Technochurch

By Rod Mitchell in All Sorts

the pros and cons of using new technologies in worship

I was interviewed a month or so ago by Emma Halgren who was writing an article for the Insights Magazine on Technology and Worship.
She was interested specifically in me sharing my thoughts on what
technology is indispensable in worship and what some of the pro's and
cons of using technology in worship may be. There was a feeling that
some people see technology in worship as a distraction, detracting
from the primary focus of worship. Also on the table for discussion was
wanting to explore the ways in which technology has changed and is
changing the way that we relate to one another, especially when
concerning young people.
I won't go into the bits and pieces where I was quoted too much, if at
all, but I did want to write down some thoughts that I shared in the
conversation that didn't necessarily make it into the article, primarily
for my own benefit, but also because from my perspective the most
interesting parts were not used in the article.
One of the things I spoke about was the way that the church has been
obsessed with, if not addicted to the technology of "print." I know that
some people may not view print as a technology, but it was a
technology that ultimately changed the way that we communicate with
each other, it changed the way that we learn, the way we teach and it
ultimately changed the world that we live in and it has never been the
same.
The church has taken to print in such a way that it seems to think that
it is indispensable and, for the most part it's primary means of
communicating, relating, teaching, learning and worshiping. When you
think about it worship for most churches has been surrounded by 101
ways to transmit print, from our bibles to our hymn books, our
overhead to our digital projectors, our preaching to Sunday schools,
our church newsletters to our websites are all ways that we transmit
print. It's all words, words, words... and we're addicted to them. It may
not be indispensable, but if our actions are anything to judge by we
certainly believe that it is something that we simply cannot do without.
One of the things that I've come to realise is how much this has
benefited adults and dis-empowered young people, a world
surrounded and drenched in print, in words and letters those who can
read have the power and all the information. It follows then that a
church that relies on print has very little space where children and
youth can be empowered and participate. Print, especially a lot of our
theological and liturgical print favours the literate, and it REALLY
favours the intellectual literate.
This is reversing with the rise of a culture that relies heavily on images,
a change that the church is struggling with just as much as the adults
who have become so reliant on being the primary source of all wisdom
and the only ones to be able to read and "understand" the print culture
around them. But this change has meant that it's the children and
young people who are able to understand a lot which has previously
been hidden or out of their reach. Tolstoy's trilogy TLOTR for example,
a story that had been too far out of the reach of your average 13 year
old is now a movie trilogy that can be watched by anyone with the
patience enough to sit through the 12 hours that it takes for the series
to complete. Radio, movies, television and now the internet, podcasts,
iphones, laptops and mobile phones are opening up a world that has
been dominated by adult reason and knowledge hidden in large books
to a world of young people who seem to be reveling in having the
ability to understand and interact with it in a way that most adults
struggle.

Obviously these issues mean a lot for us as a community, and I won't
go on (I've already written enough for tonight) except to ask some of
the questions that I think we are facing, or need to face if we take all of
this seriously.
• What does worship look like for a community who no longer relies
on print?
• How does a worshiping community change the way that they share their christian tradition and story if not but through print?
• What does this mean for Christian education? In particular how do
we move beyond a system that relies on the ways of print (Sunday
school in particular and also SRE, bible studies etc) to a way that
uses a number of different mediums, and that also includes young
and old learning and sharing together?
• Are we being called to a way of worshiping and communing that is
more aligned with the old oral traditions of communities than the
written culture that we're still moving from?
I think the way that we answer these questions will define the type of
community we become, I'm excited about the changes and a bit
frustrated that these questions still remain to be asked or recognised in
many of our churches.
What other questions should we be asking?
Rod Mitchell