Comments on: Should Sunday Morning Be ‘Hot’ or ‘Cool’?

By: John Dyer

John Dyer — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:52:06 +0000

Looks like I need to pick up that book. Thanks for commenting!

By: Mike Hickerson

Mike Hickerson — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:26:10 +0000

Sorry for the late addition to the conversation, but just to amplify Kenny’s point about Houston, when Houston refers to “technology,” he focuses on the “techne” origin of the word – thus, Twitter is a technology, but so is inductive Bible study, management theory, or the technical execution of a liturgy. A major part of Houston’s spiritual theology is the idea that God cannot be manipulated, nor our relationship with him be “processed,” by following a formula or mastering a skill.

By: Brad Ruggles

Brad Ruggles — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:10:00 +0000

What a great post! I've been in discussions regarding church message and worship styles where we talked about the same thing, only without those words. You put things in a really good perspective.

Like you, I would say we need a healthy balance between "hot" and "cool" but I definitely think most churches need to lean further towards "cool" services. I think the tendency is to prepare, package and deliver a weekend experience without any thought into how it can be actively lived out the other 6 days of the week.

In terms of movies, there are some movies that are good examples of "cool" stories like Eternal Sunshine Of the Spotless Mind, Little Miss Sunshine, or Garden State. Rather than taking a message and beating you over the head with it (*cough* Fireproof *cough*) it presents some very real-life situations and leaves it open for you to think and discuss it.

Have you heard Don Miller's talk "Let Story Guide You?" I think you can get it on iTunes. Worth checking out. Talks about some of the same things.

Great post.

By: Brad Ruggles

Brad Ruggles — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:10:00 +0000

What a great post! I've been in discussions regarding church message and worship styles where we talked about the same thing, only without those words. You put things in a really good perspective.

Have you heard Don Miller's talk "Let Story Guide You?" I think you can get it on iTunes. Worth checking out. Talks about some of the same things.

Great post.

By: Andy Darnell

Andy Darnell — Thu, 28 May 2009 03:41:10 +0000

My Sunday mornings occur at a “traditional” Southern Baptist Church. Our average age is probably 50+ (although that is getting younger as we’ve had a large number of seniors going home lately.) I know that the older folks prefer a “cooler” worship experience, where the younger crowd is wanting a little heat. We’ve had to find a balance that works. Can’t go too far to quickly….

We’ve had a stream of younger folks move membership to our church recently… and they’re coming from the large nondenomination churches in our area. They’re leaving HAWT worship and finding that they really enjoy the mix and teaching that we are doing. That’s encouraging. I personally love the worship that happens in these other environments, but it reminds me that God uses all styles to meet people’s timely needs.

By: bleek

bleek — Mon, 25 May 2009 19:00:32 +0000

too true, too sad. we want community, but not the cost.

By: Kenny Benge

Kenny Benge — Mon, 25 May 2009 01:22:04 +0000

Bleek, I think Houston’s comment is about the technology as a power in our culture, not about specific technologies as such. I worked for a number of years as a pastor of small groups, and it became clear to me over those years that people came into the church thinking that community was a commodity that the church should provide for them. I would have to explain to them that community happened as they were committed through time to a group of people and lived life together. They often told me they didn’t have time for that!

By: Kenny Benge

Kenny Benge — Mon, 25 May 2009 01:13:55 +0000

John, the book is best described as spiritual theology of creation. It comes in the chapter titled “Culture and Civilization Before the Creator.” It is a part of his reflection regarding creativity and work, and I think the key point for me his reflection regarding the “spirit of techne,” what Borgmann would call the dominant force or character of technology in our culture.

Houston’s insight is that spiritual growth requires commitment, whereas the promise of technology is that it can deliver commodities to us without our involvement. So I think there is a lot of tension between “worshipper” and “consumer.” We live in an entertainment culture, so we have to make accommodations to it, but worship requires engagement and the exercise of our souls. Can you imagine preaching a sermon based solely on someone else’s exegesis?

By: Bill Buchanan

Bill Buchanan — Sun, 24 May 2009 06:22:44 +0000

The common element to all story telling is the “conflict”. When we sit and review the scripture passage for a particular message it’s important to ask what is the conflict of the passage and how is it best made interesting and relevant to the audience.

Your mention of the “mystery box” technique (so well illustrated in his TED talk) also speaks to the contemporary proliferation of non-sequential time lines and multiple plot points to keep the audience engaged in a “cold” manner.

One of the first movies that emphasized non-sequential time lines (way before Pulp Fiction) was the adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five” (the book jumped around as well I recall). It certainly created a “cold” environment within a “hot” medium and I believe that is why we are seeing such techniques today in traditionally “hot” mediums such as movies and television.

I think Jesus’ intention was to use a cold technique simply because it does force the reader/listener to engage with the story in a more complete manner.

Your take on studying the Old Testament while attempting to maintain no existing knowledge of the New Testament sounds like a blast. I do think that, in small doses, with the proper setup it could work in the big room.

Now that I think about it, I believe I’ve heard one of the teaching team do something similar as they explained a particular passage by pointing out the “hidden” meaning that the specific audience of the day would have related to compared to the “obvious” meaning that we have with 20/20 hindsight . . . or at least a couple of thousand years to step back and see it in a larger context.

By: John Dyer

John Dyer — Sat, 23 May 2009 03:12:25 +0000

Bill,
You rule. Thanks for taking time to comment since you’re one of the few people I know that actually does the planning for a humongous service.

The trend in popular story telling (J.J. Abrams) seems to be to open the “mystery box” very slowly and keep people guessing so they come back week after week. Is that like Jesus’ intentionally vague parables that he doesn’t explain until later, or is that comparing apples to oranges? I tried to do this a little with a toolbox class at IBC where we went through the Old Testament trying to imagine that we didn’t know anything about Jesus. The mystery (though completely fabricated) was kinda fun. But maybe that’s totally the wrong thing for the larger worship service.