To Christians, our presence and placement in today’s media is mostly within the Christian media realm. We’re almost entirely isolated to a Christian world with a Christian audience; this is one of the main reasons we are not as known and recognized as we would like to be. How can we address the issue of The Christian Voice in today’s media?
In the introduction to his book, What has Gone Wrong with the Harvest, Jim Engel wrote that “In one sense of the word, the Church of Jesus Christ is entering its golden era. Mass media now span the globe, literacy is growing rapidly, and people in many quarters are showing new interest in spiritual things.”
Are we accompanying the people in their search? Are we walking with them? “Mission belongs to the very being of the church. Proclaiming the word of God and witnessing to the world is essential for every Christian. At the same time, it is necessary to do so according to gospel principles, with full respect and love for all human beings” (Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World – Recommendations for Conduct issued by the World Council of Churches, Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and the World Evangelical Alliance).
Steve Jobs is quoted as having said: “The juice goes out of Christianity when it becomes too based on faith rather than living like Jesus or seeing the World as Jesus saw it…” (Biography, Isaacson)
About Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “He began to see that the overemphasis on the cerebral and intellectual side of theological training had produced pastors who didn’t know how to live as Christians, but knew only how to think theologically” (Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas).
Jesus said for us to go into the whole world rather than go out of the world! This includes the virtual worlds too. Are we going to seek others out or do we expect them to come to us? How do they see us? If we are called to be in the world but not of the world, have we become too much of a part of their lives to affect change?
Many of us are from free churches where we develop ‘seeker-sensitive’ services, programs for ‘outsiders’ to come to us rather than going to them. We invite them to us rather than celebrating with them where they are.
Jesus taught in the spiritual institutions of his time but it seems that Jesus probably taught significantly more outside of the synagogues, where he engaged in debates, social activities and interacted with people.
The great variety of media today leads to an enormous fragmentation where each one has its own rules. Each fragment is a sub-society and calls for its own code of conduct. If we want to be part of these sub-societies, we need to understand this.
A Christian Monologue
The term “Christian media” already says that, rather than being Christians in media, it became its own fragment. “Christian media” became its own ecosystem rather than just a part of the general media. Much of Christian media today is serving an already-Christian audience.
Radio is a go-to medium; the content and context, however, can be a ‘go’ or a ‘come!’ A sermon is a coming-in invitation; a recording of a conversation in a bar, restaurant, office, and elsewhere is a ‘go-to.’ The audiences certainly sense this. A great challenge for radio, in contrast to social media, is that it contains the danger of delivering a monologue, a presentation where the audience is just the spectator. Social media is a strong vessel for dialoguing.
Interestingly enough, both Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Tim Keller (to mention just a couple), have very strong social components in life. They live it; they do not just talk about it! It is because of their social engagement that they are credible. They are ‘media.’ The Gospel is deeply social; it transforms and its change has an impact on our behaviors.
Preaching is our strength; we judge our preachers by their sermons rather than their abilities to converse and interact. We preach at them; that is what we are good at, rather than speaking with them. ‘To be good news and not just talk about it.’ Do people realize that we love them or think we just condemn them?
Is the ‘Christian voice’ in today’s media characterized by ‘We tell you’ or is it rather, ‘we tell us?’ Could it even be ‘you and I are talking together?’
We are tempted with ‘insider discussion’ rather than a conversation with the ‘outsiders.’ It is so much easier. We think we know it; we are comfortable with it. This is ‘our’ thing. We meet with those we are comfortable with and we shy away from conversations that are out of our control or conversations where we are out of our depth, where we feel they are posing a threat to us.
We can only be a voice into this world if we are in the world to understand and not be of the world. Only then can we speak to the world with a new message or new challenge if we have a profound knowledge of the concerns of the world we want to address.
Conversations
How can we know what makes our intended audiences tick unless we interact, go to and spend time with them? Jesus was constantly among people and he was one of them, except in their sin. Are we perceived as ‘one of them’ by the audience and being accused as ‘one of them’ by our own group? Welcome to the world of Jesus and the accusation of the Pharisees! Mark 2:16.
John the Baptist, Jesus and even the Apostles spoke with the people and were with them. They didn’t invite people to come to church; they also didn’t speak from the safe, comfortable and easy confines of the church to these people.
Could it be that we differentiate too much between ‘the World’ and ‘us’ rather than talking about ‘our world?’ It is ‘them’ versus ‘us’ rather than simply all being ‘us’. Various media today provide us with powerful tools to join them in their world we want to converse with.
How many of the programs we distribute on any of the media platforms available to us are only from our perspective? How many of these programs are made with our audience involved? How many of the programs are made in the environment the people live in?
As we consider these issues, we have to be careful that we are not becoming so soft that we lose the cutting edge. We need to be ‘a loving nuisance’ who consistently challenges, invites and leads to discussions. We at TWR have to be aware of the danger of leaving a listener feeling as though they are not a part of the discussion.
How do those we want to reach call us? Do they say to each other, “They are one of us?” We ought to become credible voices of Christians in today’s media societies.
Felix Widmer
International Director
TWR Europe, CIS, Middle East and North Africa