Jason: We believe that the future of media in church will only thrive if implementers start to use an artistic approach as they design worship. This means that the screen is used to communicate thoughts ideas and feelings that can touch people a much deeper level. Song lyrics alone just can’t do that. Our goal is to help churches cross that bridge from the data presentation approach to the artistic representation approach.

What is the artistic representation approach? Art moves beyond “multimedia” when it connects to people at their basic human needs. Art that points people to God goes a step further by making the connection from their basic needs to the One that is capable of filling those needs, God.

In high school I played bass guitar in the Jazz band. Sometimes the complicated riffs would throw me, and I’d get lost in the music. Frequently, it wasn’t more than a few seconds after missing my notes that the band director would tell us all to stop. He’d look me in the eye and say, “You dropped out! When the bottom goes, the music dies.” It wasn’t that I was more important than anyone else, because he treated the other members of the band equally. We were all playing equally important instruments that when brought together made beautiful music.

Our view of digital media is that it functions much like one of the instruments in the band. Each of the components of worship has a different part to play to make the melodies and harmonies work. So for instance, if you leave out the prayer portion of worship, one of the instruments is missing, and the music dies. Leave out the sermon, praise and worship, or media, and the same thing happens. Unfortunately some churches write their “jazz piece” without incorporating media and they then try to tack it on at the end. The creativity is spent on the other pieces and nothing is left for the media.

Some people are of the opinion that the media should “serve” the other more established portions of worship. I disagree. I would have been insulted if someone told me that my bass playing was only there to serve the drums or the brass section or so on. All forms of worship should be looked at as equal. They are there to “serve” the gospel message. One form of communication is no more right or holy than the other. This means media should look and feel as integrated as all the other forms of worship. It’s a whole new way to conceptualize worship.

Len: This view of the equality of the screen as a medium for the Gospel necessitates an entirely changed view of how to build worship. I was at a church recently that was using a screen, but not doing so effectively. Their problem was not in the quality of the media, but rather in the more fundamental issue of individualistic design. After starting worship with a call to worship on their current topic of marriage, the music was led by one pastor, who created a powerful presentation of the cross through song. Later, another pastor, who continued his series of how to have a strong marriage, led the preaching. Both parts were good, but utterly separate.

Media is most effective when it not only represents the technical form of digital culture but the communication form as well, which is the story. Story is best accomplished through the presentation of a single idea that permeates every aspect of worship, and is communicated through a primary metaphor. One theme, one metaphor.

Jason: We have limited attention spans and our recollections fade quickly. It can be common for a worshipper to leave a service wondering what the sermon was about or only days later forgetting what had touched them about the service. How can we combat these attention and retention problems? Metaphor.

Applying a metaphor to your message means simply taking the abstract story or idea(s) your working with and updating it to a present day tangible equivalent. Substituting familiar objects, stories and situations can make archaic and hard to grasp texts, easy to understand and retain in our limited memory banks. Metaphor is the glue that makes it stick!

When we would develop a successful metaphor at Ginghamsburg Church, people in our congregation could easily recite the crux of a message months later. It was unbelievable. I heard folks talk about messages from years ago, and it was always tied to the metaphor. People were getting it, I mean, really getting it. Using metaphor to communicate biblical stories, allows us to take what may be hard to understand in today’s culture and update it in a way that makes since to everyday people. It’s cheap, it’s fun, and it can be relatively easy.

Len: And more importantly, remembered metaphors trigger the Biblical truths that they communicated to begin with. This is obviously not a new idea. Scripture is full of metaphors to communicate truth. The presence of the Holy Spirit is a dove, for example. So, metaphors are a legitimate way to both understand and remember the basics of our faith. We did a recent production at Lumicon where we illustrated the wheat and the chaff story from Luke 3 with the process of brewing coffee. A good cup of coffee, full of flavor, is the wheat; the grinds left after the brewing are the chaff, which are thrown away. Notice how Jason even put a dove on the coffee maker to reinforce that it is the work of the Spirit that does this filtering in us.

Further, metaphor may be established in a worship experience through a wide range of media. Our goal is to help churches create a weekly post-modern matrix of media. Think film-style short video and animation, commercial-style graphic art, and integrated media including live presentation with graphics, music, and video. These elements seamlessly flow into one another as true “multi” media, communicating the Gospel using contemporary and ancient metaphors and settings to interpret the biblical experience, one message at a time. Perhaps, as Jesus would do parables today.

Jason: Using all the suggestion above can help form a seamless worship experience. Transitioning from one portion of worship to the next can be critical to the effective of the experience. Studies have shown that once you’ve lost the attention of your audience it can take around 20 minutes to get it back. That could mean that if you lose them after praise and worship, and your 30-minute sermon follows, you may only have their attention for the last 10 minutes. Effective use of media can fill the potential holes in worship.

Not only is attention lost, but the “worship moment,” or the place where a worshipper is aware of the presence of God in their midst, can be destroyed by a misplaced song or a poorly timed video cue.

I liken worship to the old “pass the egg” game I use to play when I was in youth ministry. The game goes like this. There are two teams lined up next to each other with each team member holding a spoon. The egg has to be passes from one end of the line to the other with out dropping the egg. First one to get the egg to the other end wins. Reality is this should be a delicate process, but in the spirit of the game the floor is covered with scrambled eggs. The worship moment is so much like that egg for individuals that fill our sanctuaries. When the stage is bare between elements, someone is fumbling with a microphone, or the sound system is turned off but the band is trying to play, the egg hits the floor. The screen not only makes the songs, sermon and various other elements, more meaningful, it also covers those egg drop experiences.

So as you design worship with a screen, be proactive about thinking outside your established planning boxes. Look for ways to carry a single theme throughout the entire worship experience. This approach will open up incredible creative doors for how you use the screen to carry out that theme.

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