To the left is a shot from what some call the best commercial ever (watch here). It was one of several commercials we watched with the Rev. Dr. Leonard Sweet as we talked about the challenges our church faces communicating to the world of today. It has been a great two days here and I want to share a little bit of what I have learned. Most of what I am writing is Len Sweet's insights and my own responses to it. You don't have to agree with it all, or any of it, but it's worth considering. I think any rational Protestant Christian (and probably others, but I will only speak of my tribe) can see we are facing huge challenges across all church bodies and our origins may help explain why.
Most protestant churches trace back to the Reformation of 1517. Our theology, our music our worship, our way of talking about God, or talking together period, is still heavily influenced by the 16th Century church. However, now we stand in the second decade of the 21st century. What's more ,we are teaching children and young adults who have a better than average statistical chance of living well into the 22nd century (let that sink in). We Lutherans according to Sweet, were masters of the Gutenberg, or Book era, we knew how communicate through the written word and I agree with him. BUT now in the digital era, the era of imagery and visual medium, we are floundering, along with the whole of Christendom. There are exceptions of course, but they are too few and too far in between. We are losing our moment, the moment of now, because we are equipped for a moment, be it 1517 or 1955, that no longer exists.
So what do we do? Well, we need to relearn the lingua franca of our time. We need to learn how to speak to today's culture and retell the Gospel in today's language as well as we did with our theological writings before. This isn't just using new words though, it's a whole new way of sharing the story. Len Sweet sums this up this way, the language of today is: A Narrative built on a Metaphor, with a Soundtrack. What does that look like, well now we go back to those commercials. Commercials are the masters of this medium according to Sweet. They are better than anyone else, including the church, at using and telling their story in today's world. Watch that Chipotle commercial again....what does that have to do with burritos?? Nothing, because companies aren't selling products, they are selling stories. They sell...a Narrative, built on a metaphor, using a soundtrack. Let me show you a couple more examples.
Budweiser Superbowl 48
So what do we do? Well, we need to relearn the lingua franca of our time. We need to learn how to speak to today's culture and retell the Gospel in today's language as well as we did with our theological writings before. This isn't just using new words though, it's a whole new way of sharing the story. Len Sweet sums this up this way, the language of today is: A Narrative built on a Metaphor, with a Soundtrack. What does that look like, well now we go back to those commercials. Commercials are the masters of this medium according to Sweet. They are better than anyone else, including the church, at using and telling their story in today's world. Watch that Chipotle commercial again....what does that have to do with burritos?? Nothing, because companies aren't selling products, they are selling stories. They sell...a Narrative, built on a metaphor, using a soundtrack. Let me show you a couple more examples.
Budweiser Superbowl 48
Now tell how many words were used in those commercials, not counting the song? How many times did you even see the product they were advertising? However, a story was still told, a good story that touched the heart (admit it!), and both those commercials were considered huge successes. They told a narrative (about animals), built it on a metaphor (friendship) and had great soundtracks (Stevie Nicks, etc).
Our churches need to tell stories this good, or rather tell the greatest story of Jesus in such a way that it touches the hearts of people as well as Budweiser does. I know, that sounds crazy, but shouldn't we able to at least match the power of beer sellers or burrito makers? The good news is it doesn't require top tier advertising, computer animation and famous musical artists. We can do it in our own churches, with our own imagery and stories. And we can do it by following a very important and central model.
See the really great insight by Dr. Sweet is this is the way Jesus taught! He didn't use deep theological insights or produce great tomes of literature. He didn't lay out his ideas in 95 theses (not that Luther was wrong). Instead Jesus told the gospel in Narratives, built on Metaphors, right? Want to know about loving your neighbor? Here's the Good Samaritan. Want to know about about grace and love and forgiveness? Allow me to present the Prodigal Son. What about the soundtrack? Well, that's little less obvious, but we know Jesus quotes psalms a lot and we know that Jewish people didn't speak their psalm they sang them. The psalms and other hymns they sang were the soundtrack. Jesus taught in this way and his disciples taught in this way and through The Way, they built a movement that now spans the globe.
Now, the church changed over the years to fit the times it was in, but somehow we got stuck and NOW is our moment to get unstuck. There was a lot more to Len Sweet's presentation, but I have already written way too much, so let me close with this. We have come back around to the time of Jesus and his disciples. With the technology and imagery we have today we need to get back to sharing the Gospel the way Jesus did and the way the world is ready to hear it. We need to tell good narratives again, built of solid metaphors and with solid soundtracks. We don't need to do this to be relevant, we don't need to do it to be popular, we need to do it because we have a great, life giving story to tell and a world literally dying to hear it. This is our time, the time God has given us to go and make disciples. Let's get to work speaking in new ways and not let the moment pass.
See the really great insight by Dr. Sweet is this is the way Jesus taught! He didn't use deep theological insights or produce great tomes of literature. He didn't lay out his ideas in 95 theses (not that Luther was wrong). Instead Jesus told the gospel in Narratives, built on Metaphors, right? Want to know about loving your neighbor? Here's the Good Samaritan. Want to know about about grace and love and forgiveness? Allow me to present the Prodigal Son. What about the soundtrack? Well, that's little less obvious, but we know Jesus quotes psalms a lot and we know that Jewish people didn't speak their psalm they sang them. The psalms and other hymns they sang were the soundtrack. Jesus taught in this way and his disciples taught in this way and through The Way, they built a movement that now spans the globe.
Now, the church changed over the years to fit the times it was in, but somehow we got stuck and NOW is our moment to get unstuck. There was a lot more to Len Sweet's presentation, but I have already written way too much, so let me close with this. We have come back around to the time of Jesus and his disciples. With the technology and imagery we have today we need to get back to sharing the Gospel the way Jesus did and the way the world is ready to hear it. We need to tell good narratives again, built of solid metaphors and with solid soundtracks. We don't need to do this to be relevant, we don't need to do it to be popular, we need to do it because we have a great, life giving story to tell and a world literally dying to hear it. This is our time, the time God has given us to go and make disciples. Let's get to work speaking in new ways and not let the moment pass.
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