How can we create a church that actively counters an image-based and entertainment-driven culture? Rather than accommodating and gratifying the gods of this age, how can we form people who are not passive, narcissistic consumers with short attention spans?
*****But short of joining an Amish community—which, let's face it, just isn't an option for most of us—is there another way to fight the insidious influence of new media? I believe we must begin by abandoning the belief that the methods of communication we use in the church don't matter, this idea that the methods change but the message stays the same. For example, if I were to reduce this article to a 140 character post on Twitter, it would drastically alter the message. Medium matters.
In a discarnate age, the only option Christians have for presenting a credible, authoritative, and transformative gospel is to embody Christ. We need to be wary of trying to transmit a message of embodiment through a medium of disembodiment. Stephen Downey writes, "A video-streamed sermon on the Incarnation would be ironic at best and offensive at worst." And when most people are consuming electronic media ad nauseum, then the primary medium for a countercultural church must be an unplugged one.
I don't agree with everything in his article, but it's good to listen to voices that aren't going along with the prevailing winds of our culture.
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