[Live Video] Church Music: My 2 Cents

In the sixteenth video of Adam Niven' s #FBLiveVideoChallenge for Media Theology Adam tackles the often risky subject of Church Music giving his 2 cents on where things are at, and what could be better

[Live Video] Should Our Church Be On Social Media?

In the fifteenth video of Adam Niven' s #FBLiveVideoChallenge for Media Theology Adam delves into the question: Should Our Church Be on Social Media?

[Live Video] McLuhan's Tetrad: 1 Tool You Need in a Media Toolkit

In the thirteenth video of Adam Niven' s #FBLiveVideoChallenge for Media Theology Adam introduces one tool that you must have in a media theology toolkit.

[Live Video] Who's shaping who? Christian Media vs Secular Media

This is the third video of Adam Niven' s #FBLiveVideoChallenge for Media Theology. In it Adam gives his response to a viewer question of Who is shaping who? Is Christian Media shaping Secular culture or vice versa.

The answer might not be what you expect.

Music Speaks in Volumes - but "Worship" Speaks in Monotones.

This last week has been a bittersweet one for me with the official announcement that Showbread is showdead. But as I sat and watched the documentary they released of their 10 year anniversary show, there was something really confronting that stood out to me. In one section of the doco, as a whole lot of those waiting to be let into the show were interviewed.

Again and again they spoke of finding a sense of belonging in the music of Showbread, and an expression of Christian faith that resonated with them, that they couldn't find in the Church.

Which made me think, is "worship" music really just speaking in monotones, when their is such a range of expressive tones that could be embraced?
 

#mcprobe: New Media Aren't Tools for the Church; They're Tools that Alter the Church

With new media devices and new media technologies, the Church continues to consider how these tools may be put in service of the Church. But like the rest of culture, the Church is not immune to the way these tools go to work at reshaping it as they are embraced.

#mcprobe: Is the Church in the West prone to Activewear Syndrome?

With the change in circumstances for our family this year in moving from Perth WA to the Sunshine Coast QLD I've had to take on more of the school drop offs and pick ups. Which is fine, but there is this strange phenomenon that I know I'm not the only one who's noticed.

The Church is the Medium: So the Gospel is (Part 2/2)

Over in part one of this post I bounced off Shane Hipps' assertion that the Church is the medium of the Gospel to explore what that means the Gospel isn't.
Having done that, it helps us to see then, what the Gospel is. And just like last time, don't expect to see a list of "if this isn't in your Gospel you've got it right/wrong" items. This isn't about what's in the Gospel; but about the "isness" of the Gospel.

#mcprobe: Daily Bible Readings are for the Privileged Educated Individual

There's a whole industry of publishing built on the notion that good Christians read their Bibles daily. It's most likely part of the reason that the Bible remains an all time best-seller. It's certainly the reason that any Christian bookstore worth its weight will have a wide selection of "365 days of X for Y" type books. But, this activity, a daily reading of the Bible - normally to be carried out individually and accompanied by some kind of quiet reflection (que the journal industry) - is jammed packed full of privileged educated individual bias.

The Church is the Medium: So the Gospel is not... (Part 1/2)

In his popular book Flickering Pixels, Shane Hipps draws the following conclusion:

If God's chosen medium for his message was the person of Jesus Christ, and the church is the body of Christ, that means God has chosen the church to extend his revelation in a special way...If the medium is the message, the message of the gospel is conveyed by the medium of the church's life in the world.

You cannot separate the medium from the message. The church is simply an expression of the Gospel. The church is sent to be - not just to proclaim - a message of healing and hope to the world.

We are the message.

But how does this shape how we understand the message? That is, how does it shape how we see what the Gospel is?