Life in the Way

Drew Theological School: The Welcome Table

Above is the image from their brochure and website. I really like it! Who made it? What software program was it made in? Is it a .jpeg? Can we animate it so that the people around the cross move, rotate and dance a little? Would it be better to create a flash video or an animate .gif for the presentation purpose of the web, projection software and print? Maybe put some music behind it…

From Drew’s Website: “The feasting table where there is room for every one is also the place where, throughout time, we’ve told our faith stories and praised the Holy One who gathers us together. Join us this summer at the table where we will learn exciting and inspiring ways to tell our stories - gathered around a table or in our congregational families. And, hear and learn new worship music that will excite the soul and invite the Holy Spirit. You’re invited to ‘The Welcome Table’ whether you are clergy or lay person, musician, preacher, worshiper, anyone who seeks to share stories and praise God.”

This looks like a lot of fun. The leaders are solid and Drew is a nice place to envelop yourself in Methodism. When I was at SCD a couple of years ago, Molly Vetter did a great seminar on emerging worship. One of the things she did was talk about the use of projection in worship. There is a level of technical prowess that can (let me reiterate - “can” does not mean it is necessary, but if done well “can”) enhance the worship experience through use of picture, sound, and video. This seminar has aspects of emerging and recorded music (although more as a negative because their is no musician, as opposed to using digital music to enhance the experience).

Maybe Drew could consider a worship/church technology track, supplement, or event. Early on in my ministry I would have found that incredibly useful, and even today as technology continues to expand in leaps, it would be great to have a group of early adopters (or beta testers) sharing information and creative ideas. Our most successful churches are using projection in worship and without artistic talent (or just good taste) it can come off doing the opposite of it’s intent. Projection in church can be like an out of tune instrument or a sloppy communion table without the right training and artistic touch.

From my estimation, there are two components to this: human and mechanical.

First, the easy one is the mechanical. The machines need to be capable. Can you imagine a communion table that is unstable or a church full of pews that might not support the people sitting on them. Well, computers, software, and projector are much the same. The things that we incorporate into worship must be more than capable of supporting the purpose - enhancing or accenting the worship experience.

Much like pianist, who not only knows how to play the piano; but knows the different piano manufacturers; how different environmental conditions can cause distortions in the piano’s ability; and how different pianos sound better for certain pieces; have an ear for playing; etc. The people behind the curtain (at least at our Annual Conference) have the ability to focus or frustrate the worshipers. And like the musician, the projection can be specific to the context, culture, and content. - And get this, it can be well done with good, fast machines that can make what your doing help to focus and reinforce the worship connection or it can be done with slow glitchy, “out of tune,” machines that frustrate instead of focus. There is an artistic side that any good template maker or piano designer knows.

Second, is the human resource. In this instance, the people working on this must be both artistically sensitive and technically capable. There are aspects of searching for the right image, video, and song. (There are multiple needs like legal assistance navigating copyright - but for simplicity’s sake…)

With the incredible ability to manipulate and create, the people creating multimedia for worship can become very much like the trained pianist who can more than just play the song on the songsheet. I have seen some really good multimedia in worship and I have seen some really bad multimedia (an example is the PowerPoint slides for the UMH and FWS, they are right on technically and incredibly useful, but artistically they are poor quality and not flexible beyond the Microsoft monopoly.) A good multimedia sense is a pentacostal manifestation of tongues to the new generation. (Aside: my 32 month old child like to play nickjr.com more than watch it on TV.) Working together, technically, artistically, powerful worship is possible and fun!

Outside of the “walled” worship experience, there are multiple avenues of recording, broadcast and interactivety that are easily accessible and affordable for the local church to reach out to a broader community. The web has developed in a way that can revolutionize the local church’s ministry. Just a few examples of this are shut-ins who can gain access to worship in multiple formats (e.g., tape, CD, DVD, online) or even live on the computer; youth and young adults can interact through multiple channels of access (e.g., text, IM, blog, email); and young parents can find the schedules and events at anytime and import them into their calendar systems and set reminders, as well as instantly map out point to point route on their GPS system.