Pixelated Preaching

I really enjoyed the mental gymnastics of this great article from Collide magazine.

It was not the issue of video preaching, per se, that interested me but the thoughts about "preaching," "communication," "inviting," "local eldership," and "reaching."

Here are some snippets:

Congregations grow with out-of-the-gate momentum and a committed core that understands the mission and has confidence in the pulpit, so they are comfortable inviting neighbors.
Harleman

As for distance, Jesus preached to thousands and was so short on face time with listeners they literally tore the roof off. Paul wrote loving letters of encouragement and exhortation to churches he never even set foot in. While subsequent preachers are neither God nor apostles, we can’t dismiss ministries of gifted men like Charles Spurgeon, who preached to 10,000 and didn’t dialogue from the stage or have every congregant over for tea and cookies. Traveling, circuit-riding preachers made Methodism the largest Protestant denomination in the 1800s. All of that to say God is creative and doesn’t prescribe one technique.

Harleman

Yes, Jesus preached to thousands. That was Jesus. What those He left started were smaller communities where “elders in every town” were of utmost importance. Paul wrote letters to help guide churches he never met, and the local elders of those churches read, discussed, and taught from those letters as well as the other Scriptures Sunday after Sunday.

Hyatt

Jonah walked in and called Ninevah to repentance; he was neither dynamic nor enthused, yet God used the power of the Assyrian king to spread news throughout the city, bringing 120,000 to their knees. As kingly declarations were perhaps the most powerful form of broadcast in its day, I believe God can use pagan kings, satellites, or a series of tubes invented by Al Gore to distribute gospel proclamation throughout a city today. Video campuses add another weapon in the arsenal for planting missional communities. Not intended to replace church planting, they simply add another bullet in the gospel gun.

Harleman

Paul wrote a letter to the Colossians even though he’d never been there; with a satellite feed from his Roman prison cell, I’m betting he would have exhorted and encouraged churches he’d planted personally as well as ones he’d sent leaders to build.

Harleman

As for communication, I was a speech and debate guy in high school. One thing you find out quickly (and it snaps with Romans 12) is that “communicators” don’t share a singular gift; the word describes a variety of gifts. Some are fantastic orators, others are great debaters, and still others excel at impromptu. Most important, rarely is anyone excellent at all of these. Jonathan Edwards would write out and read his sermons word-by-word, line-by-line. If someone else teaches and employs Q&A, they may be built for that type of ministry. However, if someone is a spectacular orator with a gift capable of impacting thousands, should we shoehorn that gifting into a small “dialogical” venue or utilize it in its most natural and potent expression?

Harleman

What’s retained there that’s lost in a video venue is something we see as absolutely crucial: interaction between those being taught and the ones teaching them. Even if you are not into dialogical preaching, there’s a benefit to the one teaching knowing those being taught and speaking directly into their lives that’s simply impossible to preserve in a video venue.

Hyatt

Preaching is heralding; the word-picture is that of the bell-ringer, the town crier, the Silver Surfer announcing Galactus’s arrival. Good teaching involves dialogue, but preaching is proclamation. This is the difference between declaration and conversation. Both are essential; I would never disparage the intimate, redemptive interaction we see between Philip and the eunuch. However, Peter preached to a full square in Acts 2 and men like Spurgeon used monologue to reach thousands on a Sunday

Harleman

Regaining 10-20 hours often needed to deliver a quality weekly sermon and reinvesting that in people yields amazing fruit. When you counsel that couple with a struggling marriage instead of referring them out to pay a local counselor because you need more time for sermon prep, those churchgoers—and the congregants they know, and their non-Christian friends—experience the love and devotion. It’s more time to work alongside and encourage hardworking members, develop leaders, and visit the sick. Humility to delegate Sunday’s platform and step into people’s lives preaches as powerfully as the pulpit for a doubled impact.
Harleman

Let’s not pit time spent studying and actually teaching the people of your community against other parts of the pastoral role such as counseling. The fact is both are elements of the role of a pastoral elder in a local community. One of the requirements the New Testament gives us is that an elder be “able to teach.” Paul’s admonition to Timothy and, by extension, other pastors? Preach the Word.

Hyatt

You can check out the full article here.

PS - Collide Magazine is all about where media and the church converge.