Using Video Creatively in Your Church

Who among us doesn’t rent tapes at the local videostore?  Who among us doesn’t spend hours a week in front of the TV?  We find ourselves in a world of electronic communication just like the fish find themselves in the ocean. 

Receiving information through the medium of television or from a VCR is as standard as picking up a newspaper or listening to a radio.   Can you imagine doing without CNN or a weekend movie of your choice in the comfort of your living room?  While it is true that not all of us lead similar lifestyles, the fact remains that younger generations are virtually bred on the images and sounds coming from a little screen.  Even school systems have turned to in-class video for their teaching purposes. 

The church has a similar job to perform in our society: the dissemination of information and learning that is critical to the fulfillment of human life.  We have been operating on a method of communication that goes back to fifteenth century Europe - the preacher above us waxing eloquent on matters of theological significance.  Meanwhile, the last few generations have been mesmerized by images and music from around the world pouring into their hearts and minds at dizzying speed. 

I know that my daughter was given a jump start in reading and writing thanks to “Sesame Street” and “Mister Rogers.”  Now she feeds her emotional life in part with the values of “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” and other such programs. Where is the church in all this? Not in prime time, that’s for sure.

How do we participate in the primary stream of communication within our world today? Here are a few suggestions:

• Seek out meaningful and tastefully done tapes at your videostore. If the kids (or the grandparents for that matter) are going to watch something anyway, why not offer them the opportunity to have a valuable experience and to share in community?

You will want to be careful, however, not to infringe on the copyright laws that require a license for "public performance." This term refers to any group other than the normal family circle.

Public Video Presentation Guidelines

• The tape shown must be legal (such as a rental copy).

• The presentation must be done in a setting designated for classroom instruction.

• The audience can only be made up of the teacher and students.

• The video needs to be part of the curriculum and used for educational rather than entertainment purposes.

You can also rent tapes from religious distributors such as Ecufilm who have automatic licensing rights on their films and videos with the exception of those labeled "for home use only."

• Introduce your church to your friends and neighbors, as well as to strangers who need to find you, by showing up in their homes on television. Whether in the form of PSAs (public service announcements) or as thirty-second commercials, you'll be surprised to find how cost effective that can be nowadays. Communication Ministries has four professionally produced TV spots that can carry the name, address and number of your church for a small fee. Several radio spots are also available.
  

• Create your own video to introduce your church to new or prospective members. Surely someone owns a camcorder in the congregation. You might even have a budding Steven Spielberg among your members. Such a production can be valuable for the membership at large to experience a sense of who they are, or of what binds them together. A project like this could also be helpful to shut-ins as a means of participating in the community.
  

• You might want to designate an official camera person to record baptisms, fellowship events and other important moments in the life of the congregation. Imagine capturing a visual history for the archives of your church!
  

• Use video in church services, as a means of generating an effect that cannot be experienced otherwise, for children's sermons, or even to hear a message from a speaker who cannot be present.

The blending of images and music can sometimes resonate in the soul in deeper ways than even the finest of words. There are a number of videos that feature mood-setting, poetic sequences rather than plots and characters and can enable a powerful spiritual experience.

These are just a few ideas, and I am sure you can come up with many other options. Just remember that if we want to grow in the twenty-first century, we must be a part of the world in which we live. And that world is discovered and shared to a large extent with the help of the medium of video.