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Atlanta Cohort Conversation Last night I facilitated a conversation about the effects of media on persons in general and the church in particular. The discussion was invigorating for me personally and I appreciated how the different perspectives that were expressed colored the discussion. We used Shane Hipps' book, The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture: How Media Shapes Faith, The Gospel, and Church, as a catalyst for discussion. You can read a review of Shane's book here.Shane elucidates the thesis of his book, or a possible thesis, here. He avers, "The problem comes from a lack of awareness for how media shapes our message in worship. When we ignore the power of the chosen media, its effects often go undetected. As a result, we fail to perceive the unintended consequences of our decisions and the ways our media undermines our message." Throughout the book, Hipps appropriates the social musings of Marshall McLuhan to show the impact of media on the church. At the cohort, I read a few McLuhan quotes to get things started: McLuhanOur conventional response to all media, namely that it is how they are used that counts, is the numb stance of the technological idiot. The content of a medium is like the juicy piece of meat carried by the burglar to distract the watchdog of the mind." McLuhanThe content or message of any particular medium has about as much importance as the stenciling on the casing of an atomic bomb. McLuhan--We shape our tools and afterward our tools shape us." Continue reading... Here are a few pithy comments offered by Hipps himself: Relevance does not come simply from imitating culture or mirroring the techniques of Hollywood and Madison Avenue. It does not depend upon the adoption of electronic hardware in worship. Relevance is derived from experimenting with authentic and indigenous practices that emerge from the gift matrix of a particular congregation for a local community (154). When electronic media are taken to extremes, we become spectators of the gospel rather than participants in the kingdom of God (155). Incarnational worship is authentic and culturally engaged, prophetic and pastoral, relevant and resistant (157). One of the helpful ways that Hipps incorporates McLuhan's work into his own is through his appropriation of McLuhan's "Four Laws of Media" to technological inovation in church life. These four questions are crucial if we are to begin to predict the pros and cons of adopting a given medium in the church. Laws of Media (p. 41-2) 1. What does the medium extend? (ex. telephone-ear/camera-eye) 2. What does the medium make obsolete? (ex. car/horse and buggy) 3. What does the medium reverse into? (ex. car/traffic jams and deaths) 4. What does the medium retrieve? (ex. e-mail/telegraph)  At the cohort last night we were honored to have Andy Stanley with us. Andy is the pastor of the megachurch, Northpoint and his sermons are brodcast to two satelite campuses for Sunday morning worship venues. I thought it might be especially enlightening, given Andy's presence, to use McLuhan's four laws to deconstruct the media and technology employed in the satelite service phenomenon. My attempts at doing so are posted to the right.Andy did not choose to enagage the conversation on this point. He preferred, by his own admission, to learn from what others were saying. I respect that. Andy commented that he likes Shane's book a lot but also noted that the distinction Hipps makes between McLuhan's contention that "the medium is the message" and Rick Warren's quote, that "Our message must never change, but the way we deliver that message must be constantly updated to reach each new generation" may be an unfair dichotomy. Andy, who does not know Warren personally, thought that Warren would love Shane's book. I find that interesting. Those of you who have read Hipps' book and/or attended the cohort last night are welcome to chime in on the discussion. Peace. posted by Jake at 7/26/2006 11:12:00 AM  
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First of all, I would like to thank Jake, Melvin and all of the participants of last night's emergent cohort meeting for an enjoyable and thought-provoking evening. I came to the gathering with a different perspective as an educator. I also learned about the meeting at the last moment and did not have time to read Hipp's book. Nonetheless, Jake did a nice job of describing the book and raising questions and stimulating conversation about the meaning of the book for the church. McLuhan's thesis that "the media is the message" provoked the most thought in me. During the discussion I tried, and not too well following a couple of pints of stout, to embed this idea in a Christian notion of Truth. Thus, what does it mean if the Truth of the church is the medium? Being raised a Methodist, I was always taught and still firmly believe that the Truth of human existence is the perfect love of God. If one accepts McLuhan's argument, and I do, the next question becomes: can a technological medium re-present, or be, the perfect love of God? From the conversation, I felt like the answer to this question may have been a highly-qualified "sometimes." At the end of the evening, I listened to the conversation between Jake and Andy with fascination. I found Andy's comments, questions, and supportive critique poignant and valid. At one point, Andy raised the issue of the focus of emergent thinking on culture. Andy asked, "Where does this leave the individual?" The focus on culture is consistent with postmodern thought. According to Michel Foucault's writing on subjectivity and power, there is no such thing as an individual outside of culture. Identity is a cultural construct. Clearly, notions of relativism that situate individual identity, or reality, in culture, or in language (Derrida) are inconsistent with the teachings of Christ. Or, are they? The writings of another postmodern thinker, Vaclav Havel, empowered individuals in a totalitarian regime to a peaceful form of social action that contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union and changed the world. Thus for me, recognizing and understanding that the medium is the message is a blessing because it means the message is not a transcendent truth; rather, it is a re-presentation of a transcendent truth. This empowers individuals to creatively connect with a living Christ in their lives and culture. Such a process is not without risk; yet, the alternative may be that the love of Christ gets lost in the medium.
Jake,
Thanks for the post. I felt loss in being absent and regretted being out of town. I did the reading yet really wanted to hear the input and observations from the cohort. Thanks for the summary. I now have a bit of context from the discussion and appreciate your effort to include those of us who could not attend last Tuesday. All the best and thanks again.
We are the message. Can we come to any other conclusion in view of the incarnation, where medium and message were one? Truth that is not incarnate, that is merely propositional, is un-truth. As Raschke, put it, its time to repent. “Back to the Word not as a logical construct, but as the living power and presence, as the testament of the One who gave his life for us!” The philosophical discourse of "propositions" is another lens that distorts the gospel and "the map is not the territory."