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High-Tech Worship?: Using Presentational Technologies Wisely
Increasing numbers of churches today use high-tech tools such as videos and PowerPoint presentations in their worship services. But without wisdom, those tools can turn their services more into entertainment than worship. How can churches use technology to communicate meaning instead of seducing people with special effects? How can technology be adopted to help people connect with God and each other to foster authentic worship?
High-Tech Worship? takes a careful look at these issues, giving readers practical guidance on how they can best use the gift of technology in their churches. Both clergy and lay leaders will benefit from its creative suggestions as they seek to integrate technology wisely into their worship services.
Written by nationally known communications expert Quentin J. Schultze, High-Tech Worship? addresses an important yet often overlooked issue that affects the quality of worship in every church.
High-Tech Worship? takes a careful look at these issues, giving readers practical guidance on how they can best use the gift of technology in their churches. Both clergy and lay leaders will benefit from its creative suggestions as they seek to integrate technology wisely into their worship services.
Written by nationally known communications expert Quentin J. Schultze, High-Tech Worship? addresses an important yet often overlooked issue that affects the quality of worship in every church.
112 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
5 people are currently reading
26 people want to read
About the author
Quentin J. Schultze
36 books11 followersQuentin J. Schultze (PhD, University of Illinois) is Arthur H. DeKruyter Chair and professor of communication arts and sciences at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is also distinguished professor at Spring Arbor University. Schultze has been quoted in major media including the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, US News & World Report, the New York Times, Fortune, the Chicago Tribune, and USA Today. He has been interviewed by CNN, CBS, NBC, ABC, and NPR and is the author of many books including An Essential Guide to Public Speaking.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 9, 2007
this is not the book it sounds like. Even when I picked it up to use for a research paper, I smirked at the title thinking "this'll be fun, a book about why church's need PowerPoint to be relevant."
This is the antithesis to that kind of book. technology or software hardly ever enter the discussion. Instead, this book is an inviation to thinking theologically about the historical basis for multimedia Christian worship (invloving the five senses, not neccesarily display screens). The book is far more about spurring chruch leaders to think about their church traditions, and how to live out well their liturgical inheritance (even if their liturigcal inheritance is simply Sermon and Songs), than it is an instructional guide for using presentational techonolgies.
With section headings like "Stewards of Stillness", "Tradition vs. Technique" and "Caretaking Liturgy for Shalom", Schultze's book is a refreshing invitation to thought and self awareness, that is incredibly necessary for the American Chruch today. It's an easy and engaging read that calls one to wonder why technology can, does or should matter in the service of worshipping God as a community.
This is the antithesis to that kind of book. technology or software hardly ever enter the discussion. Instead, this book is an inviation to thinking theologically about the historical basis for multimedia Christian worship (invloving the five senses, not neccesarily display screens). The book is far more about spurring chruch leaders to think about their church traditions, and how to live out well their liturgical inheritance (even if their liturigcal inheritance is simply Sermon and Songs), than it is an instructional guide for using presentational techonolgies.
With section headings like "Stewards of Stillness", "Tradition vs. Technique" and "Caretaking Liturgy for Shalom", Schultze's book is a refreshing invitation to thought and self awareness, that is incredibly necessary for the American Chruch today. It's an easy and engaging read that calls one to wonder why technology can, does or should matter in the service of worshipping God as a community.
January 14, 2021
This is more a personal preference of the writer than what the title entails. Was expecting so much more out of this book.
February 1, 2017
As both a technological media professional and as a minister, I consider this book a deep disappointment. I was hoping this would be great reading material to aid volunteers in attaining a proper approach and mindset regarding technology and worship.
There are several approaches Dr. Schultze could have taken. He could have drafted the work as a defense against adding the latest features and technology, just because. Or he could have drilled down to the core of worship. Instead, I could literally write every monumental point he made on a sticky note and have room to spare.
Many words, but not much of substance stated.
In my opinion, he misses the mark completely in a failed attempt to describe worship theologically. There are only a handful of references to actual Scripture and even those are purely anecdotal, but there are several references to monks and church fathers. A lot of references in fact. It’s writing about a Biblical concept with hardly any reference to the source material.
Had this been a concept that is foreign to the Bible or hardly touched on, I could consider his approach to be valid. Instead, the reader is hemmed into his defense of stagnant, strictly liturgical worship practices and how relevant they are. He presents a church gathering as a purely ritualistic practice, where congregants enter the sanctuary, recite a few verses, hear a few songs and a message, and then leave unchanged, but feeling better about themselves because they’ve somehow met the ceremonial requirements of their weekly ritual. And this, he says, is worship. Why? Because they could smell the bread and hear the singers’ harmonies.
Yes, we can (and should maybe even strive to) engage the five senses, but the focus of the church is not physical; it’s spiritual. Impact the spiritual and the physical will follow. The primary purpose of technology in worship is to aid this end. Its goal is to help make the worship approachable to the unchurched (of which there is an increasing number). It’s to allow congregants to more easily engage with the songs being sung and the words being spoken. It’s meant to accentuate and compliment the gospel message. All in all, a list of to-do’s may be what Schultze calls worship, but it isn’t. Worship is engaging with God. Pure and simple. And in light of that, media’s primary goal is to facilitate that meeting through any means necessary. That pertains to song selection, tempo, video clips, backgrounds, lighting, etc.
Following Schultz’s logic, sheet music is worship. He’s wrong. Sheet music is simply the tool that allows everyone to play the right song, in the right key, at the right tempo so the congregation and sing, shout, clap, sway, and fully express and open themselves up to the God who’s worthy of the accolades and lyrics printed on the page.
Schultze describes worship as a celebration of grace. Yes, it is. But it’s more than that. It’s more than a shallow reflection of something that’s happened and is instead a continual experience and growth in God that is happen-ING. Are the five senses important? In some philosophical sense, I guess. But in reality, I don’t go to church to smell the bread of communion or be entertained by a light show.
At the end of the day, good media is like good IT; it’s rarely noticeable when it’s working like it should. It’s the means, not the end itself.
There are several approaches Dr. Schultze could have taken. He could have drafted the work as a defense against adding the latest features and technology, just because. Or he could have drilled down to the core of worship. Instead, I could literally write every monumental point he made on a sticky note and have room to spare.
Many words, but not much of substance stated.
In my opinion, he misses the mark completely in a failed attempt to describe worship theologically. There are only a handful of references to actual Scripture and even those are purely anecdotal, but there are several references to monks and church fathers. A lot of references in fact. It’s writing about a Biblical concept with hardly any reference to the source material.
Had this been a concept that is foreign to the Bible or hardly touched on, I could consider his approach to be valid. Instead, the reader is hemmed into his defense of stagnant, strictly liturgical worship practices and how relevant they are. He presents a church gathering as a purely ritualistic practice, where congregants enter the sanctuary, recite a few verses, hear a few songs and a message, and then leave unchanged, but feeling better about themselves because they’ve somehow met the ceremonial requirements of their weekly ritual. And this, he says, is worship. Why? Because they could smell the bread and hear the singers’ harmonies.
Yes, we can (and should maybe even strive to) engage the five senses, but the focus of the church is not physical; it’s spiritual. Impact the spiritual and the physical will follow. The primary purpose of technology in worship is to aid this end. Its goal is to help make the worship approachable to the unchurched (of which there is an increasing number). It’s to allow congregants to more easily engage with the songs being sung and the words being spoken. It’s meant to accentuate and compliment the gospel message. All in all, a list of to-do’s may be what Schultze calls worship, but it isn’t. Worship is engaging with God. Pure and simple. And in light of that, media’s primary goal is to facilitate that meeting through any means necessary. That pertains to song selection, tempo, video clips, backgrounds, lighting, etc.
Following Schultz’s logic, sheet music is worship. He’s wrong. Sheet music is simply the tool that allows everyone to play the right song, in the right key, at the right tempo so the congregation and sing, shout, clap, sway, and fully express and open themselves up to the God who’s worthy of the accolades and lyrics printed on the page.
Schultze describes worship as a celebration of grace. Yes, it is. But it’s more than that. It’s more than a shallow reflection of something that’s happened and is instead a continual experience and growth in God that is happen-ING. Are the five senses important? In some philosophical sense, I guess. But in reality, I don’t go to church to smell the bread of communion or be entertained by a light show.
At the end of the day, good media is like good IT; it’s rarely noticeable when it’s working like it should. It’s the means, not the end itself.
February 25, 2009
A decent, basic guide to technology in worship. A few good suggestions if you have a handle on tech already, but not for the advanced techie.
January 18, 2016
The author had some valid points that should be considered as places of worship decide whether to use technology.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews