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 Preaching by Faith and by SightHow churches are adapting to the visual revolution.
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This article is excerpted from the Building Church Leaders download Building Visual Media into Your Ministry. We are entering the third age of communication, according to Andy Crouch, culture guru and director of Christianity Today International's Christian Vision Project. The first age was oral communication, when history and theology were captured in stories and shared around campfires and tables. The second age was written communication, when the stories were committed to papyrus and sheepskin and paper and finally mass-produced. Now comes the third age. "Just as the shift to writing required the skills we call literacy, so visual culture requires its own skills—for lack of a better word, visualcy," Crouch said. A 2007 Leadership journal survey of preachers shows the visual revolution is well underway. Leadership surveyed 515 subscribers who, as lead pastors, preach regularly. Most have entered the visual fray—some signed on willingly, others feel conscripted—but almost all have felt the ground shift beneath their pulpits as technologies, audience expectations, and Game Boy learning styles make new demands on churches. Here's how:
Technology is increasing, and not only in contemporary services: 75 percent of all churches use video projection at least once a month; 68 percent use video projection every week. As might be expected, smaller churches and liturgical churches are less likely to use video and lighting technologies: Some 48 percent of churches under 100 attenders use none of the technologies on Leadership's list, compared to 11 percent of churches over 500. And 56 percent of liturgical churches use no video and lighting technologies, compared to 15 percent of contemporary churches. But the gaps are not as great as they once were. Half of the smallest churches are using more technology now than they did three years ago. And while half of contemporary/blended services use more visual elements now than three years ago, one-third of liturgical/traditional services also reported increases. Even the churches whose heritage, facilities, and budgets hamper use of technology are finding work-arounds. Among all churches, the most common uses for visual elements are still functional rather than artistic: song lyrics (92 percent), announcements, sermon points, and Scripture readings (75 percent). But increasingly pastors are including visual elements in their services and sermons that communicate more than simple words on screen: photographic images (70 percent), movie and TV clips related to the service (53 percent), video segments produced in-house (43 percent), and artistic images (34 percent). |        
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Martin Young
I am SO pleased to have found & read this article! I am a cartoon illustrator, specialising in Bible-based cartoons. I've been wondering if I have a market at all for my cartoons, since I have found it difficult to contact church leaders & tell them about what I produce. To read that a high percentage of church leaders do use visual forms of communication in their sermons is music to my ears! Now all I have to do is find some way of informing leaders of who I am & what I do. Thank you very much for this article, it has uplifted my flagging spirits & confidence! www.biblecartoons.co.uk Thanks
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