OFFENDER #6: If you’re still building altars of prayer requests people have sent in. It’s done for one reason — to impress the audience with numbers. If the audience can see that thousands of people responded, and the evangelist has built an altar from the requests, then maybe I should send in mine as well (and include a check). As most of these points I’m listing indicate, this was started by well meaning people with the best of intentions. Truth be told, it was probably a good idea ONCE. But when it’s done over and over, it simply loses it’s meaning.
An older generation was touched by big, expansive gestures, but a younger generation sees it for what it is — excessive manipulation.
Anytime you use an idea like this, make sure you’re sensitive to the issues of manipulation and exploitation. As I’ll say over and over throughout this book, we’re creating media for a generation that’s been sold to, marketed to and branded all their lives, and they’re the most media savvy generation in history. Be very careful, even with a well-intentioned idea, that it’s not perceived as a gimmick or publicity stunt.
OFFENDER #7: Finally — If the singing group on your program is called “The (insert name here) Singers.” I think this idea went out about the time of Lawrence Welk or The New Christy Minstrels. In junior high, I was in “The New Creation Singers.” In seventh grade it was cool. It’s not now. The (insert TV evangelist name) Singers. You get it. Enough said.
The list of religious media indiscretions could continue, but you get my point. The production styles, creative ideas, fashion or techniques that worked yesterday don’t always work today. Please remember that, in listing these particular offenses, I’m not commenting on the intentions or integrity of particular ministries who are still trying these worn out methods. I have the greatest respect for anyone trying to share their faith with the culture. But I’m commenting on the need to stop kicking a dead horse, and start looking at a new method of transportation. Our job as communicators is to see the changes coming in the culture and adapt, so our message is as relevant now as it was yesterday — and will still be tomorrow.
