With the way digital media is frequently used in worship, we can’t blame antagonists. In our experience, regardless if a church is just beginning to explore its application, or if a church has been using digital media in worship for years, there is often little philosophical basis underpinning the use of digital media in worship. Many churches that adopt digital media in worship do it simply to copy the latest trend. They see other churches growing; these other churches happen to use media in worship; therefore many think it’s an important part of current church growth. The problem is that many churches using digital media don’t have a strong theological and methodological conception either. Most of what is labeled “contemporary” worship implements a reduced liturgy of 30 minutes of singing followed by 30 minutes of lecturing. These “contemporary” services sometimes grow only because it is less painful to many worshippers to see a tacky PowerPoint presentation that to sit through excruciating rituals from their childhood that have little or no meaning. (On the other hand, many people find the PowerPoint approach to worship equally as meaningless and excruciating.)

The good news is that we don’t have to throw out the best of our traditions in order to integrate the latest of our technologies. Our task as ministers of the Gospel is to harness this digital media as a primary communications technology to our present digital culture. For example, oration is not dead, it has merely mutated in our culture, to include graphics and videos. While many pastors still do sermons as manuscripts which are written like essays and read aloud, the culture has moved onto spoken word as an experience, including performance, image and sound. Just catch a stand-up comic on late night television some night for evidence. Very few preachers understand this shift, and it has little to do with whether or not they have projection systems in their sanctuary. From the most traditional worship setting to the most innovative, it is very difficult to find a preacher who has stylistically left the bygone modern era. We still present sermons like papers, and if we have screens we present sermons like papers with screen support, while the world thinks, learns, communicates and even retains knowledge through story and metaphor, communicated in visual forms.

There is a third way that doesn’t involve stale liturgies and doesn’t involve 90s style, tacky, corporate PowerPoint presentations. It is a way that uses digital media in keeping with both our traditions and our present culture. It has nothing to do with “contemporary” versus “traditional.” Digital media is an opportunity that the church has to reinvigorate the effectiveness of its communication forms. It doesn’t mean scanning Renaissance paintings; it means creating digital art and liturgy that proclaims God’s Word. In this model, every aspect of the worship space is part of the worship experience. As music isn’t just “support” for worship, and preaching isn’t support for worship, neither is media. Each element is worship in of itself, with the ability to proclaim God’s Word and draw believers and seekers alike to an awareness of God’s presence.

At Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church in Dayton, Ohio, where we served as media staff from 1995 (Len) and 1997 (Jason) to 2000, we saw tremendous growth when we began to implement media on a weekly basis as story and metaphor. In just over 2 years, attendance leapt from 1200 to 3000 in worship. The use of digital media played a vitally important if not dominant part in that growth. An even more important part of that growth was our understanding of the role of art, story and metaphor in its use.

But is it for My Church?

This is not only a large church phenomenon. Whether urban or rural, small and medium-sized churches all over the country are approaching worship design with digital media in mind as well. New developments include a further drop in the price of technology and the rise of ministries that produce digital media resources and training for churches who can’t afford a dedicated media staff position. In our travels across North America, we’ve come to believe that small and medium-sized churches are doing more and sometimes even better than their large church counterparts at integrating digital media.

Kent Wilson was pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Willard, Ohio when it began incorporating media into worship in 1998 on a weekly basis. Based on their success at integrating media in a small church, Wilson has become a sought after seminar leader across Ohio, where he leads conferences and workshops incorporating examples of their own weekly worship productions.

Some argue that digital media somehow hinders the ability to form community in worship. The exact opposite is true. The screen allows us to join together in experiences that may not be possible through any other form. Using the personal story of someone in the congregation as a testimony video can help us connect with them, and with others around us as a result of the viewing. Creating videos like that create a forum for sharing. We jointly experience one story, and are invited to tell our own.

At one small United Methodist church of 150 that sets up worship every week in a YMCA, a sense of community is difficult to create. With no central facility for gathering outside of Sunday morning, it is a real challenge to make connections with others that attend worship.

That challenge dissolved one weekend when the focus of the message was on the story of Peter’s calling to lead the church. The worship team used the thrill and uncertainty of the 1960s mission to the moon to communicate the transformation of Peter to the leader of the early church. The service started with an original video clip that included actual footage of the moon landing. The worship host then told her own story of where she was at and what her family experienced on that night. There was a visible stir about the congregation as she told the story. Then she invited people to tell their own stories. As she did so, an amazing thing happened: people got up out of their seats and began talking to other people! Laughter and tears followed as many recalled the feelings that were associated with that time in their lives. If that same effort at creativity in digital media is put into every week, then community as well as discipleship is sure to form.

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