Modern times called for modern solutions, modern homes, and modern preaching, each of which utilized linear thinking, straight-line aesthetics, and propositional messages to express the “truth” behind the medium.
In postmodernity, the pendulum swung from the values of modernity as many preachers began facilitating a theological conversation seeking “truth” in tightly packed homes and abandoned warehouses lined with thrift store couches. Their emphasis was on conversation, rather than propositions.
But now, as the world is settling from the great upheaval of Internet-driven postmodern ideology, a new kind of ministry is unfolding in the dispersion. Driven by creative pastors who have a unique understanding of the convergence of culture and the power of collaboration and empowerment. These pastors, knowingly or not, have begun utilizing transmedia storytelling as the conduit of telling the gospel message in new and fresh ways.
Bridgeway Church in Oklahoma City has facilitated two expansive transmedia projects—Brand New Mountain Speeches and Adventous (www.adventusokc.com)—over the past few years. These transmedia projects sought to motivate area artists to create and collaborate with each other in response to a passage or a tradition. In 2008, while I was living in Oklahoma City, I was able to join in on the Brand New Mountain Speeches project, which invited writers, painters, metalworkers, photographers, poets, musicians, videographers, tap dancers, and clothing designers to respond to Jesus’s words in Matthew 5-7. The project spanned four months and included gatherings in which time was spent in contemplative reading of the passage and in collaborative workshops. The project culminated with a four-hour program of original songs, poetry readings, and monologues in a room whose walls were adorned with the work of painters, metalworkers, photographers, and sculptors.
Other churches across the nation are dabbling in transmedia storytelling. Churches such as Hillsong in Australia, Willow Creek in Chicago, and Well of Life Church in Dubai are utilizing visual storytelling in unique and inspiring ways. Other large churches such as LifeChurch.tv (based in Edmond, Oklahoma) have embraced participatory projects like MySecret.tv as a means of inviting the congregation and community at large to share their secrets with the world. These churches are beginning to explore what a true transmedia project could be. But, to be a church that impacts the community through transmedia storytelling, there must be a more concerted effort on the part of the Communications Director (whether this position is held by the pastor, another staff member, or a conglomerate of volunteers), to embrace all platforms as avenues towards the larger narrative of the church and the gospel.
Convergence
Author Henry Jenkins, speaking of the cultural effects of technology in his book The Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, writes, “For the foreseeable future, convergence will be a kind of kludge—a jerry-rigged relationship among different media technologies—rather than a fully integrated system.” He goes on to say, “Convergence involves both a change in the way media is produced and a change in the way media is consumed.” If Jenkins is correct, the Church has an opportunity to forge ahead with transmedia storytelling in new and profound ways. Leaving behind the stigma of being a static and unchanging institution, the Church can move toward its calling as an incarnational organism in which participants and facilitators move as one in the communication of the gospel.
Segmentation
When a static church focuses its communication strategy on either the modern proposition or the postmodern conversation, the result is often a non-diverse demographic. There is a shortage of churches that minister effectively to the community at large—the young and old, the intellectuals and the working class, and so on. Unfortunately, much of recent church strategy has either started with or produced generational segmentation.
In their book, Teaching the Faith: A Biblical Vision for Education in the Church, Gary Parrett and Steve Kang discuss segmentation in the local church:
“In recent decades, we have witnessed a trend toward age segmentation in many North American churches. A family may drive to the church facilities together on Sunday morning, but after arriving, it is likely they will immediately disperse according to age … An extension of this segmentation is evident when churches move toward multiple worship services with different styles of worship for each. It is not too surprising in such churches to see that one service may be attended predominately by younger members of the church with older members mostly attending another service. Again, planning a worship service for a more particular audience is often easier than trying to be sensitive to the needs of a diverse congregation.”
Have we removed a vital part of the congregation—those growing up in the current culture—by sending them to another room to worship? In an effort to contextualize the message we have cut off the hands from the body. The hands, which are meant to explore, identify, plunge into, push back from, and provide feedback back to the local church now find themselves isolated from everyone except a narrowly defined cohort of their peers.
In this generational dismemberment, both entities suffer—the body forfeits the stimulus and nourishment the hands are meant to provide, and the hands miss the strength and wisdom that come from the mind of the experienced and the heart of the community. What is the solution? What is the compromise that keeps the Church as a whole healthy and happy?
Unifying the Body
To me, it appears that the most befitting remedy to this condition is also that which will be the most difficult to implement. Just as losing weight is not as simple as cutting out carbohydrates, the long-term antidote to our segmentation will require sacrifice, compromise, grace, patience, open-mindedness, and mutual appreciation from all four of the generations currently residing in our pews (or on our couches). We, as the Church, must seek:
- A collaboration of ideologies that produces a beautiful orthodoxy, played out every day of the week, not just on Sundays.
- A convergence of storytelling that utilizes print, digital, oral, and social media to tell the overarching narrative of the gospel message from Old Testament to New.
- A creative outpouring of words, paintings, poems, and lyrics from empowered artists who are given permission to wade into the gray and pull out colorful hues hidden in our ordinary pews.
- Pastors who view themselves as conductors orchestrating Sunday morning worship by facilitating conversation and proclaiming truth amidst a litany of visual imagery and musical progressions.
- To become transmedia storytellers with the purpose of connecting generations via access points in multiple genres, ushering them into a behind-the-scenes look at what happens when a diverse community of believers embraces their differences.
If the Church were to grasp the reality of this new convergent culture and work to redeem the relationships between segmented generations, we would see a movement of intergenerational congregations proclaiming the nourishing message of Christ to the eyes, ears, and hearts of those around them.
Fiduciary Responsibility
How will this movement play out? As I mentioned, it is going to be difficult, but it doesn’t have to be expensive. In a recent conversation on the topic of transmedia storytelling with the pastor of a three-year-old church plant, I was challenged to think about the financially limited church. After all, many churches don’t have a creative arts pastor, a megachurch-size media budget, or the time and energy to plan ahead four months. The boot-strapping pastor had a point, and I want to be incredibly clear in my response.
Given the proliferation of social media tools, the accessibility of cheap technology, and the emergence of open distribution channels, I believe transmedia storytelling is the most cost-effective storytelling strategy available to us. Free services such as YouTube, WordPress, Twitter, and Facebook grant churches the ability to host videos, interact with parishioners, and encourage user-generated content like never before.
Do you want to write a book about the lives of those in your pews? Invite them to collaborate with you using Google Docs, and then use Lulu.com to print the book on demand. Do you want to get video testimonies after a particular event or sermon series? Invite the congregation to upload video responses to your YouTube channel. Do you want to get artwork on the walls of your church that inspires the attendees to live out their unique calling? Commission pieces from those sitting in your pews, ask them to create in response to the current series or a particular book of the Bible, and then host an open gallery for your community.
Change your perspective. Don’t focus myopically on your staff and what they can or should do to produce a transmedia experience. Open your eyes to the opportunity that lies in inviting others to join in on the experience. Be a church that embraces the creative outpouring that takes place when a congregation is given permission to participate.
We are living in the aftermath of the digital revolution, a time in which the opportunity for a revitalization of the segmented body is within reach. Transmedia storytelling could be the stitches that lead to healing—a convergence of mediums and platforms working together to create an experience accessible to multiple generations and cultures. And what better story can be told than the one we are living—a life in Christ! We’re living a life of incarnation in which “God in us” produces artists and pastors commissioned with the responsibility of expressing the creation’s call: to go out into the world, telling the story of redemption through words, art, and actions of love, generosity, and kindness. 
Sam DuRegger ruminates on faith and technology at TheoMusings.com, and he is Managing Director of Samwell Creative Group, L.L.C.—a creative design firm focusing on transmedia storytelling, website development, and cross-media branding. Sam is passionate about inspiring others to join the creative work of God in their lives. His digital business card can be found online: http://sam.duregger.net.
