Dipped into a shallow pool?

So did your pastor download this week's sermon off the internet? J.M. van der Laan seems to be concerned that he might have. He has recently published an article on how the internet shapes religious life. He asks “what happens to churches and pastors and Christian religious life when those involved rely increasingly, maybe soon predominately, on such Internet sources and resources” (p. 275). The answer he seems to conclude is that this food for religious life becomes processed, diluted and artificial; “certainly, the sermon is sullied, and the word becomes wooden” (p. 275). Ouch.

He is correct in pointing out the dangers of relying completely on sites that offer whole sermons sometimes for a fee. Hey, we all know that you can't live on fast food and the same goes for downloaded sermons. That is why many of these sites also include warnings. I have mused about these same issues on this blog. But I think van der Laan has incorrect conceptions of information and the Internet. Information is not a thing to be picked up. It is constructed as we interact with the world around us. The internet is not a pool we dip into searching for a bit of useful information. The Internet shapes us certainly, but we are not done shaping it and particularly in religious contexts.

I've been writing an article in response to van der Laan. I think interaction between the preacher and the Internet is more complex than van der Laan is portraying. In the next few posts I'll share with you how that article is unfolding. I don't think it is about dipping into a shallow pool, rather it is the beginning of a deeper conversation.

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Preachin' the Net

It was Marshall McLuhan who wrote that "the medium is the message." It is times like this that I realize I need to read more McLuhan (in my copious free time for sure!) I've been thinking again about preaching and the internet. There is an interactive relationship that needs to be explored; muse with me for a few moments....

Let's go back to the Tuesday before. The preacher took Monday off and is now thinking about the next Sunday's message...hypothetically anyway. ;-) Most preachers I know use the internet as an information gathering tool. Email updates from missionaries or the denomination. Online sermon illustration collections and even Christian news and current events. Occasionally I am still asked to preach and I'll admit I'm somewhat of a dinosaur when it comes to sermon preparation. I still prefer the yellow scratch pad, a pencil and my big pile of books. But...I now usually draft my message on my computer and take advantage of online Bible tools such BibleGateway to look up passages, or Theopedia or Wikipedia for a definition. Many preachers go farther and utilize online media which can be integrated into a message.

It used to be you would drive by the church by Thursday and see the sermon title on the sign outfront. I was a church janitor for a bit and that was my Thursday morning task. (Oops, pastor's preaching' on tithing again, lets visit the Anglicans this week.) With email, twitter, facebook and blogs the sermon title can be broadcast to the membership with online access. And since these are social media, there is room for dialogue and discussion around these announced topics. Discussions that may well make their way back into the sermon preparation before Sunday. Now, this isn't entirely new; I regularly bounced sermon ideas off people over tea back in the day. But the dynamic is different somehow; more public perhaps.

It is now Sunday. Now that the sermon is being broadcast via streaming video, a reality in more and more churches, there are new rules. Whatever happens in the pulpit must be translatable to video. The preacher's body language and range of movement must change. The preacher is now also preaching to the net. With chat capabilities it is now possible for the offsite viewer to ask questions and even converse with other offline viewers during the sermon. Preaching is a unique form of communication as it is usually mono-directional; however hard the preacher might rebuke the congregation, they usually sit there politely and take it (you'll hear about at the door later.) Online messages invite immediate response.

There is an interplay developing between new media and preaching; new media is providing content for preaching, preaching is providing content for new media, preaching leaves its mark on the face of the internet, and yes, internet I think is leaving its mark on the face of preaching.

So what will preaching become (and should I hold onto my yellow scratch pad?) ;-)

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Church as InfoOrg...

As part of my research, I will be gathering and analyzing church produced information. I would imagine that most people would not consider churches as information organizations. The activities of worship and social outreach would predominate in people's minds. Yet two of the key activities of churches are preaching and teaching; both information intense activities. As a former pastor I know that a significant time investment goes into sermon preparation and presentation. What about preservation? Is that sermon a "one shot deal" or is that information preserved, stored and indexed in a way that it can be accessed by the congregation for future reference. I have benefited from reading some collected sermons from preachers of by gone years (here is one of my favourites). What about our teaching; if we use purchased curriculum, do we have a library where past materials used are archived? Are original class materials preserved? Or do those classes simply disappear as if they were never taught? What about communication, another information intense activity? I travel from time to time and it is my practice to always attend church on Sunday morning. The phone book tells me who is in my neighbourhood and the web tells me who they are. I am amazed sometimes that many church websites are so uninformative (here are one or two I like from smaller churches.) When I do arrive, I spend time looking at bulletin boards and information tables. Sometimes these are a lot like their websites. :-(

Churches produce a lot of information. I wonder how much time congregations spend thinking about how they manage all that information. This is not a new idea. Preserving important information has had a long history in the church: "since I have investigated all the reports in close detail, starting from the story's beginning, I decided to write it all out for you, most honorable Theophilus, so you can know beyond the shadow of a doubt the reliability of what you were taught." The Gospel of Luke chapter 1.

I guess someone thought that information was important. ;-)

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