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Is Your Church Using Media for the Mission?

I get to talk to a lot of Christian leaders and congregations about the power that visual media could bring to virtually every aspect of Kingdom work in the local church. All too often, they don’t get it – at least initially.

They balk at the expense associated with installing projection in their sanctuary.

They talk about their congregational demographic and declare that they simply “aren’t that kind of church.”

They raise pseudo-spiritual objections that bringing media into church will foster an entertainment mindset.

I’ve discovered that the best way to address churches entrenched in that viewpoint is from a standpoint of mission. Here at City on a Hill Productions, we’ve spent the past 8 years working under a single mission statement:

Story is the language of our hearts.  Media is the language of our times.  We use both to share Jesus with the world.

Imagine a missionary in whom God has placed a burning passion to share the Gospel in a distant country.  No amount of fundraising or events or service projects will make them successful in that mission unless they first learn to speak the language of that culture! Of course, this is obvious to missionaries, but sadly, it’s a thought that hasn’t dawned on many churches.  If in fact our mission statement is true, if media is indeed the language of our times, then many churches should be terrified – because they aren’t speaking that language.

I try to communicate to churches that they have been called to reach an unreached people group – and they don’t have to go around the world to do it.  They just have to open their doors, go out into their community, and speak their language.  Often, I use this video to build the case:

Our Mission Field

So how is your church using media to speak the language of the culture?  How have you seen it done well or done poorly?