Sunukjian, however, is not persuaded that people have short attention spans. “People will watch a movie for two hours and not get bored,” he asserts. He points out that many good preachers will hold the listener’s attention for forty-five minutes. Sunukjian advises preachers to observe the preachers on television who are preaching to large audiences in their churches and even larger audiences through the television media and few are using such visual technology in their preaching. However, they are using the best of technology to broadcast their preaching.

Ron Allen focuses the debate over the use of technology to an even more fundamental level. He asserts, “We do need to figure out the degree to which preachers can and should use electronic media in preaching. I have a hunch — though I cannot yet prove it — that there is something so fundamental in the human being-to-human being interchange of the preacher talking directly to the congregation that the dynamic of that interaction changes when PowerPoint and other forms of media are introduced into the pulpit. We need to assess.”

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Technology makes for a powerful servant and a horrible master. Many preachers point to the countless hours they (or others in their church) spend finding the right movie clip, or video vignette, to illustrate a point in their sermon. Time is unredeemable. Are the minutes spent on a hunt and find mission for a video is taken from quality exegesis and study? To quote Ron Allen again, both corporately and personally, “We need to assess.”

Ed Young, Jr. — pastor of Fellowship Church in Grapevine, TX — has become known for remarkably creative worship experiences that draw more than 18,000 people each weekend to Fellowship’s services. Despite a contemporary approach to ministry, Young does not believe that technology is key — rather, the key is creativity in your own setting.

In an interview that appeared in the January-February 2005 issue of Preaching, Young said, “Creativity is not bouncing off the walls. It's not gimmicky. It has to be biblically-driven. We're not above the Bible or on the same level as the Bible. We're under the Bible — we're under scripture. So it has to be Biblically-driven. And I believe when its biblically-driven you're going to find that sweet spot of communication.

“I think that small tweaks take us to giant peaks in communication. It doesn't have to be these big honkin' things and flying down from the ceiling or painting the walls orange and throwing sand in the foyer. It's within your context and sometimes it can be as small as changing the time when you speak, or it can be maybe one time giving a message outline or message map and then one time you don't do it. Maybe it's having the choir or your praise team singing in one area in the church one weekend and another area another weekend. Maybe it's using video clips for two straight weeks and maybe it's not using it for six weeks. Maybe it's being very loud and having all the lights for three or four weeks, and maybe it's totally dialed down, totally simplistic for four straight weeks.”