The Melheimian Sabbatiblog

Letting the YouTube Generation Tell The Story (with power, grace and style)

Most of ways the church teach are considered boring and irrelevant to teens (I’ve worked with them for 32 years now), and most of the preachers in the mainline today – average age 58 - were taught to preach by a seminary professor who was taught to preach BEFORE television.

I taught in 79 cities last year – mostly among those “relatively staid Lutherans” I've been surrounded by most of my short life. When I show our FINK powerpoint education/worship stuff, cartoons and music, I find that half of the churches tell me they’re still fighting screen wars. (“There’ll be no screen in MY sanctuary!”) What can we do? How can we convince the leadership that a missionary must speak the language of the culture (today the language is visual, musical, cultural, relational and story-based)?

For starters, here’s a little creative interruption you can use as you teach the leadership of your church.

FIRST play Simon & Garfunkel’s Youtube version of “Richard Corey”)

Anyone over 45 may be old enough to remember Simon and Garfunkel, and the simple, gripping power of telling a story in a medium that young people could understand and absorb. After viewing the YouTube, ask them what they just saw, heard, and remember.

SECOND print this list on half-sheets, set it on tables, and invite small groups to wrestle with it for ten minutes. Then come back and write their ideas on a board:

TOP TEN TECH CONSIDERATIONS FOR OUR CHURCH'S MISSION FUTURE

1. 2005 was a watershed year in the history of human technology. It was the year when teens in America began spending more time online than on television.
2. Most of the preachers in mainline pulpits today were taught to preach by a preacher who was taught to preach before television
3. I spoke in 79 cities last year, and found that half of the churches I encountered are still fighting screen wars. (“No projection screen in MY sanctuary!”)
4. Our churches have yet to enter the television era yet, and our children have already left it.
5. The most powerful medium of our day may arguably be social networking
6. The second most powerful medium of our day may arguably be film
7. The third most powerful medium of our day may arguably be music
8. The fourth most powerful medium of our day may arguably be YouTube
9. The most powerful social network of all may not be the internet... But the church of Jesus when it is alive with love, action, passion and compassion.
10. Some combination of presenting Jesus through the media and medium of the day  – if BY the kids FOR the kids USING their stories and a $179 webcam - DONE BY THEM with excellence, power, grace and style – and then followed up with the love, action, passion and compassion of the people of God (the inviting servant church) could  literally reach to the ends of the earth today... As close to instantly as was ever possible in the history of this planet.

QUESTION

So, how do we let our kids tell the marvelous story of Jesus in a way that will reach their post-television generation with power, grace and style? 

Hearing is more than a function of the ears

Here's a letter from yesterday. We hear this a lot from people starting our Faith Inkubators stuff. Some folks just haven't made the switch from a teacher/student/aural lecture/class model to a guide/guest/multi-dimensional/community learning model:

Rich,

Our program is going pretty well.  I had one of our junior guides ask if she could teach a lesson this week!  Yeah!!  Of course she will.  We still have a couple leaders that just aren't buying into the powerpoint......maybe next year they'll do something else.  :)   Most of us love it.

Thank you, Mark

Here's my response:

Mark,

Remember that the powerpoint is the tool and servant of the teacher, not the other way around.

Commend your leaders who haven’t bought into powerpoint for knowing something very important: The love and care of a real human being (in small group time) is a thousand times more effective than anything one could put on the screen.

Then tell them:

1. 2005 was a watershed year in the history of human technology. It was the year our teens crossed-over from the tv generation to the internet generation by spending more time on the net than with tv. Our churches haven’t even entered the tv generation (one-way delivery of material from teacher/entertainer to student/spectator) and our children have already left it.

2. According to microbiologist John Medina in “Brain Rules”, if one understands the basic neurology of learning,  vision trumps all other senses. A lesson with visuals will be remembered 65% better 78 hours later than a lesson without. Since our kids are growing up in an image-driven society, those visuals must be engaging, bright, and connected to something that matters to them (i.e. Their highs and lows) or they don’t have the sticky power. Isn't that what you want as a teacher? A message/lesson that sticks? You are only trying to be the best, wisest, careful steward of the teaching time possible. You are trying to open the kid before you open the book. And if you’re going to have maximum attention AND retention of the important things you’re teaching, you CANNOT with any neurological integrity argue that sitting in a chair listening to a lecture is good stewardship of the teaching time.

We are more than our ears. So much more. And the WORD to the post-television generation is the same living WORD that it was to the pre-television generation. Yes, faith comes from hearing, but the more I learn about the human mind, the more I know that we hear with more than our ears. 

We hear with our eyes. We hear with our bodies. We hear with our hearts.

Let's head to the heart.

Rich