Erin Reid
WRIT2011
Critical Review
and Interview
Does God Read Email?
With the recent technology boom a
surprising, yet predictable, relationship between media, technology and
religion has arisen within many religious organizations. Churches like Hillsong,
and many more, have taken advantage of modern technology and now broadcast
their message to millions every Sunday over the television and Internet. Many
churches now have Facebook pages, twitter accounts, and almost every religious
institution has its own website. As Pauline Cheong so amusingly observes in her
article Faith Tweets: Ambient Religious
Communication and Microblogging Rituals, “What would Jesus tweet?” (Cheong,
2010). Instead of going to church, thousands now log on to various websites and
watch their chosen sermon via a live webcam installed in the church auditorium
(Miller, 1999). With this recent relationship between religion and technology
many questions and debates have obviously arisen over the legitimacy and
spirituality this type of worship provides.
Kenton Beshore is the Senior Pastor at
Mariners Church located in Southern California. Mariners is a
non-denominational, Evangelical Christian church, and it is one of the largest
churches in the United States; it is referred to as a mega-church. Walk into
Mariner’s main auditorium and you are automatically hit with sensory stimulus.
The main auditorium seats a total of 3,500 people, has 3 huge megatron screens,
and an impressive center stage to host its worship band. The weekly sermons are
recorded and then sold in the impressive on campus bookstore and coffee shop.
Out on the patio after each service there is a barbeque with games and
activities for families.
When
asked how he feels about the recent technology boom that has so affected our
culture Kenton responded, “ It is, just what it is. It’s like asking me how I
feel about today being Friday. There are good things about it and there are bad
things about it. With texting you have people connecting more but less
conversations, less deep discussions and more shallow connections. But at the
same time we can reach a whole group of people we wouldn’t have been able to
reach before, and people are writing again.” While being aware of the upsides
and the downsides to media and technology, Kenton has decided to take advantage
of it and implement modern media and technology in his church. Mariners Church
was the first church to put any sort of screen in their auditorium. The thought
behind this was to make a big space seem smaller and more intimate. Kenton
views religious media as a good way to reach people. When asked how he feels
about churches like Hillsong broadcasting their message over the television he
replied, “Through media they contact probably hundreds of thousands of people
every week. It’s about reach, it’s not good or bad it’s just a tool.” With such
huge media and technology implementation used in Mariners this obviously brings
up the question of how money is being spent and that mega churches are putting
smaller churches out of business (Libaw 2012). There have also been various
critical articles about churches that spend large amounts of money on media and
technology to further their religious wingspan. While Kenton can’t speak for
any church but his own, he maintains that all the money his church spends on
media is raised for that purpose. While
most gifts given towards media are small, it’s a way people can see their money
being used in a progressive way. While it can’t be denied that media and
technology provide a way for churches to reach more people than previously
possible, there is still the argument that this is not a genuine connection.
Watching a TV screen on Sunday morning could never replace or compare to actual
human interaction. Kenton completely agrees with this point of view, “Somebody
watching an online service is not interacting with other people in the building
so they don’t get a authentic sense of what’s actually going on. Religion is
about connecting on a spiritual level as well as a human level. You need a support
group of people, and there is no way the Internet or television could ever provide
that.” He argued further that watching a sermon over the television or Internet
should never be a complete replacement for actually going to church. Having the
technology to tune into a church service is a great resource for people who are
traveling or in an old folks home or in the hospital. Having this technological
alternative is a great resource for people who can’t be there in person, but
should not be seen as a replacement for those who can.
In terms of media, Mariners is a very
advanced church. Recently Kenton organized for a series of 6-minute stories to
be posted online with the purpose of being watched during small group meetings
at church members’ homes. The intent of these videos is to get the people who
watch them thinking and to get their attention and provoke discussion within
these groups that gather. They can then go to their Bibles and see similar
stories there which hopefully reinforces this dialogue. These 6-minute clips
became so successful that a big publisher decided to make a movie out of all of
these clips combined together. This movie was called IAM. Over 80,000 copies
were sold and more than a million people watched it (Swiatkowski, 2010). This was
notably one of Kenton’s proudest achievements, and his excitement with what
technology and media had allowed him to accomplish was infectious.
Media and technology are arguably the way
of the future for many aspects of life (Lochte, 2006). This shift towards the
technology era is only getting larger and moving faster. In his article Welcome to the Next Church, Charles
Trueheart wonders weather or not his church may be in danger of, “…withering
away. And whether it doesn’t deserve that fate if it doesn’t get intentional,
and soon” (Trueheart, 1996). If smaller churches continue to resist the
technology movement, there is the possibility that they won’t be able to
compete with the mega-churches, or even technologically advanced churches, that
seem to be taking over. When it comes
to churches, Kenton argues that the only way to keep people interested and
coming every Sunday is to jump on the bandwagon. He compares this revolution to
when church bands first started to use instruments. This caused an uproar in
some church communities because the instruments were seen as taking away from
people’s natural worship of God. A person would be hard pressed to find any
church today that does not use instruments in their band, no matter how
conservative they are. Kenton really does say it best, “Technology can be used
for good or for bad. It’s a powerful tool. To not use it is crazy because it
dominates our culture and is the way of the future. The next generation will
figure out how to do it even better.”
References
·
Cheong,
P. H. (2010). Faith tweets: Ambient religious communication and microblogging
rituals. M/C Journal: A Journal of Media and Culture, 13(2),
Retrieved from https://blackboard.elearning.uq.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tabGroup=courses&url=/webapps/blackboard/content/contentWrapper.jsp?content_id=_2170492_1&displayName=Linked+File&course_id=_134716_1&navItem=content&attachment=true&href=http%3A%2F%2Fjournal.media-culture.org.au%2Findex.php%2Fmcjournal%2Farticle%2FviewArticle%2F223
·
Libaw,
O. (2012, June 13). More americans flock to mega-churches. ABC News.
Retrieved from
·
Lochte,
B. (2006). Christian radio: The growth of a mainsteam broadcasting force.
(3 ed., Vol. 37, pp. 174-177). Jefferson, North Carolina: Religion and Media.
Retrieved from
·
Miller,
L. (1999). Religion:god goes online . New York, NY: Wall Street Journal.
Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/398728006
·
Swiatkowski,
J. (2010, October 12). Mariners church movie 'IAM' premiers. The Orange
County Register Communications. Retrieved from http://www.ocregister.com/articles/church-270763-
·
Trueheart,
C. (1996). Welcome to the next church . (2 ed., Vol. 278, pp. 37-58).
The Atlantic Online: The Atlantic Monthly Company. Retrieved from
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/96aug/nxtchrch/nxtchrch.htm
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