10 Mistakes Worship Leaders Make - On Ramp
My book, “The Millennium Matrix,” is the fruit of thirty years of studies in communication and culture. The primary theme of the book is how the dominant form of communication – oral, print, broadcast, digital – shapes our view of the world.
Specifically, the oral culture is a communal existence; one doesn’t know anything outside his or her direct experience with the village and the natural environment. Print culture allowed the individual to move beyond the communal to experience truth individually (as in reading a book). Broadcast culture – most clearly represented by television – is a very fluid form of experience and information.
Now, we are all caught in the headlights of the oncoming digital interactive culture. Digitalization is more than a technological concept; it is a new cultural pattern. For the first time in history, graphics, sound, data, and text are all being translated into the same interchangeable language structure.
This will change everything. For example, how will we “tell the story” to those who have been raised in, and shaped by, digital culture? And, how will we worship in that digital communication era? What are the different styles, formats, and tools of that culture? How is that different from worship within the assumptions of print or broadcast media?
As a new generation grows up, the church simply cannot use the old languages, carried over from the print and broadcast eras, to reach them.
So, these are issues that worship leaders (and others) must struggle with in order to find new expressions and conduits for truth. And, they have to be faced all over again in each era.
When I travel and consult in the church world, I’m always a student of leadership, communication patterns, and the intersection of spirit and culture. Out of that, over the years, I’ve developed a list of 10 universal and pervasive mistakes which worship leaders make.
The next series of posts dives into the most common mistakes.
Rex
Specifically, the oral culture is a communal existence; one doesn’t know anything outside his or her direct experience with the village and the natural environment. Print culture allowed the individual to move beyond the communal to experience truth individually (as in reading a book). Broadcast culture – most clearly represented by television – is a very fluid form of experience and information.
Now, we are all caught in the headlights of the oncoming digital interactive culture. Digitalization is more than a technological concept; it is a new cultural pattern. For the first time in history, graphics, sound, data, and text are all being translated into the same interchangeable language structure.
This will change everything. For example, how will we “tell the story” to those who have been raised in, and shaped by, digital culture? And, how will we worship in that digital communication era? What are the different styles, formats, and tools of that culture? How is that different from worship within the assumptions of print or broadcast media?
As a new generation grows up, the church simply cannot use the old languages, carried over from the print and broadcast eras, to reach them.
So, these are issues that worship leaders (and others) must struggle with in order to find new expressions and conduits for truth. And, they have to be faced all over again in each era.
When I travel and consult in the church world, I’m always a student of leadership, communication patterns, and the intersection of spirit and culture. Out of that, over the years, I’ve developed a list of 10 universal and pervasive mistakes which worship leaders make.
The next series of posts dives into the most common mistakes.
Rex
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