I innocently wandered into our family room where a dynamic force had taken command. In seconds, that two-foot square brown box captured my attention and reeled me in like a light-weight paper clip to a high powered magnet. In willing submission, I abandoned my previous agenda and slid into a comfortable chair to stare at the flickering screen. My TV had collared me under its spell again. How did this mind coup happen so fast? Why do I repeatedly fall victim to it?

What's The Story?

The secret of its potent pull is not TV's amazing technology. Its charm is not the vibrant images of its electric screen. TV's magnetism is much more elementary. That same attractive power has been with us for centuries, long before TV, or the video culture were conceived. The plug-in box in my family room actually owes its mental muscle to a very basic communication form. This ancient technique is the effective telling of a story. TV rivets our attention because it engages us in stories. The dramas of life snatch our attention. We love stories. We enjoy familiar, well-worn stories. We are intrigued by new stories that venture our way. Most of us just cannot walk away from a good story. When good and evil forces draw lines in battle, we tune in. We get involved in the characters. We cheer for the good guys and anxiously wait for clues of the villain's demise. In sum, the stories of life capture and often keep our attention.

For Dramatic Effect

Obviously, churches or their pastors do not have the resources to compete with the might of the TV networks or the film industry. However, this does not mean that we cannot capitalize on the visualized story. This kind of "story power" is readily available in an alternative communication medium. Like TV, the medium I suggest is highly visual. This medium can also be effectively used in a traditional church setting if it is handled properly. Most churches have able people who could make it happen on a low-budget (or no budget). What is it?

The "dramatic illustration," the acted-out story, is this highly useful and do-able communication tool. The concise dramatic illustration can serve well as an assistant to the traditional sermon. A dramatic illustration is like telling an oral story, except with the addition of the visual dimension. As it brings a story to life, drama powerfully gathers interest and opens the door for learning. Dramatic illustrations are slices of life that invite people's full attention. Positioned at the beginning of a sermon, "life illustrated" stories orient the congregation to the heart of the sermon. Well-positioned dramatic illustrations can handily introduce a sermon's focus. They fill the same crucial role that effective introductions do in normal preaching. They raise issues and questions that the sermon will address. They enlist people's involvement and draw them to "tune in".

There are now two generations of adults in America that have grown up on a diet of network TV, video, and film. Today's youth seem addicted to the visual story medium. Children, teens and adults often depend on the visualized story as the method of ac-quiring much of the information that they use every day. Even the evening news comes in the form of "stories." Since we are in a quest to communicate well with the video generation (which also "watches" in church Sunday morning), we are wise to value the story medium. Specifically, we can capitalize on the acted out story (dram-atic illustration) as a winsome friend that converses freely in a medium which people know, relate to, and enjoy.