The Visual Church Blog

Recently, I was reading an online forum for broadcast video prodction geeks like myself. One post caught my attention. Someone had begun a conversation thread about the ABC Television Network laying off 20% of it’s workforce. What captured my mind was that most of the conversation seemed to prove the prophetic teachings and writings of Marshal McLuhan. Keep in mind, this forum is frequented by people who make a living in the media industry.

Marshal McLuhan is best known for this adage. “The medium is the message.” One of the premises of his teachings is that technology has the power to profoundly change us, regardless of the content. Yes, our culture seems infatuated with the lower levels of human depravity. It is easier to passively allow someone else to tell us what to think rather then putting forth effort to reason and think about the world we live in. Still, I think it’s more than that.

McLuhan’s prophetic understanding of how TV – among many other things – would change us can be seen in the comments from the forum I mentioned above.

“quality sometimes comes in behind speed and cost”
“People watch screaming. End of story.”
“Television news is show business. And very little more.”
“Increasingly, the things going on in the world at large seems to have little to do with my life.”
“I think it remains extremely important to actually leave the house and interact with human beings face to face on a daily basis for a healthy dose of perspective.”

Today’s visual medium emphasizes “emotion” over reason, and “speed” over context.

Millions of flashing pixels bombarding us every second. Truly at the speed of light. Video transcends time and space boundaries normally in play when we are chatting with friends at the local coffee shop. It cannot in and of itself convey meaning or context or place. The strength of this medium resides in it’s ability to stimulate the right side of the human brain, which is not good at thinking. I think we all agree that sensationalism and splashy fast paced images have become the norm even with genres like the news, where reason and thought are required to make informed and rational decisions. The viewer demands experience over logic, or is it because the medium demands it?

The web offers us access to billions of people’s opinions and experience. Some of them fiction. Some of them nonfiction. And it’s not a coincidence we call it the “web”. It’s a vast network of totally unrelated threads connected at random and once in a while on purpose. In the end, well actually there is no end. The internet seems to keep growing all on it’s own. At times, surfing the internet can be chaotic. Can our minds manage the billions of bits and bytes of information? Is it possible this medium has contributed to the nonlinear way that many of us now live?

I might as well end with McLuhan’s own quote (because he’s a whole lot smarter than me).

“We shape our powerful tools, and then they shape us.”

So, the question is, “Who or what is shaping you?”

The thinking of this world picks and chips away at who we are tearing us apart and making us less that what we were meant to be. Politicians pontificate using their wisdom and expecting us to suspend disbelief just long enough to allow them to screw up 1/6th of our economy. Movie stars follow the latest trend, and are tossed like the waves of the sea from one “fix” to the next – scientology, Buddhism, Obamaism. I’m thinking most of you would agree neither of these groups has shown much to be desired in life.

That old book, called the Bible tells us that we discover who we are when we begin to follow the way of Jesus. His words actually put us together and shape us up – fill us with joy and hope. And not a hope that is based on the transient happiness that comes from the stuff of this world. Rather our faith is based on thousands of years of evidence, and hundreds of millions of real people whose lives have been enriched and changed for good.

Not only that, God’s love extends to the “zeroes” – those the world would otherwise totally ignore. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

As you read and hear about the latest junk in our country today, keep this at the forefront of your mind. His Love endures forever. Jesus has your best interest at heart – plans to give you hope and a future. Now that’s not junk, or as my kids would say, “That’s not stinking thinking dad.”

I’ve been reading through Phil Cooke’s new book titled, “Branding Faith”. I feel like I know him. We’ve had this conversation many times before, even though I’ve only met him in person once. The book challenges the Church to learn to “brand” themselves in a postmodern culture. What does that mean? › Continue reading

I was having a coffee chat with a pastor the other day and he told me how excited he was to watch the upcoming Super Bowl. He wasn’t picking a football team though. Rather, he was anticipating some great commercials. How bizarre? All year long we do everything we can as we watch TV to avoid and skip over commercials. Yet, here’s a pastor who doesn’t watch much football and he can’t wait to sit down and view commercials over the four plus hour Super Bowl broadcast. Why is that? › Continue reading

It’s the same old thing every year. About this time we realize that C Day is just around the corner, and we ain’t got everything done yet. We pound away at work to get things done so we don’t have to work on our vacation. Every commercial has a holiday twist to it trying to get us in the mood to spend our money all the while under the guise of ’tis the season to give.’. Each night we count the days left with our kids and wonder if we’ll survive.

Is this what it’s become? › Continue reading