The Spectacle of Worship in a Wired World: Electronic Culture and the Gathered People of God [Paperback]

Tex S. Sample (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1998

Although other books discuss how to involve multi-media elements in worship, The Spectacle of Worship in a Wired World is the first to explore how electric culture shapes people's perceptions and expectations of what worship is. The new electronic culture, explains Tex Sample, is a culture that involves fundamentally different ways of experiencing and knowing the world. It is also a culture that holds tremendous challenges for all areas of the life of the church, none more so than its worship. Sample points out that if we hope to reach the generations that have grown up with television and other electronic media as daily parts of their lives, we must understand what electronic culture is, and begin to think about how the church's worship can learn from it and adapt to it. Examining the three central elements of electronic culture - images, sound as beat, and visualization - Sample demonstrates that meaning arises for those steeped in this culture from the convergence of these elements, rather than from any one of them individually. He goes on to discuss how these are already present in Christian worship, and how they might be made more evident. In addition, he explains that worship can serve as a corrective and critique of electronic culture, and concludes the book with suggestions for how to build worship around an awareness of this new kind of culture.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Abingdon Press (September 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0687083737
• ISBN-13: 978-0687083732
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,066,003 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Communicating Faith in the 21st Century, May 19, 2000

By 

Richard Faris (Charlottesville, Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Spectacle of Worship in a Wired World: Electronic Culture and the Gathered People of God (Paperback)

This is an important book, not only because the author has such a firm grip on his subject, but also because of the timely need. The church today must retool its communication systems if it is to have an audience in the under 40 crowd. Dr. Sample makes the case that if an older generation of church goers is so comfortable with the status quo, especially in worship, and sees no need to change, its children and grandchildren will soon be strangers to the church.

The author says that those born after 1960 are simply wired differently than their seniors, and require another approach to communicating through worship. Sight and sound, lively music, multi-image video, drama, dance must replace reliance on a twenty minute sermon as the chief means of telling the story of faith. The electronic culture that has swamped our globe must not be ignored by the church. This revolution is as significant as that of the print revolution in the middle ages. And just as Martin Luther used that new medium to proclaim the faith, so church leaders today must claim the new media as the means of conveying the story.

Dr. Sample explores the meanings of this new way of looking at life and reality and then applies it to the church, especially at worship.

I not only highly recommend the book; I think its message is crucial for the church's ability to reach this electronic generation.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Understanding Cultural Worship, September 12, 2001

By 

Michael D. Hone (Hickory, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Spectacle of Worship in a Wired World: Electronic Culture and the Gathered People of God (Paperback)

Tex Sample, in his book "The Spectacle of Worship in a Wired World," addresses the cultural divisions between the postmodern generation and the moderns (those born before 1945), and how that division plays out in the worship of the church. The basic elements of the electronic culture (postmodern) are images, sound as beat, and visualization. Sample blends scholasticism and humorous anecdotes to demonstrate how much of the postmodern cultural elements (images, sound as beat, and visualization) are already present in worship. Rather than fight against these elements, Sample argues for their understanding and intentional use in worship.

Sample continues to argue against the use of the word "relevant," but chooses the word "Incarnational." When churches are "out of touch with the people who live around them, the problem is not that they are irrelevant, but that they (are) not Incarnational" (1998:105). The book concludes with an illustrated worship service designed with the electronic culture in mind (a worship service using images, sound as beat, and visualization).

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Understanding the Worship Wars, August 8, 2001

By 

Randal R. Huber (York Springs, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Spectacle of Worship in a Wired World: Electronic Culture and the Gathered People of God (Paperback)

The Spectacle of Worship in A Wired World is highly useful for those who are attempting to comprehend the worship wars that are taking place across the church. Sample, a scholar and keen observer of culture, particularly of entertainment spectacles, explores the worship ramifications of the cultural gap that separates those born before 1945 and those born after. Developing a historically grounded argument that is both scholarly and anecdotal, Sample focuses upon the effects of electronic media upon the manner in which younger people experience and know their world. He persuasively demonstrates that electronic culture is profoundly shaping the worship needs and expectations of these younger believers. Postmodern persons increasingly comprehend the world through images, sound as beat and visualization. Moderns perceive meaning in words, utilizing rational and analytical discourse whereas postmodern persons perceive meaning more subjectively, emotively, and experientially. These differences have extraordinary ramifications for creating worship services. Postmodern persons are sometimes accused of being intellectually bankrupt but Sample demonstrates how powerfully electronic media can critique culture. Sample closes his helpful book with an illustrative worship service utilizing electronic media and designed to impact electronic culture.