2. Microphones
Video extension sites and Internet campuses get all the attention these days, but it was the microphone that changed the way we think about Sunday morning and the ministry of the church.
Nothing (besides the car) has shaped twentieth century evangelicalism more than the ability to project our voices to ever-larger audiences.
With the ability to reach larger audiences comes larger congregations, and with larger congregations comes the need to divide them into groups. Those divisions create youth groups, women’s groups, childcare, and legacy builders, and so on.
And with those groups comes the need for specialized pastors to meet each of their needs.
Large, microphone-powered churches are able to meet needs small ones can’t, but at the same time, by extending the reach of the pulpit, the microphone has also dwarfed the importance of the altar.
With no counterbalancing technology to increase the altar’s profile, communion tends to be an after thought behind the technologically-enhanced activities of singing and preaching.
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