In the September issue of U.S. News and World Report, Mortimer Zuckerman (I love that name!) had an interesting column on technology and education. Contending that the number one factor affecting the quality of education is the quality of the indivdual teacher, Zuckerman says technology could be the number one solution through what he calls "technology teaching."
He says, "We could escape geography by using the technology to have the best teachers appear in hundreds of thousands of disparate classrooms. This is a force multiplier. The classrooms would be equipped with a large, flat-screen monitor with whiteboards on either side; the monitor would be connected to a school server that contains virtually all of the lessons for every subject taught in the school, from kindergarten through 12th grade. The contents would use animation, video, dramatization, and presentation options to deliver complete lessons, to convey ideas in unique ways that are now unavailable in conventional classrooms..."
The church I serve is about 90 minutes away from Church of the Resurrection, by attendance the largest United Methodist Chuch in the country. When I first came to Burlington I met with committee chairs and other key leaders one-on-one to find out more about the church, it's strengths, and places were growth was needed. When I asked, "What one change do you believe would make the biggest impact on our church" one person responded "Have Adam Hamilton (pastor at COR) as our pastor!" Not the best way to make a first impression on the new pastor! But we live in an age now when well known pastors are ... well known. And while I consider myself to be a pretty decent preacher, I'll never be Adam Hamilton. So how does the pastor fulfill the preaching responsibility in a church when so many of our people have seen Adam Hamilton or Rick Warren or (name your favorite preacher here)? I think there's two possibilities. One is to be very deliberate in contextualizing the preaching for your church. Those preachers may be phenomenal, but none of them know Burlington, Kansas. Another solution in some cases may be the "if you can't beat them, join them" approach, which the same technology that Zuckerman talked about.
What if primary preaching at a church took place from the senior pastor of another church? If the local pastor were given a preview of what the sermon was going to address, then the pastor could take on the role of "local expert" to help address questions that the preaching pastor never would have time to get to. Zuckerman says "technology teaching" could give classroom teachers the extra time to help students with particular needs or to focus more in depth in particular areas. If you are a pastor, what would your schedule look like if you didn't have to prepare a sermon every week? What if you spent, say, half that time doing research so you could go deeper into the subject that was going to be preached on and spent the other half helping address the particular needs of your location?
This is certainly not the answer for all churches. Probably not the solution for most churches. But some of our churches, especially those with pastors who understand caring as a greater skill than preaching, could be greatly served in this way.
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3 comments:
I've been thinking about this too, David. While I don't categorically disagree with your contention, I do disagree rather strongly with the idea that remote control preaching would be able to serve a local faith community very well. [Note: I am not talking here about the Satellite Church and Micro Church initiatives currently being played out, I mean historical churches.] A main function of a clergy person serving as lead pastor of a local faith community is, as you suggest, to contextualize God's Word. Knowing the edges of a faith community that need appropriate confrontation is a task that just can't be farmed-out to a remote control preacher. I just posted a question on Facebook that may get at some of this question [i.e., the worship vs.entertainment question]
I'd be interested in knowing the distinction you make between "historical churches" and Satellite or Micro churches. There are satellites and micros hundreds of miles from the preacher in some cases. I think the local/lead pastor will always need to contextualize, but could that person contextualize the words someone else is preaching? I don't think I would ever want to attend a church like what I'm suggesting, but then I never thought massive multi-site churches would work either and they are thriving in some places.
Why not also have multiple sites that have various contexts with various preachers, all with great AVL so as to capture and distribute to other churches? Why only Adam and Rick? Why not David or Nanette Roberts or even a preacher with great gifts and graces coming from a rural KS setting? If over 350 UM churches in KS have less than 50 in worship each week, this might be a means of revitalizing them. The lay leadership and clergy would spend their sermon prep time finding options for a) connecting sermon with discipleship in their local context - planning study guides, organizing and equipping leaders to facilitate small group discussions, find ways to do great outreach and radical hospitality, etc. If you were not seeking to be live-preaching only, you could time many sermon series in ways that would meet the local church's needs and local vision. I think this could be a great possibility. Maybe this could be a means to living God's dream for UM in Kansas!
Thanks, Dustin
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