Thursday, April 14, 2011
Should Leaders use Video?
In this video clip, pastor John Piper discusses what place video and drama should have in our sermons. Piper strongly encourages pastors against the use of video clips and drama in sermons. He goes as far as to say “I think the use of video and drama largely is a token of unbelief in the power of preaching.” Piper believes that when drama and clips from a movie are used to drive home a point during a sermon, that this is conveying to the congregation that the pastor does not believe in the power of the preached word. By showing video clips during a sermon, Piper believes that we are subtly communicating that “preaching is weak, preaching doesn’t save, preaching doesn’t hold, entertainment does.” While I understand that part of Piper’s popularity comes from his bold stance on issues, I think that Piper has overextended and come down too firmly on video clips, in particular. I agree that we must affirm the authority of the preached Gospel above all other forms of communication during a sermon, and I agree as well that we cannot turn our sermons into simple vehicles of entertainment. But I do not agree that showing a video clip shows “unbelief in the power of preaching.” At Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill, Paul used the popular themes and cultural assumptions of his day to preach the Risen Lord. I do not see why we cannot use popular themes and cultural practices (such as media) to glorify God in our day as well.
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ReplyDeleteI don’t think that the power of preaching is the power of the gospel. It seems to me that Piper, and I’ve heard others assert similar claims, is missing where the real power here is. The power is less in the preaching and more in the Gospel, and the shining of light onto the work of the Holy Spirit and Christ. Preaching is a tool.
ReplyDeleteI’m not yet fully prepared to say that Sermons/preaching are obsolete; I don’t think they are, but certainly there has been an evolution in the types of preaching that we see in the bible as the prophets or Jesus are speaking to the masses, and the samples we read throughout the history of the church and today. If I preached at my church like Jonathon Edwards preached in the 1750’s, I’d either look out at a sea of nappers or people looking angrily at me for taking those moments of their lives from them.
If a pastor shows a movie in place of a sermon, there is a real issue. If a pastor uses a well-crafted, appropriate video clip to drive home a biblical truth, which is otherwise hard to access, or get people to relate to, he is “preaching” better.