Monday, August 05, 2002

On Experience
I've been wondering how much TV has ruined our ability to experience. Because of TV, I have little to no desire to go to a professional sports game or to a live concert. TV gives you a much better view, and not only from one perspective, but many. They take you behind the scenes, stuff you could never see.

How has this affected relationships? How does this affect church? I've never seen a live TV broadcast of a church service that has moved me, with possibly the exception of Billy Graham's message at the 911 memorial. How does it affect people's expectations of their church experience? How does it affect our perception of what doing ministry will be like?

When you watch TV events, you aren't crowded, you don't have to find a place to park, you don't have to smell anything bad, no one sits in front of you, you don't have to listen to people behind you talking about the movie, and on and on.

What is it all about? We need to be aware of all this as we provide an experience of God for people through our churches. Actually, instead of trying to have high production values (which we can't compete with TV anyway), we need to provide high experience values -- human touch, an opportunity to respond, someone to pray with, a live band, ...

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