Hey everyone. It's been awhile since I've written anything that required "deep" thought here at Not2Us. I've been really busy with my day job at Griffin Analytical, my web work with Red Leaf Media, and raising my wonderful family over the past few months.
This past week Lindsay and I drove down to Louisville, KY for a few days at the Gurus of Tech conference at Southeast Christian Church. It was a three-day free conference for those involved with media and technology ministries at their church. I didn't have high expectations since the conference was free, but I decided it was at least worth the time to see what it was like...especially since I've recently taken on the mantle of leading the technology and media ministries at Elston Family Church.
Let me start by first saying that the church that hosted this conference is insansely huge. They average somewhere around 20,000 worshippers each weekend. To put it into perspective, their staff office building is literally bigger than any other entire church that I have ever seen. On top of the staff building, they have a "Sports and Recreation Center", a $23 million building dedicated to youth and an amazingly large main building. When Lindsay and I drove around the campus the first time, we were quite speechless at the magnitude of the campus. It was unlike anything that we had ever experienced before. So, going into the conference we were somewhat intimidated by the surroundings.
As we walked into the first session of the conference, we were expecting an "acoustic" worship set, as described in the program. However we were greeted by a full-on six piece worship band...far from acoustic. While they played blaringly loud music, the lyrics were presented in a highly animated and stylized manner behind them. All the while, lights danced around the stage, changing colors and positions all the time. It was hands down the most distracting time of worship that I have experienced in some two decades of attending church services, camps and conferences. Lindsay and I both were wondering what on Earth we had stepped into. Why would a conference on church media be guilty of such ineffective use of media in a worship environment?!
Thankfully the opening two songs were followed up by a discussion of having the correct heart for tech ministry. This talk was then followed up by a very mellowed out set by Daniel Dabney. It was only Daniel and his guitar, with white lyrics on a black background. No rockus music, no animated lyrics, no light theatrics. The point to me was clear...Technology can be an effective tool for aiding worship services, but can be taken to such an extreme that it becomes detrimental to true worship. I was talking to Lindsay later about how lyric presentation demonstrates this clearly. Years ago, worshippers had to read the lyrics directly from hymnals, giving them an excuse to look down and retreat into themselves. With modern technology, we can present lyrics and scriptures in such a way that worshippers can look upward to God and outward to other believers while they sing. However, with highly animated lyrics it seems to me that we have extended technology beyond its useful point and are teetering on the edge of inappropriate usage. I see very little reason to animate lyrics. If the song is new, then the animation causes the worshippers to have to conciously follow the paths that words take, trying to determine where and how the next line will display on the screen so that they can sing the right words. On the other hand, if the song is familiar to the worshipper, then the animation can easily become a distraction for them. They end up retreating into themselves while they stare at the pretty movements on the screen, much they would have stared at a hymnal years ago.
There has to be some middle ground with technology where we find its appropriate place in worship. For example, creating powerful videos that enhance a sermon's message can be a very effective use. Having the cleanest audio possible can also help in clearly communicating the gospel (quite literally). Additionally, tasteful backgrounds, video loops, etc. can be used to enhance the overall theme of a service. However, there are some fields of worship technology that have to be very carefully weighed. When we're working endlessly on a cool animated background or a killer light show, I think that we need to constantly make sure that our technology has not become a stumbling block that distracts worshippers or leads them into a false sense of communion with God.
I've rambled on quite a bit not, but I think that my viewpoint is best summarized by something that was said on the last day of the conference. Ben Mankin of Mankin Media was discussing how to "create compelling spaces" at our churches. He said something along the lines of, "decisions for or against Christ should be made on the merits of the Gospel and nothing else" (paraphrased). He went on to discuss how something as simple as a broken air conditioner could cause uncomfortable conditions that may cause someone to be distracted. While they may otherwise make a decision to become a Christian, their surroundings may distract them. He extended this to technology, saying that we should not allow for any situation that distracts people away from Christ. His point was a good one, and I was waiting for him to discuss the other side of the coin...but he never did. What is the the other side of the coin? Ben neglected to mention that people could just as easily be swayed by their environment into make a decision to become a Christian, when they otherwise would not. At first this sounds like a good thing, but I don't believe that it is. Like Ben said, decisions should be made based on the "merits of the gospel", not on any false emotions that may be evoked by lights, videos, cool interior design, etc. As such, we must be very careful with our technology, ensuring that we do not invoke superficial emotion in worshippers that can easily be confused for true encounters with God.
There was much more to the conference, but I won't list it all here. However, I will provide a few links to interesting sites that I learned about during the week:
Do you like us? Well? Do ya? Do ya?
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