The church has an opportunity to shape this new emerging culture and not be
shaped by it, Sweet told his listeners in a third workshop session. And this
new culture is participatory, not performance-based, a kind of karaoke culture
where everybody wants access to the mike.Everything is moving into epic proportions, going from the rational to the
experimental, from linear to nonlinear.
To
illustrate his point, Sweet showed the audience a segment of a
U2 video where
the singer, Bono, departs from the script and engages his young, cheering
audience in unusual and spontaneous ways.
Bono, at different intervals, kisses the lens of the camera as if to confirm,
as McLuhan did, that the medium is the message; leaps off the stage into the
arms of his listeners, forcing their trust and participation; and acknowledges
the listeners in the peanut gallery (the ones with cheaper tickets) raising
their “marginal status.” He calls out the producer of the show and gives him a
hug so as not to alienate him with his spontaneity. And he has the camera pan
to the drummer for sustained periods of time, focusing on one of the lesser
performers rather than on Bono, the chief performer.
All of these dynamics, Sweet observed, are the hallmarks of this emerging
native culture. And the marketers, rather then the church, have tapped into
them. Look at Nike®, he said. They’re not selling a shoe, not a product, but an
experience. Young folks are hungry for experiences, any experience, and
relationships that will enrich their lives.
And they believe in everything—angels, aliens, reincarnation, and
channeling. But they believe in all the wrong things. What they are really
hungry for is an experience with God. Are you going to give it to them, Sweet
challenged, or are you going to condemn them for it, calling for a cultural
circumcision before taking them into and using them in the church?
______________
Jesus favorite image is “living water.”
You can pour it into different containers,
but you never change the content.
______________
Pushing his point on the experiential, he related from his own experience how
the family ritual of baking birthday cakes has come full cycle—from his Grandma
baking from scratch, to his mother drawing on
Pillsbury®
and Duncan Hines® “mix” recipes to his wife
going out to Carvel for a ready-made one,
back to his own daughter wanting to “bake from scratch” with her grandmother.
“They
want to relate to someone,” he said, reporting how car companies such as
BMW®
are entering into partnerships with Hollywood to give the buyer “the experience”
more than the product. Or Spike Lee wanting to let the viewer create his or her
own movie.
He cited Ted Turner as a genius in creating CNN, the 24-hour news network,
but who now has to give up his first place to a
Bill O’Reilly of
Fox News
because the latter is not performance-based, as CNN was for so many years, but
participatory with the audience.
Answering a question about where do we send our young people to train for
this new culture, Sweet observed that unfortunately many of our seminaries are
only for “credentialing.” They will learn how to do ministry at such teaching
churches as Willow Creek Community
Church. But even there, Sweet cautioned, you need to know when you are
trapped in an immigrant culture. Even Bill Hybels, the founder of Willow Creek,
says he wouldn’t start Willow Creek today on the same premises he did 25 years
ago.
Sweet pointed rather to some creative churches in New Zealand, to house
churches in China, and to a church in Jackson, Michigan, called
Westwinds Community Church
where the pastor, Ron Martoia, uses paintings, low lights and shadows, and
1-inch by 1-inch floor tiles with children’s drawings to create “epic worship
experiences.” (see article)
Jesus favorite image is “living water,” Sweet concluded. You can pour it
into different containers, but you never change the content. Our problem is
that we are sectarian about the container.
