From Mars Hill To The Movie: Preaching With Cultural Icons To Engage Culture
By Marc T. Newman
If you use a laptop, you can control the clip. You will even have your own monitor so that you won't have to turn to the screen. Each clip you cue up should have either a word or a concrete image that designates the start and stop time. If you are likely to be captivated by your own clip, you can use the counter.
Any New Tool Requires Practice
It's amazing how many preachers believe that visual aids will take care of themselves. Visual support is not something slapped onto a verbal message — it needs to be integrated. Moving from one medium of communication to another can feel abrupt if the transition isn't handled smoothly. Achieving that result means practicing. Everyone involved in the incorporation of the clips needs to work together. The persons who dims the lights, controls the volume, starts and stops the clip all need to be on the same page. With a little work, the only way congregations will notice the shift is by the increased comprehension and motivation they experience when they attend to a sermon.
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The Final Reel
We shouldn't shy away from incorporating "native culture" into our sermons. Modern Americans are far removed from the farm — agricultural metaphors are not enough — but they are adept consumers of entertainment. To reach them we need to speak their language, but we must speak it fluently. By careful use of film clips as sermon illustrations, and by adhering to some practical guidelines, we can make our way on the Mars Hills of our culture, and introduce the Savior in a new light.
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Marc T. Newman is Professor of Speech Communication, Palomar College and President of MovieMinistry.com
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References:
Boorstin, Daniel. The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1992.
Larsen, David. "The Decline of the Text: When the Text Recedes, Preaching is Placed in Peril." Preaching, March-April, 2003 online.
Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death. New York, NY: Viking Penguin, 1986.
St. John of Damascus. On the Divine Images. trans. David Anderson. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1997.
Webber, Robert. Ancient-Future Faith. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1999.
Williams, Donald. "C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, and the Tradition of Christian Poetics." Audiocassette. Hillsdale College, 1995.