"Where has the gift of teaching gone?"
My pastor, Earl Marshall, has been blogging for a while and he posted this today:
Many years ago now (once upon a time) I remember musing with Seminary colleagues and students about a day when there would be little need for communicating pastors because the Christian celebrity talking heads would be beamed in to a congregation near you. It seems that there is a growing trend toward this style of multi-site teaching. If this truly catches on I wonder what kind of impact this will have on the development of the teaching gift in local church contexts.
Unlike much of what is happening in the US, multi-site/video venue churches are NOT common in Canada. In fact I can only think of two churches in Canada who are using video teaching as part of their Sunday morning programming. I’m sure there are others using video teaching out of need rather than because of mission or intent but The Meeting House and Connexus Community Church are really the only two that I know who use video across multiple campuses as part of their mission.
I’m sure this is a discussion that has come up for you if you’re in ministry, so what do you think? Do you agree? Are we simply inflating the “Christian celebrity talking heads” or are we making use of the best teaching resources we have available to us? Are we developing and valuing the gift of teaching or only leaving that up to the guy on the screen?
Thanks for stopping by the blog. I'm currently on sabbatical this summer - you can read more about my sabbatical here: Personal Update - What's Next
Since I'm away from the blog I've decided to close comments. I love the interaction and discussion that happens with readers and since I'm not able to do that this summer, I'll be very much looking forward to that when I return in August.
