Is technology a killer? Is it killing the church? Or is it killing true worship?
Especially when it comes to worship, I wonder if technology (overall) is helping people connect with God on a fuller spectrum? I wonder what God’s take is on all the things we’re adding to worship?
Below is a link to the opening of one of the Hillsong Conferences.
I love the song Bittersweet Symphony by the Verve. And I love the song Amazing Grace. And I love the chorus Chris Tomlin added - My Chains Are Gone But I never expected to hear the 3 songs merged together. That’s how the 2007 Hillsong conference started.
If you have nothing to do for the next 12 minutes, watch this version of Amazing Grace. I’m sure John Newton never imagined this. It’ll at least make you think. About 11 minutes into the video Chris Tomlin shows up, with his humble redeeming smile. I love that guy. I love the look in Chris’s eyes towards the end of the clip. It’s like he doesn’t know quite what to think. It’s like he’s thinking, “What am I doing here?”…which he probably was.
Hillsong Conference 2007 Opening
Uploaded by ajchz
I found this here.
Is technology killing the church? I don’t think it’s killing the church, in fact I think overall it’s helping. But when it comes to worship - sometimes simple is better.
OK, here’s my thoughts — I believe it’s an indisputable fact of nature that the Matrix is one of the best movies ever made (just the first one, not a huge fan of the other two). Why is it a great movie? Because it is based an a great script and all of the state-of-the-art technology helped to tell that story and enhance the script.
On the other end of the spectrum we’ve all seen movies with wiz-bang special effects but NO STORY, NO PLOT, Nothing that makes it memorable. No amount of technical wizardry is going to change that kind of movie into something good.
I would dare say worship is the same way — if you have good, true, pure worship going on then technology can add to it (I would imagine is Psalm 150 were written today it might include “Praise Him with the laser light show, praise Him with the pyrotechnics, praise Him with the big-screen projector…).
But, if what you’re starting off with is a group of people saying “let’s put on a show” — then no amount of technical wizardry is going to turn that into a worship experience (might be emotional, but not necessarily worshipful).
Final thought — I truly believe that the spirit God breathed into man is a spirit of creativity, I truly believe that when Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God with all of our mind that includes creativity and originality (seriously, I’ll gladly show you the Hebrew from the first example and the Greek from the second) — I believe with every fiber of my being that God wants us to go wild with creativity for Him, and that most of the voices you hear saying otherwise are probably from those who just aren’t comfortable with the great big God of the Bible.
OK, that’s enough of my rant…
Ken - thanks for your rant, that was sweet.
I agree, I want to push the limits of our creativity - especially when it comes to worship and connecting with God.
I think you hit at the key point of the authenticity of worship being key (with or without technology).
Although I will say - before we had all these lights and sounds - there was nothing keeping us from completely connecting with God. So it’s not essential.
I like the word “balance” when it comes to technology in worship. I think we can go a little further @ HBC and still have that balance.
Feel free to rant some more bro…I’d like to hear Jon chime in on this one if he’s out there…
well done, ken. i love it when people can rant unapologetically. i watched most of the video. strange feeling. pretty cool, but something didn’t sitquite right…or did it? i had a difficult time sorting out my feelings. stupid feelings. they’re so fickle. i admittedly haven’t spent as much time looking into this as i should, but here are my thoughts anyways. i LOVE creativity. that’s why i don’t listen to very much christian music. derek webb said once that christian music speaks of about 2% of christianity. i agree. there’s a whole 98% ready to be explored. the ’show’ on the video, while cool, was an obvious ’show.’ not that there’s anything wrong with that…if i’m on broadway. we’ve come to know worhip not as a lifestyle, but singing in a church service. to worship is to offer our bodies as “living sacrifices.” that means we live life. maybe part of that (a small part) is singing. isaiah defines doing “right” as seeking justice, encouraging the oppressed, defending the cause of the fatherless, and pleading the case of the widow. that sounds like worship to me. all of that for this: when worship (as in singing at church) is a spectacle, the true sense of what it means to worship is lost. it becomes about having a cool experience within our church walls. not that there’s anything all that wrong with that…that’s just not what it’s all about. i think that’s why i felt weird.
balance. yeah that’s it.
Ben - you made Libby laugh out loud when you called youre feelings stupid…nice.
Good thoughts on the essence of worship. I think true worship is a response to God, but that response can be with our voice (singing and saying) but also with our hands and actions. Kind of like Rick’s sermon on Sunday - we need the actions and the words.