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Words on the Wall


Christian groups 'dress to impress' these days with their song words on walls. We usually don't stop to think about this development but go along with it as the latest thing. However, may I just point out some aspects of this development that should give us pause for thought? With every use of newer technologies our lives are being subtly and sometimes not so subtly changed leaving us forgetting that 'the medium is the message'.*

First, the medium of data projection means that words cannot be meditated on or scanned before viewing by a congregation. Nor can an arresting phrase in any already sung verse be looked at again because the congregation is now onto the next verse. The simple use of hymn books allows those activities to be done.

Second, the congregational worship is always controlled by the click of the controller of the data projector. One could say that congregational worship in song moves according to the rhythm of the person with the mouse! I wonder whether we should much rather having that rhythm being established by a musician sensitive to the leading of God's spirit. Projectionists may well have that sensitivity but then we would have the need for three offices to become aligned: projectionist, worship leader, and musician.

Third, despite the usual assumption that newer technologies aid the church in adding to the number of disciples of Christ, no evidence exists that supports any link between changing the content of services and increase in church numbers. On the contrary, in the UK, the two appear to be negatively associated (http://xrl.in/2bg) for the Church of England at least. Astronomical sums in the billions spent in the US on upgrading technologies and using new programs in one year (2006?) in fact resulted in negative growth in US church numbers!! (See also http://xrl.in/2bj)

Last, data projection is a post-modern technology because post-modernism highlights the ephemeral, which precisely fits with data projection. One could say, post-modernism makes an absolute of the passing away of 'reality'. The latter is ephemeral, transient, here this second but gone the next. I don't think the church would want this notion to become embedded in its worship forms but it could be accepting that definition without much awareness that it is happening.

*A helpful article by Mark Federman @ http://xrl.in/2bk helps to explain what Marshall McLuhan meant by his popular but misunderstood phrase, 'the medium is the message', a process that the church would do well to remember.
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