Leading with Light

Media Grows from Liturgy

This article first appeared in Reformed Worship

When I was a corporate video producer, an accountant once proposed we shoot a video about tax law. He envisioned several hours of video in which he would be on screen explaining new regulations, maybe with images of the new government tax forms. He was assuming, as many of my clients did, that since video was high-tech, doing a video would naturally make his material dynamic and relevant to the audience. All we needed to do was to put something moderately related on the screen and we would have a compelling video. Usually I would backtrack with such clients, saying, “Let’s talk about your communication problem first, and then let’s see how video can help solve the problem.” We needed to first understand our audience and how they needed to change as a result of watching the video. Even if we produced an expensive 3-D animation of flying tax forms and dancing dollar bills, it would be useless if it didn’t help his audience understand tax law. We needed to ground our business video in our business purpose.

Ironically, what works well in corporate video is also what’s needed in worship video. Video imagery in worship needs to be grounded in the purpose of worship.

4 out of 5 pastors agree!

One of the key findings in the research we did at the CICW is that nearly 50% of churches already use electronic media regularly, with an additional 10% using it at least once a year.

On the other end of the spectrum, 20% indicate they will likely never use such technology. It just doesn't fit them somehow.

That leaves 20% in the middle--they're not using projectors yet, but are open to it. In fact the only reason most of these haven't started using already is simply money. They're not arguing over the theology or politics of a projector, they're just waiting to raise the cash.

So that's six out of ten already using, two out of ten willing, and two out of ten who never will. In short, we can expect eight out of ten churches to use projectors in the long run.

See a summary of this research, or the full thesis

Leading with Light

I suppose every new endeavor should have a point, so too this Blog. It is largely a forum for thinking about how media technology can lead God's people in worship in the most God-glorifying way. How can we use hi-tech tools without simply assuming their presence will make churches relevent or more powerful? How can we use impressive visuals without calling undue attention to the medium rather than the message? We'll do some musing here and see how we can think these things through.