Recently I was asked by a journalist about issues surrounding worship and technology. Here is the article I sent him. i thought it might be of interest to some people.

The great communication revolution of the past ten years has empowered and challenged  the local church worldwide, to understand its theology of mission in a new and proactive manner. This has come about mainly because of the internet revolution that has transformed the world of communications. local congregations in Africa can easily link with congregations in the UK.

Technology has always been acknowledged in the worship of the Christian church but with a passive voice. Microphones and electric lights and heating systems all depend on technology. However,  in many churches there is a new appreciation of technology  and how it can be used to make the Christian message heard and understood.  This is often an indigenous revelation springing up from within the congregation often led by lay people rather than being promoted from the central committees of the church.

The influence of the internet and the availability of broadband in public buildings has brought about a revolution in the thinking of many. Power has been devolved by default as congregations begin to explore a new gateway that allows their message to be heard far beyond their parish boundaries. In truth every local church has the potential to become a global community. Internet technology is fast becoming the new microphone for churches.

This is the technological sector that is proving to be of great interest to a number of congregations in the Church of Scotland. St Andrew’s Bo’ness have been exploring the use of internet and the power of the visual language in film and alternative mediums for the past 20 years. In many ways we are at the cutting edge of this development, but other congregations are rapidly catching up and many will leap frog what we are doing.

Sunday morning in Bo’ness will see the tech team arrive, to set up the sound desk for the musicians, then move on to switch on the cameras and connect the church to the worldwide web. In a short time everyone is ready to stream the service out. A short test video is played over the internet to prepare the online worshippers.

The first text messages arrive at around 10.25am. The congregation is filing into their seats, the people at the tech desk struggle to describe their congregation on the net as virtual; to them they are real people engaging with worship seeking God in the same way as the person who is physically sitting in the pews.

To suggest the internet congregation are dodging worship, would be seen as an insult to their integrity. They have made their choice to worship like everyone else. Often they are regular members sitting in the physical pews, but on occasions they are on holiday or off on business or at home ill. This new technology keeps them connected with the Church. Not all are local, some are adventurers who surf the net in search of something different.
Some are ex-pats who enjoy looking in on their home congregation. They too are welcome. Some of the regular internet worshippers started off as surfers today they are connected with the congregation. Some have even travelled hundreds of miles to attend a service in Bo’ness.

Texts continue to be exchanged commenting on the sermon or the hymns. At the end of the service 25 or 30 people will have looked in from all over the world. The service will be made into a podcast and be available  on the net within minutes.  When it comes to start again next week over 100 people will have listened to the replays.

Now that the infra structure is physically  appearing in church  buildings there is much more to be explored using the medium of visuals and sound.

The visual language has establish itself as a valid communicator of meaning as it is further defined by words music and symbols.  A new approach to understanding words and visuals in the context of worship is being developed again at a local level. The great irony is that this theological development is being embraced by those who would be traditionally known as iconoclasts.

The famous words of Marshall MacClure “ the medium is the message” is being  taken seriously by those who wish to communicate to a generation that is absorbed with image and now text.

Many kinds of voices from the past  continue  to critigue our visual culture. They include communication historians, theologians, mass media scholars, sociologists, semioticians and cultural theorists. In general they normally fall into one of three camps. They have been labelled as Iconoclasts, Iconographers and Interpreters.

Neil Post’s much sited book “Amusing Ourselves to Death continues to be the standard bearer for the so called iconoclasts. Postman believes that television trivialises everything from politics  to education including religion. He believed the printed word is the true bearer of truth and logic. The French critic Jacques Ellul, published an interesting book in 1985 entitled “ The Humiliation of the Word,” Ellul argues, that when the church deals in images, it may gain efficacy for a time but it destroys its foundations and content. God has revealed himself through human words.

Much of this development is still in its infancy. Those of us who now see ourselves as the Interpreters believe the word and the image can be reconciled. The theological debates of past  years surrounding  media may still have currency but a great deal of it will be superseded as technology develops a much more integrated approach to communication, as text, camera ,visuals and the spoken word are integrated into communication packages available to all through mobile phones and tablets. The church no doubt is changing but the power of the message remains effective for those who can hear it and embrace its meaning.