Christians, don’t let technology separate you from the word

Your Turn NH

Dr. Gregory Edward Reynolds

The Union Leader, Manchester , NH

Monday, December 20, 2004

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Bringing the message via technology,” the final article in the interesting series “Evangelicals in New Hampshire ,” by Kathryn Marchocki, raises some very important questions about electronic media and Chrisianity.

By using new technologies such as PowerPoint in preaching pastors unwittingly depreciate their own calling as ministers of the Word. As Marshall McLuhan provocatively declared: “The medium is the message.”

All media shape messages in unintended ways. Take for example the different ways one might communicate condolences to a friend. Would email or a visit be best? Why or why not? We simply do not normally ask such questions of the media we are surrounded by every day. But we must. Email’s message is: “quick and efficient.” A note of condolence via email would actually say “I don’t care very much,” even if the message itself said “I grieve with you.”

Electronic media also communicate larger messages of popular and commercial culture. Are these messages that churches really want in worship?

On May 24, 1844 the first electric communication was transmitted by telegraph between Baltimore and Washington , DC . Samuel Finley Breese Morse (1791-1872) sent the famous message “What Hath God Wrought!” Morse’s unintentionally prescient exclamation: “What hath God wrought!” summarizes the unbounded, and uncritical, enthusiasm with which most Americans, including most Christians, have greeted every “advance” in electronic communication. Changing Morse’s exclamation to a question, however, would be a wiser course for thoughtful people. To preserve both worship and our common humanity ecology (responsible management) of communication, or media ecology, is required.

God has gifted the world with electronic communication. Like all technology it is neither good or bad, but neither is it just a tool. All media change the way we think, see the world, and relate to others. Wisdom dictates that the appropriate use of media requires assessing their benefits and liabilities. Understanding how each medium shapes the messages we intend to communicate or think we are receiving, as well as the ways it transforms our social and ecclesiastical structures, is essential to this task.

Thus, it is as important for Christians in the church to know what we must not attempt with these media as it is to decide what we may attempt. Not everything we are able to do will necessarily serve the interests of the church and her Lord. For example, all electronic media tend toward what McLuhan called “disincarnation.” While excellent at disseminating information they tend to isolate us from face-to-face interaction, thus undermining our humanity in significant, if unnoticed, ways. We must make sure that we do not foster that tendency, but rather encourage commitment to the local, visible church, and all other space-time relationships.

Christians must not undermine the fabric of personal and ecclesiastical institutions which strengthen fellowship with God and each other. Nor does one need to be a Christian to ask how various media affect our humanity and our relationships with those around us.

Live pastoral preaching is thought by most to be an inferior means of communicating God’s word. This mistake is reinforced among modern Christians by the old King James Bible’s translation of 1 Corinthians 1:21 referring to “the foolishness of preaching.” The Greek is more accurately translated: “the foolishness of the message preached” (NKJV). The message not the medium is foolish to unbelievers.

Public speaking in general and preaching in particular, are not inferior means of communicating, as our technological society mistakenly assumes. In the first century in which Paul wrote these words public oratory was considered the most effective way to communicate with a wide audience. It is both very public and very personal, a combination that cannot be equaled by electronic media.

In preaching anything that distracts us from the person speaking, like PowerPoint, undermines its effectiveness. Worse is the prevalent idea that the Internet or television can replace the local church. One preacher had a man in his congregation who left the church because he liked the TV preacher better. When the man came back to ask the preacher to perform his father’s funeral the pastor asked “Why not ask your television pastor?” Indeed “What has God wrought?”

Dr. Gregory Edward Reynolds is the pastor of Amoskeag Presbyterian Church in Manchester and the author of The Word Is Worth a Thousand Pictures: Preaching in the Electronic Age, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2001. Dr. Reynolds may be heard on “Pilgrim Crossings” WDER 1320 AM at 2:00 PM each weekday.