Doing Church in a Media-Drenched Culture It has been said, 'the future is now.' From cell phones to mp3 players to the Internet, no previous age has seen such profound change manifested so quickly. But these thrilling, dizzying transformations are forcing the church to decide where it fits in all this progress. Shane Hipps presents the promise and peril of the emerging culture and its relationship to the emerging church. Looking beyond the details of what's happening in communities of faith, Hipps analyzes the broader impact of technology and media on the church while engaging readers with questions such as: * Is media/technology value-neutral? * How has technology changed the way we think about Scripture, community, and worship? * What cultural opportunities has the church missed? * How should the church position itself to take advantage of coming cultural trends? Providing both history and prophecy, The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture invites us to engage new cultural realities while staying connected to our spiritual heritage.
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About the Author
Shane Hipps, teaching pastor at Mars Hill Bible Church, is a dynamic communicator and sought-after speaker. His previous career in advertising helped him gain expertise in understanding media and culture. Shane lives with his family in Grand Rapids, MI. For more information, visit www.shanehipps.com.
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A few years after I graduated from college, I became a lay leader at my local church. The pastor invited me to join a 'task force' (a sexy name for a committee) that was assembled in order to rethink and revamp our contemporary worship service. At the time we had two services: a traditional service featuring an organist and a full choir leading hymns, and a contemporary service featuring a band leading praise music. Our contemporary service was fl oundering; the attendance was low and the energy lacking. Our discussions as a task force centered on things like the style of worship leading, an inadequate sound system, and poor acoustics. Eventually, these conversations led us to consider the controversial measure of introducing a projection screen. The vast majority of our debate on this issue concerned questions of costs, logistics, and aesthetics. We wondered where the money would come from. Would the screen be obtrusive? Where would we put it? How would the older generation feel about it? These were all valid and important questions, but we began to believe these were not the most important questions for us to ask. 'IS TWENTIETH CENTURY MAN ONE WHO RUNS DOWN THE STREET SHOUTING, 'I'VE GOT THE ANSWERS. WHAT ARE THE QUESTIONS?'' ---MARSHALL MCLUHAN CHAPTER ONE SEEING BUT NOT PERCEIVING THE HIDDEN POWER OF ELECTRONIC CULTURE Our original reason for considering a projection screen was largely imitative---all good contemporary services have one. But as we worked through the issue, we realized the rationale of 'everybody is doing it' was fl awed, and we began exploring different questions: Why do all contemporary services have a screen? What is the effect of using a projection screen versus using a hymnal or bulletin? How would this new form of media alter the congregation's experience in worship? After some discussion, we came to the conclusion that a screen frees the body from the bulletin or book. It invites movement, dance, and physical expression in worship. It lifts the heads of congregants, amplifying the sound and energy of their voices. We believed all of these were the chief marks of a 'good' contemporary service, and they became our guides as we worked to implement this simple change. While this decision was about a relatively minor concern in the life of our church, there was great value in asking this new set of questions. When we considered the broader implications of a seemingly simple decision, it changed the nature of the debate, freed us from our opposing camps, and opened us to better ways of thinking about the rest of the service. Our conversation was in no way unique to that church. Nor did our insights reflect a grand breakthrough in understanding worship technology. But I believe we hit on the fundamental issue of the ways in which media affect the gathered community. Unfortunately, these issues are often only raised---if they are raised at all---when dealing with simple forms such as the projection screen. We seem less interested in asking this question about the more pervasive and complex cultural forces at play both inside and outside of the church. For example, if something as simple as a projection screen can have a dynamic effect on a congregational experience in worship, what happens when more complex media are infused into the life of a church or into the lives of the people who are the church? What is the effect of the Internet on the way we think about and do church? How does the medium of television shape our understanding of community, leadership, and mission? In what ways is our understanding of the gospel altered when we communicate or preach with pictures instead of words? MEDIA: THE CULTURAL ARCHITECT The answers to these questions are based on a simple notion: The forms of media and technology---regardless of their content---cause profound changes in the church and culture. The power of our media forms has created both challenges and opportunities in the ways the people of God are formed. Unfortunately, just as Dorothy and her companions missed the man behind the curtain in The Wizard of Oz, we stand oblivious to the hidden power of media. Most of us point and stare at the giant wizard head wreathed in flame, quite unaware it is only a distraction---the con man's sleight of hand. The time has come for the church to pull back the curtain and expose the true effects of media. While this may sound like the hunt for some notorious villain, it is not. The media to which I am referring are neither evil nor good. Yet this in no way means they are neutral. Their power is staggering but remains hidden from view. Because we tend to focus our gaze on their content, the forms of media appear only in our peripheral vision. As a result they exert a subtle yet immense power. By exposing their secrets and powers, we restore our ability to predict and perceive the often unintended consequences of using new media and new methods. This understanding of media is crucial to forming God's people with discernment, authenticity, and faithfulness to the gospel. MR. NO DEPTH PERCEPTION In 1991, Saturday Night Live introduced America to Mr. No Depth Perception, played by Kevin Nealon. The character made only one appearance, but for some reason the sketch left an indelible mark on my memory. The title tells the story: It's a sketch about an enthusiastic and well-intentioned man who is completely unaware of the fact that he cannot perceive depth or distance in the world. In the sketch, Mr. No Depth Perception is energized by the prospect of going sky-diving. He imagines how thrilling it must be to 'pull the rip cord at just the right moment,' only to have his hopes dashed when his wife, for obvious reasons, adamantly refuses to support his eager aspiration. Later he crashes his head through the living room window in a simple attempt to see who is knocking at the door. It happens to be their friend Brenda with her new boyfriend Gary. They sit down for dinner, and Mr. No Depth Perception turns to his wife and says, 'I can't believe Brenda's dating this loser! You know what she's after, right?! I bet he's got money or something!' Gary, sitting only a few feet away, fidgets awkwardly in his seat. When Mr. No Depth Perception's wife reprimands him for his insensitivity, he responds by saying, 'Oh, relax! He can't hear me way down there!' The sketch goes on like this, but you get the point. If all comedy is a form of tragedy, then the tragedy for Mr. No Depth Perception is that this rather endearing adult is actually very much a child without any powers of discernment, which means he is quite dangerous to himself and others. As a result he must be tended to and cared for by his family at all times. It makes for good comedy, but it also makes you glad you aren't him.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
McLuhan revisited,
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This review is from: The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture: How Media Shapes Faith, the Gospel, and Church (Paperback)
As a young professor at Goshen College in the 1960s I bumped into a professional challenge. I had come upon Marshall McLuhan's books which introduced an entirely new way of thinking about the media. (Later we used the term paradigm shift.) McLuhan found his way into my course syllabuses and coffee conversations. A friend once told me that I was totally McLuhan-washed.
Problem was, the profession didn't have a very good word for McLuhan. Stylists scoffed at his style; communicologists asked for his research methodology; and the qualitative analysts couldn't find coherence in McLuhan's broad shot. Was something wrong with me that I so revered the Toronto seer? Forty years later a former student called me. "Check out Shane Hipps' book." I am pleased to recommend a McLuhan inspired The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture. I look through a rear-view mirror and wonder how much better my own classes might have been had I, in the 1960s and 1970s, come upon this kind of interpretation and application of McLuhan's seminal work. Hipps is a deeply spiritual pastor; his book, subtitled "How Media Shapes(sic) Faith, The Gospel, and Church" offers him an opportunity to explore the "cultural engagement" of people of faith. McLuhan never struck me as particularly religious, but I am sure he would approve of how Hipps has appropriated his thought. Central to McLuhan's understanding was that media (Why did Zondervan make the noun singular on the cover?) are "dynamic forces with power to shape us, regardless of content." Hipps smartly pulls together the widest range of McLuhan's writing to suggest more precisely the nature of the dynamic forces. He identifies McLuhan's "four laws" of media. The media extend..., the media make obsolete..., the media reverse into ..., and the media retrieve... . A useful exercise, then, is to explore what does a medium extend? what does a medium make obsolete? What does a medium reverse into? And what does a medium retrieve? Like McLuhan, Hipps uses the print media as the contrasting backdrop to a study of electronic media. Beginning with chapter 4, the book lends itself to provocative churchly discussions, although I am of the opinion that the typical lay leader who fails to make a careful study of McLuhan could stray from the principles that guide Hipps' discussions and simply opt for the latest church experiment. Be sure to wrestle with Hipps contrast of the Apostle Paul's method of discourse and that of Jesus. If you grasp this contrast, you will be well on your way to understanding Hipps' perspectives on metaphor, sign and symbol, story, emotional involvement and community.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You can't know the players without a program.,
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This review is from: The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture: How Media Shapes Faith, the Gospel, and Church (Paperback)
"I contend the medium of print shaped the modern church in ways we are only beginning to recognize in the wake of postmodernism. Only when we study these changes can we begin to perceive the impact for the other forms of media on our understanding of community, leadership, and worship." Shane Hipps.
Like the proverbial frog in the pot of water, I have grown up in a culture saturated with electronic media. I remember going to Sunday School as a young boy, and talking with my classmates about what we had watched on TV the night before. Little did I know that the media we shared was creating the community that we were becoming. Shane Hipps in his book The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture, deftly explores how the things we do influence who we are. Things that we don't think about have enormous impact on what and how we think. I have read theology and sociology treatises on the modern / postmodern rift in our society. For the first time, thanks to Shane, I see causal relationships between historical technological events, and the worldviews that emerged in their wake. To ignore this insight is to run the risk of what I call the hardening of the categories. Understanding the post-modern experience is a cross cultural journey and this book can serve as a tour guide to the trip. In Chapter Six the treatise on conflict and how to deal with it is worth the price of the book many times over. If you are a thinking Christian--not an oxymoron--you will find Shane's work ranking up with the likes of Dallas Willard, and Marva Dawn. It is scholarly, pleasingly readable, and insightful to the point of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. David Wheat, Merrimack NH
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Well Presented Material on a Complicated Subject;Perhaps a Needed introduction to important issues,
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This review is from: The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture: How Media Shapes Faith, the Gospel, and Church (Paperback)
In reflection on the relationship between media and social organization, Shane Hipps explores the emerging church's engagement with electronic culture. For instance, Hipps outlines some basic associations with the individualism, objectivity, and abstraction of modernity and the print medium's encouragement of private reading, detached learning, and abandonment of mnemonic practices - respectively. Print culture can seem to give shape to a Christian privatized worship life and a systematic scripture reading of "extracting propositional truths."
On page 88 Hipps writes: "Because the medium is the message, our media revolutions - from the printing press to the Internet - have led to unintended changes in our message. Among them is a shift from a modern, individualistic, and highly rational concept of the gospel to a postmodern, communal, holistic, and experiential one." Hipps highlights the positive aspects of this: "The emerging gospel of the electronic age is moving beyond cognitive propositions and linear formulas to embrace the power and truth of story. It revives the importance of following Jesus holistically rather than simply knowing Jesus cognitively. It has reintroduced us to a corporate understanding of faith that has powerful implications for this life, not just the next. It recovers the importance of ancient imagery, rites, and rituals in celebrating the mystery of the kingdom of God." (90) Moreover, if the internet truly reflects a diffusion of information, and therefore of power, then this shift offers "a helpful corrective to the long history of centralized, top-down authority in the church. Electronic media allow us to retrieve the more participatory and egalitarian forms of worship where authority is dynamic and based on relationships rather than on fixed job descriptions." (130) The author draws heavily on the thoughts on Marshall McLuhan, and offers valuable insights into the role of communication technology in culture. However, after reading this book one wonders if the author puts too much explanatory weight on media technology regarding social organization and related issues. It must be noted that there are other factors which can help explain our systems of thought and social organizing. One book that helps to bring perspective on these issues is A Social History of Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet by Asa Briggs & Peter Burke.
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