Monday Morning Insights

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    Learning Communication from the Transformers

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    1.  Buzz marketing really works when the product is highly valued

    2.  Film is the grammar, the default language, of younger adults

    3.  The internet is a cultural symbol; to find something exclusively there raises its value

    4.  The purpose of a preview is to get people to the premiere, further accelerating #1. The movie made one million dollars an hour on its first day.

    And then the movie started.  For two hours and twenty-four minutes I watched the emotions of the crowd rise and fall like waves. They laughed, gasped, shouted, applauded, went silent, and stood up and cheered at the end.

    I get it—sort of. The film is big fun.

    But there was something else going on. Several hundred people sitting in rows not unlike pews had crossed a line into another world for a while. Part of this effect doubtless stemmed from the way the film recalled their childhood devotion to Transformer comics, toys, television, etc. Now, with the help of mega-millions of dollars in CGI, alien robots on screen transformed them, inviting them to become temporary citizens of an alternative reality.

    Driving home from the theater I reflected on how seldom preaching (including my own) has this effect on listeners. Announcing the arrival of the Kingdom of God offers a new reality to people like no other, yet I find that a lot of the speaking I hear takes the form of lists of ideas about God, solutions for the problems in my life, or really long stories.
    All of these are fine, and all have their place, but none of them makes me feel like the people in that theater felt.

    I used to think that making my communication more visual (e.g., slides, clips) was the answer given the “postmodern” priority which young adults place on media. I was wrong. It’s that feeling of being gripped by something transcendent, something outside yourself that moves people. The visual is mainly present by coincidence. 
    Perhaps this explains why preachers using video clips are delivering messages all over the country with no more effect than their pre-video sermons.

    I have to believe that hearing Jesus speak must have touched people in this transcendent way. He perplexed them by used parables that almost no one could understand. He baffled them by posing questions instead of answers. He amazed them with signs and wonders. Everything he did suggested the in-breaking of a reality beyond anything we have experienced. His crucifixion and resurrection were the ultimate statement of what was possible in this new world.

    I watched the theater audience being caught up in something powerful, but temporary, during the preview. And I read in the New Testament about how Jesus moved people in inexplicable ways.

    What would it take to preach the good news in this way today?

    About the Author:  Earl Creps has spent several years visiting congregations that are attempting to engage emerging culture. He directs doctoral studies for the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in Springfield, Missouri (http://www.agts.edu).  Earl and his wife Janet have pastored three churches, one Boomer, one Builder, and one GenX. He speaks, trains, and consults with ministries around the country. Earl’s book, Off-Road Disciplines: Spiritual Adventures of Missional Leaders, was published by Jossey-Bass/Leadership Network in 2006. Connect with Earl at http://www.earlcreps.com .

     

     

    A few nights ago I attended a preview showing of the Transformers movie at the invitation of a group of students from our seminary. Having grown up watching Superman in black and white I was almost totally ignorant of the robot-as-Swiss-Army-knife genre. But the mostly twenty and thirty-something crowd that packed the darkness around me did have this memory. So I started interviewing Ryan and Joel, the two students seated on either side of those clever, drink-holding armrests that locked me into a reclining seat. My initial question was how eight of us had ended up attending a screening that was not advertised. In response, Ryan described how he discovered the preview on Yahoo Movies (which I have never used) and quickly spread the good news to his peers who purchased tickets online and then invited me to go. I still owe Jordan $6.75. So there it was, another lesson in culture from my young mentors...

    Comments

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    1. Leonard on Mon, July 09, 2007

      Who does impact people this way with their preaching?

    2. Peter Hamm on Mon, July 09, 2007

      Leonard,


      People who tell great, life-changing, wonderful stories I suspect. (I suspect that would include you, based on the fact that your posts always grip me and hold me in my seat!)

    3. randy on Mon, July 09, 2007

      Great words Earl! Just a few thoughts…I wonder if the transcendent One has to capture an audience’s attention moreso than “the actor on the stage.” Thus a “special effects” sermon may only have the temporary impact that a moview preview can bring. However, an encounter with “the One who was, and is, and is to come”...now that’s a show worth attending!

    4. Leonard on Mon, July 09, 2007

      Thank you Peter! To often when I hear people preach I wonder if they really believe it. I recently visited a church and when the preacher was done I thought, sound doctrine, well delivered, good use of illustrations but I am not sure I believe him.  I want to know; Would they die for it.  Does it find reality in their lives.  These are the preachers I love to hear.

    5. Peter Hamm on Mon, July 09, 2007

      Well, here’s a thought.


      I can count a few instances when a speaker (a really good one) has gone even beyond even excellence and I felt like I was really getting a passionate communication beyond what we’re used to from even the best communicators…


      Whenever that happens, it is ALWAYS because it is coming right out of that person’s life and often from their weaknesses and failings. And I agree that when someone preaches a sermon that is doctrinally sound, correct, scriptural, et cetera and yet does not draw on their own lives and what God is doing in their lives right now… it’s flat. We need to lead and teach and preach and exhort from a position of weaknes and brokenness more and strength and adequacy less.

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