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Preaching


in a digital age A


By Susan M. Lang


n elderly grandmother sits in the pew visiting with a friend and pulls out her smartphone to share a family photo she recently posted on Facebook. She stows the phone as worship begins, but its influence remains. “We now live online,” said Mark Johns, associate professor of communica-


tion studies at Luther College, Decorah, Iowa. “We carry the Internet in our pockets, and we spend all day looking at screens. Gone are the days when people divided existence between what happened online and ‘in real life.’ Te online is real life.” Johns says it’s too early to tell how the digital age will ultimately change


preaching because we’re barely 25 years into it. But he encourages preachers to try new things to engage listeners, especially because of our short attention spans and a Twitter world of 140 characters. “A preacher has to earn the attention of the listener every 30 seconds or


less, or the listener will driſt off,” Johns said. And today’s media are increasingly visual. Twitter has photos. Instagram


and Pinterest are all about pictures. “Te use of images is increasingly impor- tant,” he said. Still, words matter. Ten years ago Johns wrote an article titled “Modern


Media and the Sermon” (Lutheran Partners) in which he stressed to preachers the importance of delivery and storytelling. “Narrative is still the most basic form of human communication in what- ever medium the story is told,” he said.


Information overload Tere are downsides to the constant access to information that’s literally at our fingertips. “One of the negative components of living in the digital age isn’t that we


receive information differently, but the increase in the volume we receive,” said David Lose, president of the Lutheran Teological Seminary at Philadel- phia and former homiletics professor at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn. “We are supersaturated by information and we are in some ways numbed by it.” Te Enlightenment made preachers feel they had to explain the faith, Lose


said. Te “three points and a poem” philosophy took hold and preaching became more like a lecture. Today preaching that focuses on giving listeners even more information won’t be helpful and will contribute to the overload they’re already experiencing, he said. Lose believes we need to change the way we view preaching. “People are not hungering for more information. Tey can find every-


thing they need on the Internet,” he said. “What people hunger for is a story that can give them deeper identity. Te great thing for us is that we have a


34 www.thelutheran.org


fantastic story and our understand- ing of that story is deeply rooted in relationship.” Preaching in the digital age will


continue to be more narrative and relational, Lose said. To him, preach- ing through the lens of faith forma- tion helps listeners construct their identity as Christians navigating a complicated world. “Preaching also needs to be more


participatory because [we] learn best by doing,” he added. Some simple steps can move us in


that direction. Preachers may ask questions dur-


ing sermons which may, or may not, be responded to during the sermon. Tey might also invite people to write down responses to questions or encourage listeners to look for exam- ples in their lives. Some even invite worshipers to email the preacher or post a response on the congregation’s Facebook page during the week.


An exciting time to preach “Tat’s the real value of social media


and the Internet—that [we] are able to continue conversations,” said Lose, emphasizing the importance of con- tinuing conversations “because Sun- day morning is no longer a reserved space in people’s busy lives.” Some pastors invite people to use


social media during worship, such as sending tweets to those not present so they can still connect with the day’s message. Many have their sermons posted online or shared as podcasts so the evangelical reach is wider. “It’s made me realize how big


the church can be and that those who may hunger for the gospel are not necessarily sitting in our pews but rather listening online,” said Lisa Dietrich, pastor of Fredsville Lutheran Church, Cedar Falls, Iowa, whose sermons are heard by more people online than in the pews.


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