Welcome to Media and the Message

Mixing Desk--Photo: amishsteve
Welcome to my new blog, Media and the Message. The title is obviously a take-off on communication theorist Marshall McLuhan's famous phrase, "the medium is the message." McLuhan argued that the medium that carries a message influences how that message is perceived. Those of us who produce and present the message of the Gospel of Christ in our churches using various forms of media are well aware of the ways in which media, properly and skillfully applied, can enhance and help drive that message home.

In this blog, it is my intent to reflect on how we use media in the church, and how we can use it more effectively. In my church, I am a contemporary worship leader and the Director of Media and Communications, and my primary job in both of those arenas is to help create worship experiences that help church attenders connect with God in profound and life-changing ways. As a worship leader, I lead a team of musicians and singers whose job it is to bring our congregation into the presence of God on Sunday mornings--we are literally up front and on the stage. As Director of Media and Communications, I lead teams of production and operations people who work almost exclusively behind the scenes. In both cases, though, the "win" for our teams is realized when the attention of the people in our congregation is focused not on the worship team, and not on the media that our media teams produce and present, but rather on God and his kingdom.

In other words, if we are doing our jobs well, people in the congregation will not notice us--their attention will be drawn instead to God and to the message that is being presented from the pulpit.

If you are working with media in your church, it is my hope that this blog will be helpful to you. I'm going to try to highlight useful church media resources, and bring ideas and commentary on how we can hone our skills and develop excellent craftsmanship in our media creations and productions. I hope that you will feel free to add your voice to the content that is presented here, by commenting on the articles that appear here.

Whether you serve your church at the sound board, or in the projection booth, or at the lighting console, or in the audio or video editing room, or as a Web developer, or even laying out church newsletters and other printed media, I am going to try to provide content here that will help you do what you do more effectively and more efficiently.

(Photo credit: amishsteve.)