Church use of digital media – technology such as projection systems and computers – has been a primary worship of the past decade. Churches all over the world are using digital media in worship on a weekly basis and it is having a profound effect on their ministry. Whereas community-style churches have been using this kind of worship for a generation or more, interest in its use has now spread throughout mainline denominations. Some claim digital media is transforming their churches, fueling growth and strengthening their church communities. But how pervasive is it, and is it a fad or something that is an enduring part of our worship landscape? What are the theological considerations? Is it just for seekers? Is it only for large churches with resources? And if digital media is introduced in worship, what form does it take, exactly?
In the last five years many churches have moved from the “thinking about it” category to “have it, want to do it better.” There is much more anecdotal than statistical information in regards to specific data about the trend, but research conducted by Stephen Koster at Michigan State University indicated a sharp increase in use of what he calls “visual media technology” in worship, from 16% of Christian churches in the United States in 2000 to more than 50 percent in 2003. With the trend only continuing, it may be safe to assume that there is a majority of churches using digital media in worship, even within more traditional denominations. And it is certainly safe to assume that many if not most churches are at least thinking about it.
There are many examples illustrating how the use of digital media has led to growth. Often, these are seeker-oriented, mega-church models. Fellowship Church of Grapevine, Texas, whose roots are in the Southern Baptist Convention, began in a small office complex with about 150 in attendance in 1990. Almost from the beginning the congregation has used media as an integral part of their weekly worship experience. In the first year alone, it had to move into a new 750-seat facility, and attendance quickly grew to more than 3,000. The congregation now has more than 18,000 in attendance each week. Every worship service is designed with video, graphics, lighting, drama, cutting-edge music and relevant preaching in mind. One of the core purposes is to reach out to people who do not attend church. That is reflected in their intentionality to make worship connect through the use of digital technology.
But while digital media has been closely associated with non-denominational churches and the “praise and worship” movement, this is also rapidly changing. The use of screens is now occurring in churches of all traditions and with worship styles as varied as “contemporary,” “traditional,” and “postmodern” (such as those labels may be).
At Community United Methodist Church in Jackson Heights, New York, pastor Dr. Ronald Tompkins has also experienced the fruits of sharing the message using digital media. His church has four primary language groups that come together to experience worship in a community of 150 language groups. The screen has helped that congregation break down the barriers that speaking different languages creates. The congregation creates what Dr. Tompkins has called “wordless worship” by using imagery to make biblical connections. Art and technology helps them transcend the boundaries that exist in its complex situation.
More churches of all sizes and styles have discovered that the use of digital media is much more than a fad, or even a trend, but a fundamental way in which our culture communicates—as powerful as the printing press has been to the modern era.
Some argue that the use of digital media creates a “production,” that it just entertains, that it is shallow or “dumbs down,” that it requires churches to abandon their traditions, or (mostly) that it just requires too many people and money resources. Those fearful of change may find that the move is less about breaking tradition and more about finding new ways to communicate them. This is exactly what Jesus addresses in his parable of new wine and old wineskins in Matthew 9:16-17. Old skins, filled with new wine, will burst. The wine, or the message, needs to be presented in a new communication form that won’t break down before it gets to the eyes and ears of those who hear it.
The use of digital media in worship is vital to our dominant digital culture because it fits with how the Gospel always has been communicated. Jesus’ use of story and parable in the first century fits with popular culture’s use of digital media to communicate in story and metaphor today. Paul’s ability to engage his culture and use its latest media, from writing to roads, fits with our digital technology’s present ubiquity. Pope Gregory’s blessing on stained glass as the “Bible for the illiterate” fits with the projection screen’s facility to bring post-literate people to an experience of the Word. The explosion of innovation and change that occurred in the church during the Reformation, concurrent with the rise of the printing press, parallels the explosion in cultural change occurring today. Even the early growth of the United Methodist Church, as one example from a specific denomination’s heritage, is rooted in the innovative use of newspapers and circuit riders to spread the Gospel. In each case, adoption of innovative communications technology was met with initial resistance, then gradual acceptance. Sometimes, initial resistance was even violent. As Walter Bagehot states in Physics and Politics, “One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea. It… makes you think that after all, your favorite notions may be wrong, your firmest beliefs ill-founded… Naturally, therefore, common men hate a new idea, and are disposed more or less to ill-treat the original man who brings it.”
With the global village we live in today, old communication forms such as stained glass and circuit riding don’t make much sense, but the idea of taking the Gospel message to the world is one that remains the same. How can we communicate that message if it is not understood?
With the way digital media is frequently used in worship, we can’t blame antagonists. In our experience, regardless if a church is just beginning to explore its application, or if a church has been using digital media in worship for years, there is often little philosophical basis underpinning the use of digital media in worship. Many churches that adopt digital media in worship do it simply to copy the latest trend. They see other churches growing; these other churches happen to use media in worship; therefore many think it’s an important part of current church growth. The problem is that many churches using digital media don’t have a strong theological and methodological conception either. Most of what is labeled “contemporary” worship implements a reduced liturgy of 30 minutes of singing followed by 30 minutes of lecturing. These “contemporary” services sometimes grow only because it is less painful to many worshippers to see a tacky PowerPoint presentation that to sit through excruciating rituals from their childhood that have little or no meaning. (On the other hand, many people find the PowerPoint approach to worship equally as meaningless and excruciating.)
The good news is that we don’t have to throw out the best of our traditions in order to integrate the latest of our technologies. Our task as ministers of the Gospel is to harness this digital media as a primary communications technology to our present digital culture. For example, oration is not dead, it has merely mutated in our culture, to include graphics and videos. While many pastors still do sermons as manuscripts which are written like essays and read aloud, the culture has moved onto spoken word as an experience, including performance, image and sound. Just catch a stand-up comic on late night television some night for evidence. Very few preachers understand this shift, and it has little to do with whether or not they have projection systems in their sanctuary. From the most traditional worship setting to the most innovative, it is very difficult to find a preacher who has stylistically left the bygone modern era. We still present sermons like papers, and if we have screens we present sermons like papers with screen support, while the world thinks, learns, communicates and even retains knowledge through story and metaphor, communicated in visual forms.
There is a third way that doesn’t involve stale liturgies and doesn’t involve 90s style, tacky, corporate PowerPoint presentations. It is a way that uses digital media in keeping with both our traditions and our present culture. It has nothing to do with “contemporary” versus “traditional.” Digital media is an opportunity that the church has to reinvigorate the effectiveness of its communication forms. It doesn’t mean scanning Renaissance paintings; it means creating digital art and liturgy that proclaims God’s Word. In this model, every aspect of the worship space is part of the worship experience. As music isn’t just “support” for worship, and preaching isn’t support for worship, neither is media. Each element is worship in of itself, with the ability to proclaim God’s Word and draw believers and seekers alike to an awareness of God’s presence.
This is not only a large church phenomenon. Whether urban or rural, small and medium-sized churches all over the country are approaching worship design with digital media in mind as well. New developments include a further drop in the price of technology and the rise of ministries that produce digital media resources and training for churches who can’t afford a dedicated media staff position. In our travels across North America, we’ve come to believe that small and medium-sized churches are doing more and sometimes even better than their large church counterparts at integrating digital media.
Kent Wilson was pastor of Trinity Lutheran church in Willard, Ohio (http://www.tlcwillard.org/). He began incorporating media into worship in 1998 on a weekly basis. Based on their success at integrating media in a small church, Wilson has become a sought after seminar leader across Ohio, where he leads conferences and workshops incorporating examples of their own weekly worship productions.
Some argue that digital media somehow hinders the ability to form community in worship. The exact opposite is true. The screen allows us to join together in experiences that may not be possible through any other form. Using the personal story of someone in the congregation as a testimony video can help us connect with them, and with others around us as a result of the viewing. Creating videos like that create a forum for sharing. We jointly experience one story, and are invited to tell our own.
At one small United Methodist church of 150 that sets up worship every week in a YMCA, a sense of community is difficult to create. With no central facility for gathering outside of Sunday morning, it is a real challenge to make connections with others that attend worship.
That challenge dissolved one weekend when the focus of the message was on the story of Peter’s calling to lead the church. The worship team used the thrill and uncertainty of the 1960s mission to the moon to communicate the transformation of Peter to the leader of the early church. The service started with an original video clip that included actual footage of the moon landing. The worship host then told her own story of where she was at and what her family experienced on that night. There was a visible stir about the congregation as she told the story. Then she invited people to tell their own stories. As she did so, an amazing thing happened: people got up out of their seats and began talking to other people! Laughter and tears followed as many recalled the feelings that were associated with that time in their lives. If that same effort at creativity in digital media is put into every week, then community as well as discipleship is sure to form.
Simply adding digital media is not the end of the story. If done poorly, it can undermine the worship experience. There is a big difference between technology and culture. Limiting the screen’s use to song lyrics, sermon points and scripture verses will not make much of a difference at all. With new media must come new mindsets. The screen is a visual medium, and text on the screen must play a small part. That’s why metaphor, storytelling, drama and video are so important. Each must be incorporated to sew visual threads throughout the service into the hearts of worshipers. Effective media that incorporates metaphor can help people carry the message outside of worship into their daily lives.
In 2004 our ministry, Midnight Oil Productions, produced a 30-second Easter video called “Beyond the Tomb” and offered it as a free download from our website. Over 5300 churches from around the world accepted our free offer. Here’s some of the feedback we received:
It is awesome…..powerful….relevant. It ran perfectly. The message Pastor preached on was “Out of The Tomb.” We used the images that matched up with sermon, ran the clip again later during a special song time, and just ran the clip for background with no audio as the song “What Kind of Man?” played. Together it was powerful and truly experiential. -Helen Foster, First UMC, Lawrenceville, IL
We used the Easter video at the beginning of our worship service. We are a new start-up, so we currently worship in a school cafeteria. We set it up so as people entered, we had candles lit and incense burning, but the lights were out and Gregorian chant was playing in the background (this is out of the norm for us). Then, to begin we had the Markan version of the crucifixion read from the back, finishing with the words “with a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.” At that the video was played. At the place where the stone begins to crack open our Praise Band kicked in with a amped up version of “He lives”, the lights were kicked on and our Easter celebration began. The video was a fantastic focal and transition point for us to move from the darkness of crucifixion to the joy of resurrection. -Chris Schmidt, A Community of Hope UMC, New Port Richey, FL
Using digital media in worship is not a trend to adopt for the sake of church growth, attempted relevance to our culture and youth, or even hymnal and bulletin replacement. It is becoming a structural part of the communications means by which worship is experienced today, as much as any other form of communications has been appropriated in our long history as a Church. To ignore it is to refuse to proclaim the Gospel in our present and future time.
