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Location:
6425 Jefferson Rd. For
directions, click here.
In
the same way, the church can uses
metaphors from today's culture to help
people understand and apply biblical
truth. In
late October, Pastor Jerry Varnado, Lay
Leader Joseph Slife, and worship team
member Laurence Fortson attended a
workshop titled "Worship in the Digital
Age." Part
of that workshop, taught by the authors
of the following article, focused on
how to use popular culture -- including
film excerpts, music, and visual
imagery -- as a teaching device in the
church. In
one service (while we were on staff at
Ginghamburg Church-UMC in Ohio), we
we're trying to teach about the story
from John, where Jesus curses the fig
tree. But
we gave it an extra push by sharing the
story through the eyes of the freshly
popular Crocodile Hunter, on the
lookout (in our version) for fruitful
plants, rather than dangerous
critters. We
have shown that video piece several
times at conferences and often we ask
the crowd for the biblical metaphor,
and it never fails that several will
yell out, "Vine and the
branches!" If we
can balance cultural references and
biblical messages we will be successful
at reaching the world we currently live
in. And
using contemporary metaphors to
communicate biblical stories allows us
to take things that may be hard to
understand -- because we are thousands
of years removed from the culture of
biblical times -- and present them in a
way that makes sense to everyday
people. One
caution: if a worshipper leaves the
spectacle of experiential, digital age
worship with only the memory of a
pop-culture reference, then that
worship has stumbled. The purpose of
such a reference, or a metaphor or
story or experience of any kind, is to
draw people into an experience of
God. The
worshipper should re-enter his or her
work-a-day world, bump into that
reference, and be reminded of God's
ongoing presence. In effect, the
culture begins to reinforce what people
learned in church! One
of the biggest challenges for the
church is to continue to find ways to
redeem current cultural expression.
Each generation tends to make their
particular forms and styles "holy" and
become more and more separated from
dominant cultural
expression. To be
truly effective in communicating to
those who don't yet know Christ, we
must avoid falling into a comfortable
pattern of creating worship that works
for us, but not for the
world.
In
2004, we will begin using more cultural
metaphors and digital tools in our
worship at Gateway to help communicate
God's unchanging truth to a changing
culture.
Gateway
Church gathers
for worship
Sundays
at 10:30 a.m.
(Hwy. 129) in Athens,
Georgia.
Ministry
of the
Word:
Recent
sermons
Our quarterly e-magazine
Gateway
Today
For the Gateway family
Pastor
Jerry's Weekly
E-Mail
ON
WORSHIP
From
Gateway
Today
The
e-magazine of
Gateway Church
WINTER
2003 / 2004
Redeeming
pop
culture
Drawing
people into an experience of
God
NOTE: In teaching about the
Kingdom of God, Jesus often used
metaphors from the culture of the day
-- the farmer sowing seed, the shepherd
searching for a lost sheep, the poor
man at the rich man's gate.
We work on how to redeem culture,
to use what people already know about
to lead them into biblical
truth.
We
thought the original metaphor of fruit,
vines, and branches would still connect
somewhat with this culture.
A
delicate balance
Who
are we trying to reach?
This article is adapted from
Digital Storytellers: The Art of
Communicating the Gospel in Worship
(Abingdon Press,
2002).