have begun to explore the possibilities of interactive preaching through texting, Twitter and email. While in some congregations live feeds display questions and comments, in others they are gathered for introduction following the conclusion of the sermon. Reactions are mixed and dilemmas arise. With live feeds, should they be moderated to ensure nothing inappropriate is projected for all to see? Others see it as a dynamic new departure that puts a preacher more fully in touch with their listeners. Then there are questions of inclusion and exclusion, with the ‘techno-literate’ gaining an advantage over against the ‘techno-challenged’ (Charles, 2010, pp. 39–40).
The internet is the other significant technological development of the last 15 years. Large numbers of church websites now routinely post each week’s sermon for download, and many have experimented with live webcasts of their worship services. Mainly servicing their own members who are unable to be present in person, these developments fall into Baker’s category of recreating the old world.
There are also rather more creative online experiments. The virtual congregations of Saint Pixels, Church of Fools, i-Church and the various Christian communities in the virtual world of Second Life all have to wrestle with whether to include a sermon in services and, if so, how. At Saint Pixels, during their real-time services, a separate window appears at sermon time providing a virtual pulpit.
The congregation can take part, and see others taking part, and heckling during the sermon is not unusual. At the same time, everyone can read what is being said ‘from the front,’ which helps to stop large meetings descending into anarchy. In terms of authority, the pulpit also confers a ‘first among equals’ status to the speaker, without in any way censoring other participants. (Howe, 2007, p. 15)
If traditional technology enables us to envisage ‘broad-casting’, the World Wide Web opens up the opportunity to ‘narrow-cast’, to grasp the opportunity to preach to a highly selective community. The Baptist Minister Peter Laws set up the website www.theflicksthatchurchforgot.com/. Using podcasts he has now produced two seasons of gospel presentations to fans of horror movies. His highly targeted preaching presentations include a review and comment on a selected movie and an exploration of the theological themes that it raises. Forums and message boards then allow for interaction and an ongoing conversation. Ministering within a relatively small church, his online community has nearly 600 subscribers with the downloads and streams of his podcasts running into the thousands (Laws, 2010).
It is, in part, paradoxical that in embracing the best of present-day communications technology and therefore seeking what might be considered a more ‘incarnational’ approach to preaching, the preached Word of God loses rather than gains ‘flesh’. The sermon augmented with PowerPoint and video clips reduces the real-life voice of the preacher by complementing it with audiovisual support, while, over the internet, the strength of preaching and worship to build relationships and a sense of community is diminished as they are, in both senses of the word, ‘virtual’.
Yet preaching is more than just adapting to cultural style or tone, identifying contemporary models of monologic communication to fight a rearguard action that stands against the forces of change, or pressing into service the latest technology and gadgety gizmos to give our sermons a sense of pizzazz. If preaching is truly a mediated discipline, then what is conveyed through its mediation must not be lost sight of. It is the Word of God. In and of itself it is neither passive nor inert. Rather, as the writer of the letter to the Hebrews makes clear, it has a life and active vitality of its own. It is penetrative into the very essence of what it means to be human (Heb. 4.12–13).
Monologues may prove to be a poor method of conveying information and an even poorer strategy for delivering education. But it is a mistaken assumption to believe that preaching is primarily about either of these. Neither is it merely about the uplifting experience of spiritual inspiration. As Stephen Holmes observed in his 2009 George Beasley-Murray lecture, ‘preaching that inspires is not enough: we need preaching that transforms, enlivens, converts’ (Holmes, 2009, p. 7). This is the work of the Holy Spirit who took what even appeared to be foolishness in the apostolic era and through it was pleased to bring salvation to believers (1 Cor. 1.21). Yet the Holy Spirit does not work alone, and herein lies the mystery of preaching and the secret of its transformational power, the interplay between the human and the divine, between the sovereignty of God and human freedom. As Holmes so deftly observes, ‘we must be careful to steer the right course: human acts do not cause divine action – of course not! – but nor are they irrelevant to it. God has chosen to use our words in his sovereign work of salvation’ (2009, p. 7).
Conclusion
Preaching is a demanding discipline. The preacher is called not only to wrestle with the Scriptures so as to understand them more adequately but also to wrestle with their contemporary cultural context to determine how the gospel message is to be appropriately formed and communicated. None of this is simple, straightforward or static. Culture is continually shifting and presenting new faces to us, while our own theological perceptions are shaped and reshaped by our ongoing interaction with the Scriptures and the ever-unfolding narrative of our personal experience. It is truly mediated preaching, as it is within this dynamic, three-dimensional interaction between the preacher, their culture and the Bible, that God chooses to give life to his Word.
Notes
1. Anthropologists suggest that a healthy number is around 150 in concentric circles of closeness of 5, 10, 35 and 100. See Dunbar, 2010.
2. Daily Telegraph, 22 December 2009, ‘Lily Allen describes quitting Facebook and Twitter’.
3. Steve Tuttle, 4 February 2009, ‘You Can’t Friend Me, I Quit! On Facebook’s fifth anniversary, a not-so-fond farewell’, Newsweek; Virginia Heffernan, 26 August 2009, ‘Facebook Exodus’, New York Times.
5. http://thenightingaleinstitute.com.au/wpress/?p=1367.
6. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/aug/10/religion-comedy.
7. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/07/tv-comedy-humour-mockery.
References
Abbot, H. Porter, 2002, Narrative, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Baker, Jonny,
