The Virtual Preacher – Part 1
The “virtual presence” of the preacher is increasingly becoming more common than the incarnated presence. Marshal McLuhan said that every technological innovation introduces benefits but also takes away something. With every new technology something is amputated. For instance, the car made the legs weaker. The telephone has diminished the art of storytelling through writing. The microphone weakens the voice since we do not have to yell for people to hear us. All these technologies, while introducing significant benefits into society had a dramatic affect on us.
This is something we cannot ignore. This is why I personally believe every church needs to develop a theology of technology or at minimum develop a standard by which their community will live within a technological society.
As technology becomes more and more integrated into the life of the church there is a trend that I find a bit disturbing and it is commonly found among multi-site churches. I don’t particularly have a problem with multi-site churches as I can see that in certain situations they are needed. My only concern is when these multi-site churches use a live video feed for the sermon.
Reflecting on Mcluhan’s thesis that technology amputates, Brian McLaren had the following to say,
What of technologies that in a sense amputate presence? The television and the DVD, the videoconference and perhaps increasingly, the hologram, project our presence, but do they in some way amputate presence as well?
This is an important question because we are keenly aware of the ways technology benefits our worship but we seldom think about the ways it hinders it. In the name of “it’s new” or “it’s cool” or “it’s what everyone else is doing” we forge ahead and adopt new technologies without even considering how it affects our overall message.
The point I am trying to make here is that I really think it’s time that churches start asking the difficult question when considering incorporating new technology into their communities, “How will this affect our goal to love God and our neighbor?” The answer to that question will change the way many churches adopt new technology.
For instance, I am leading the effort at my church of building a social networking strategy. Social networking will introduce many benefits into how we do ministry. However, I am keenly aware of how it hinders us as well. Social networking diminishes presence and therefore is not a good tool for actually “doing” ministry. Because we cannot be physically present with the people in our network, we cannot physically lay hands on them to pray for them and I am sure everyone would agree that physical presence is far better than virtual presence. Just ask a wife whose husband is off fighting the war or a single mom whose only kid is away at college.
Social networking does open up opportunities to share information about what’s happening in our community. This is a huge benefit and is the limit to which our community needs to go. Praying for people, holding online bible studies and small group meetings is taking it too far.
“But what does this have to do with the virtual preacher”, you may ask? I’ll tell you that in part 2.
Robert
I love theology and the challenge of making deep teachings non-boring. Let's face it, most of the time we hear theological teaching, it really is boring. Does it really have to be that way? Nope.
