Jump directly to the Content

IDEAS THAT WORK

Using electronic media in worship

"What a gimmick, Mel," jibed my friend-critic-fellow pastor, "using all that electronic media in worship. No wonder your crowd is growing."

I bit my tongue. How often I had heard that good-natured questioning of my liturgical methods and motives. "Just show biz," he might have added. Or worse, "Just an easy way to keep from preparing a sermon."

Wrong on both counts. My motive for using electronic media in worship is the same as for every hymn, prayer, or sermon: to lift up Christ and draw his people one step closer to him and to each other. And the method is not a short cut. It is time-consuming and risky. (And never have I eliminated the sermon with media, only supplemented and supported it.) When you spend valuable time, energy, and money to integrate a one-minute film clip only to have an usher trip on the plug mid-screening and plunge the church into darkness, or when the slide bearing the words to the morning anthem pops on upside-down, you wonder if using media is worth the impugning ...

March
Support Our Work

Subscribe to CT for less than $4.25/month

Homepage Subscription Panel

Read These Next

Related
I Like Change!
I Like Change!
But as a church planter, was that attitude what needed to change?
From the Magazine
Should the Bible Sound Like the Language in the Streets?
Should the Bible Sound Like the Language in the Streets?
Controversy over Bibles in Jamaica, the Philippines, and Germany reveal the divide between the sacred and the relatable.
Editor's Pick
What Christians Miss When They Dismiss Imagination
What Christians Miss When They Dismiss Imagination
Understanding God and our world needs more than bare reason and experience.
close