Can we even fathom the Digital World?

Last summer my two older sons came home from grad school and college respectively and set up their sizable computer systems next to the home computer in our tiny family room. There they joined my third high school aged son, who promptly confiscated the family computer, and the three of them launched into the familiar world of online gaming with friends in other parts of the country. Embarrassed by the confusing mass of tangled wires, techno babble, and intensity of play my husband and I retreated with our laptops into other quieter rooms in the house. I could hardly believe we had five functioning computers operating on a wireless network in our home! We have certainly entered another world of communication with its own language, thought patterns, assumptions, priorities and preferences. The challenge for most of us in the church, however, is that few of us speak the language and fewer still have a clue as to the probable impact of these changes upon the life and practice of the church in the future.

Rex Miller, in his book The Millennium Matrix makes a valiant effort to depict the coming digital world, which in many ways defies description as of yet. He has embarked on an enormous challenge to describe this new shift to a church population steeped in Broadcast or print values. Much of Miller’s description of the “Convergence Church,” as he terms the church for the digital generation, is couched in computer and digital terms that seem unnecessarily attached to the computer paradigm and so make his work in this area a little difficult to follow. I suspect that the digital world is simply still too new for us to grasp and describe it with clarity. In thirty years we will certainly know and understand more clearly this new world descending upon us. The question is: Will the mainline church be left behind again as the culture moves ahead or will we adapt to reach a new generation with the good news of God in Christ?

In the midst of the cluttered description of the digital communication world and the convergence church, Rex Miller makes observations about the tendencies and preferences we can see coming. Here are some of his observations which I find most compelling:

1. The digital generation has a great appreciation for eclectic experiences. They like an interactive, intimate, multisensory, improvisational, immersive, mystical, highly engaging experience. I watched this first hand in my family room as my three sons interacted with their friends online playing games together. Not only were they engaged in connecting through their virtual bodies on the computer stage, but they were all connected through verbal transmissions encouraging one another and strategizing as they played. The game itself was a creation of the online community with players from around the world developing the virtual worlds, characters and story lines. It was fast paced, creative, impromptu, and interactive in a way that left me awed.

Miller proposes that worship for this generation will also need to be highly interactive, engaging, multisensory, personal, fluid and flexible. Gone are the days of clearly scripted messages and worship plans. Even music will need to engage the creative talents of participants utilizing local talent and embracing the gifts and offerings of members and friends.

2. Truth for those raised with digital communication has become highly contextual and complex. The digital generation has the world at their fingertips. Complex learnings are a click away and this generation is fascinated by the diversity of opinions, values and world views. Complexity of thought does not frighten the next generation. They would rather explore, self select, and integrate a new world from bits and pieces of the old. This means the certainty of the print world with its linear thinking appears foolishly rigid. The simplicity of the Broadcast world seems shallow. The digital generation will stretch us into brave new worlds.

3. Miller says real community is central to the digital generation. One would not intuitively make this observation. Parents of the net generation complain bitterly that their young people only ever look at a screen and never interact face to face. While over-reliance on digital communication is a danger for youth in particular, what has changed in the last 10 years is the amount of real communication happening over these digital waves. The digital communicators are in constant contact with their personal communities over the internet, through social networks, skype and especially on cell phones. Gone are the worries of long distance phone bills which limited talking to a friend across the country. The next generation is not bound by distance. Their communities are built across the miles and provide intimate support and encouragement.

What does this mean for the church? It appears that the mega churches with their focus on big main events to which large crowds are drawn may be unappealing to this next generation. Miller says the next-geners will be looking for smaller local churches that can provide significant relationships with mixed generations that desire real community. Could we be looking at a come-back for the neighborhood church?

4. Lastly, leadership in the next generation church is expected to take a significant shift. The print world looked for the clergy to provide scholarly teaching. The Broadcast church desired charismatic leaders that could cast vision and move a crowd to experience the Spirit. Digital seekers are looking for authentic personalities. They are drawn to intellectual seekers, who have been through the fire themselves and can provide a servant leadership style. They are looking for collaborators who are willing to jointly learn and share leadership.

In many ways I find the trends projected for the church of the digital world to be refreshing after years of running behind the Broadcast mega churches. Mainline congregations have been frustrated by the over simplification of the gospel combined with the complex and expensive presentation packages required for Broadcast worship. I am delighted by the real desire for community and challenged by the depth of learning and listening and stretching that will be required of Clergy especially by this next generation. Still… what an intriguing new world this might be!

Thanks, Rex, for a great new approach to our diverse cultures in the church today!

The World of Broadcast communication and the Celebration churches

Although the shift away from a “print oriented” society began with the creation of photographs, radio and movies, it was television’s entrance in the 1950s which cemented the change in the way we think. Rex Miller, in The Millennial Matrix, focuses on the addition of television as the defining medium for the third era in communication. Broadcast communication would alter our perception of the world, transform the understanding of effective communication, redefine learning and truth, undermine the authority of institutions and completely revolutionize the American church. I found it fascinating to read this portion of Miller’s book as I readily recognized the familiar world of my childhood and yet found I was mostly blind to the effect Broadcast communication has had on the culture at large and on the church in particular.

Ultimately television changed the way we thought as much as it changed how we communicated. The very experience of watching the little screen created a psychological phenomenon called gestalt – when images merged into a whole in the mind creating a sort of “aha” experience (p.55). Watching the images on the television became a reality in its own right with incredible authority given to the truth experienced through an overly simplified presentation laced with emotional energy.

This highly diverse and flexible reality went a long way toward the dismantling of modernism. The TV allowed us to be privy to information about a world that had been previously hidden or disguised. Television exposed the contradictions of government during the Vietnam era and in the Watergate fiasco. It allowed viewers to see firsthand the dark secrets of racism and the scary world of the McCarthy era. It showed a new generation, that life and history were not as neat and orderly as depicted in all those books we read. Soon the youth of the 60s and 70s began to question everything, demand verification of fact. Doubt in objectivity was even possible. Modernism, with its linear forward march to an ever improving world came to a screeching halt. Truth was now found in what appeared right in the moment to the observer and felt compelling in the soul.

For millions of people in western society in the later part of the twentieth century television became the unifying force of culture. Television has the power to reach past physical and conceptual boundaries and unite whole countries through a common experience. It could reconstruct complex life issues into simple visual messages that could be easily digested by the masses. Family life was defined by Leave it to Beaver. The world was delivered to our living rooms by Walter Cronkite. The power of television’s images could replace millions of written words (p. 59).

Miller believes that the extraordinary success of what he calls the large celebration churches can be directly attributed to these churches taking full advantage of the fascination with Broadcast communication, at least in American culture (p. 60). A quick look at the sanctuaries of the celebration churches illustrates the reliance on the Broadcast model. Sanctuaries are set up in a theater style with elaborate sound and light effects and usually feature a large screen which dominates the stage area. The congregation is treated to emotive visuals and video clips that communicate simple messages targeted around the central theme of the day.

The celebration pastor delivers the message, Johnny Carson style, from an outline, by memory or with the assistance of cue cards flashed on the back wall for his or her eyes only. Scripture is the launching pad, but the typically simple message is driven home with humor, stories, slogans and dramatic moments utilizing the art of broadcast communication. The focus is on presentation over content.

Musical texts in the celebration church are verbally simple, often repeating phrases ad nauseam in a style not unlike repetitive contemplative prayers. The music is closely related to pop and thus sound familiar to Broadcast ears tuned regularly to the radio. The melodies and chordal structure are deceptively simple allowing for rote learning, but the complex rhythms and driving beat of the drums keeps the music energetic and enthusiastic.

Ultimately the casual, celebratory atmosphere of worship in these churches makes Sunday morning an “event”. People come expecting excitement, something new, and most importantly, they expect to be moved by the Spirit known through the collective experience in worship.

For Christians reared in the intellectual, word driven, reformation churches still common in mainline denominations like my own Presbyterian church, the celebration churches seem foreign at best. We often hear criticism that celebration worship services are focused on entertaining the crowd rather than on worshiping God. The content of the message is criticized for being simplistic and the music is said to lack depth. Miller says the critiques are only natural as Reformation worship is decidedly left brain while celebration worship is almost completely right brain. He points out that “print makes reason king and stimulates reflective thinking” while “broadcast elevates desire and emotion and stimulates reflexive thinking – the kind of thinking that fighter pilots, emergency room workers, cops on the beat and you driving your car do.” (p.66) He rightly observes that “reformers are from Mars and celebrationists are from Venus” (p. 66).

What does that mean for the mainline reformation churches that want to hang on to the print communication world with their complex preaching, poetic and theological hymns and liturgical forms? Is there no choice but to give in to a culture saturated in Broadcast communication so we can continue to spread the Good news as we know it? Well… hang on,'cause there’s a new world comin’ and we’re about to shift again with the entrance of digital communication! Stay tuned for the next blog.