npieces of commentary by the individuals, little interaction, almost no\ndevelopment of ideas once the ideas were expressed. I thought, If Moyers\ncan’t pull off intelligent examination of material on TV, perhaps it\njust can’t be done.<\/em><\/p>

Video tends toward the superficial. It does a good job of giving the illusion\nof experience, of drawing the viewer into the story. But that’s about\nall.<\/p>

When used in worship, video tends to re-form the worship (malform, I should\nsay). What ought to be participatory praise, people actively worshiping God,\nbecomes a show watched by an audience. When a huge drop-down screen is used\nin a worship setting, one gets the “King Kong Effect”—a gigantic talking\nhead towering over a miniaturized congregation. Who’s being magnified\nhere?<\/p>

Furthermore, multimedia in church runs the risk of playing into the hands\nof our other experiences with media.<\/p>

A generation fed a steady diet of TV, with its barrage of advertisements\nand bamboozlements, develops a suspicion of TV. When people see a video image,\nthey are conditioned to know that they are being treated mostly as consumers.\nThe link between the televisual and consumerism is inextricable.<\/p>

TV is intimate, yes, but down deep we know it is artificial intimacy, fabricated\nby a medium that implies the talking head on the screen knows and cares about\nme. Furthermore, it is a distinctive quality of video to manage the viewer.\nIt determines our point of view, our angle of vision. When the camera shoots\nup at an individual, the person is given god-like stature. Fast cuts make\nwhatever is shown appear exciting, dynamic. Background music determines audience\nmood.<\/p>

Admittedly, we preachers also manipulate when we speak. But we do not have\nvideo’s power to so exclusively determine the congregation’s point\nof view and scope of vision.<\/p>

So before you lobby the church board for that drop-down screen, think. Do\nyou really want to descend to that level? There’s a reason why Jerry\nSpringer has done well on TV.<\/p>

—William H. Willimon<\/strong>\nDuke University Chapel\nDurham, North Carolina<\/em><\/p>

Moral Fences: Protect or Divide?<\/h2>

J<\/strong><\/em>ames\nMacDonald’s “5 Moral Fences<\/a>”\n(Summer 1999<\/a>) offered one pastor’s\nprescription for avoiding sexual temptation and leading a life above reproach.\nWe invited your responses, and we got plenty! Here’s a sampling.<\/em><\/p>

A hearty “Amen” to James MacDonald. In our urban ministry, I work with single\nmoms and children and practice all of his principles, plus a couple more.\nI think Billy Graham’s practice of not eating lunch alone with a woman\nother than his wife should be added.<\/p>

—Andy Bales<\/strong>\nDes Moines, Iowa<\/em><\/p>

When I read the article, I had visions of the “bruised and bleeding” Pharisees\nwho walked around with eyes closed so they wouldn’t lust after women\nthey’d possibly meet on their stroll downtown.<\/p>

I’ve long suspected that limiting the role of women in the church could\nwell have less to do with the stated theological reasons and more to do with\nmale leaders who find it easier to bar women from the inner circle of leadership\nthan to deal straightforwardly with the personal problem of relating to women\nas sex objects.<\/p>

Women and men need to protect their moral integrity, but surely there’s\na better way than building fences which all too often prevent men and women\nfrom teaming together to do fruitful ministry.<\/p>

—Pamela Heim<\/strong>\nColorado Springs, Colorado<\/em><\/p>

I too have set several “thick hedges and high fences” against moral failure.<\/p>

I recently offended a woman who was making flirtatious remarks and gestures\ntoward me. I confronted her and told her to stop it. I did the same thing\nseveral years ago with a young lady in the church who gave everyone (men\nand women) full-body hugs. She didn’t have bad intentions, but I stopped\nit because I know my heart. As a final step (in both cases), I made the incident\nknown to my wife as soon as we could be alone to discuss it.<\/p>

—Timothy Mills<\/strong>\nWhitton, Arkansas<\/em><\/p>

I agree with all five “fences,” but I would have added another: Pray for\nstrength, because you need supernatural support for a supernatural attack.\nAlexander Solshenitsyn said it best: “the line between good and evil … \noccilates within the human heart, and even the most rational approach to\nethics is defenseless unless there is the will to do what is right.” Fences\nare practical and needed, but without the power of the Holy Spirit they are\nincomplete.<\/p>

—Ross Ramsey<\/strong>\nRamrossj@aol.com<\/em><\/p>

To expand on MacDonald’s experience, I have invited my wife into my\nmind, and especially my computer. She knows how to access every Web page\nthat I have ever hit. I’ve invited her to see where I’ve been,\nin order to limit where I go.<\/p>

—Mark Matson<\/strong>\nSalt Lake City, Utah<\/em><\/p>

MacDonald’s article reflects a paranoia, of which we must rid ourselves\nor face increasingly isolated and mistrusting relationships between clergy\nand laity.<\/p>

I have a “no fence” solution to MacDonald’s concerns:\nDon’t!<\/em><\/p>

Alone with a person of the opposite sex? Feeling tempted to misbehave?\nDon’t!<\/em><\/p>

Alone in a hotel room? Feeling tempted to do something you’ll regret?\nDon’t!<\/em><\/p>

This is not rocket science. Life is filled with temptations; we can’t\navoid them, but we don’t have to give in to them, either (see Matt.\n4:1-11 and James 4:7, for starters).<\/p>

Were I searching for a church home, I would likely walk away from a congregation\nwhose pastor did not have the moral and ethical strength to be alone with\na person of the opposite sex without serious temptation. If a pastor can’t\ntrust himself alone with a person who happens to be a woman, why should I\nhave any great confidence that I can trust him with me?<\/p>

If a pastor isn’t sure he or she can resist moral failure without artificial\nfences, then the problem is not the ambient temptations; it’s the\npastor’s moral and ethical integrity.<\/p>

We’ve been called by God to love people where we find them. How can\nwe do that if we’re not willing to join them, except when behind our\nfences?<\/p>

—Bill Coley<\/strong>\nEast Moline, Illinois<\/em><\/p>

Copyright © 1999 by the author or Christianity Today\/Leadership<\/em> Journal.\nClick here<\/a> for reprint information on Leadership Journal.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Video is no messiahHe looked at me, this multimedia-user-friendly, nationally prominent, always-on-the-cutting-edge preacher and said, “You know, don’t you, that any church without a drop-down screen will be dead in a decade.”What? In my mind I immediately began chiseling away the neogothic limestone from inside Duke Chapel in order to enable us to survive into Read more…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_books":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[154],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[131],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[663,664,156],"tax_ctp_tags":[4688,5129],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-21167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tax_publications-1999-leadership-journal","tax_publications-fall_1999-leadership-journal","tax_publications-leadership-journal","tax_ctp_tags-preaching","tax_ctp_tags-technology"],"acf":{"scripture_references":null},"yoast_head":"\nConversations - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Video is no messiahHe looked at me, this 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