Media, Connected or Distant

I gave a talk on media last night. Some rough thoughts follow.

Living in a media saturated culture points to at least one thing. We love to be connected. With this known by all experientially, I still ask, are we connected to the most important things? We crave to be connected. Internet, blogs, youtube, my space, facebook, AIM, MSN Messenger, email, pagers, cells, blue-tooth, palm pilots, blackberries, ipods, iphones, and the wonderful world of online gaming…Yes we're connected, but Jesus asks, "are you connected with me?"

In 1 Peter 2:4-6 we get an insight as to how we're supposed to be connected.
1. Be connected with the cornerstone Jesus.
2. Living stones must be cut, chiseled, and put into place by the relation to the cornerstone.
3. To build something stones must be placed upon each other. Stones are called to bear weight on their shoulders. As living stones we're called to responsibility, called to be connected in God's building project and called to carry weight on our shoulders.

God says, I have a building project going on, and you’re part of it. You’re the living stones from which I’m building a temple that will mark the My presence. You will sacrifice yourself to Me on My altar, and I will live in your midst.

Are you connected to God’s building project?

A second idea of stones follow. A completely different idea however.

God gives a little stone (a little message) and throws it into the pond of our lives. We are called to see that stone hit the waters of the pond, and called to see its ripple affects. Note the similarities of how we're supposed to see the ripple affects of a seed planted by Matt 13. Here the ripple affects of a seed are fruit. In order to see the ripple effects of God's message, or in order for a seed to grow we must cut the noise, all the other stones thrown into the pond that prevent us from seeing the ripple effects from that tiny little of God. Distractions, cares, and concerns of the world that prevent us from internalizing God's message can also take the form of over-saturation of media's lesser message, so that we forget God's most important message.

One pebble, one 35 minute message, however great it is, is prone to get lost in the shuffle of all the other competing messages biding for our time in a media-centric world. How will you protect an important small pebble message from the outside noise until you can see its ripple affects on your life?

Finally, a distant God is different then a close God. God far away we can deal with, God close up is a whole other issue. Are we connected or distant with God? A distant God we can keep at arms length and we can filter a messages which we choose to accept. A God close up gets in our face at times, teaches hard messages at times, and will not be content being drowned out by all the other messages in our media-centric world.


My analysis follows:
-Talk was broken up into small manageable chunks where people I think by and large could keep tracking, and maintain concentration.
-Exegeted text, exegeted culture well. Message was also pertinent with where our society is at.
-Might have been heavy handed, or too direct for some, but it was solely an attempt to address the serious dilemma that we all too often fail to see in the mirror. Perhaps some mistake my passion when speaking for something less admirable or noble. I need to make sure I communicate in a way they see the intent of my communication. I'm so mad at myself if a came off to strong, that's a bad tendency of mine.
-Good use of reflection PowerPoint slides, thus allowing time for reflection and thoughts to sink in. Allowed time for people to think about what I was saying.
-I don't see any issues with any of the content of the message. I agonize over this fundamental element and cannot see myself erroring in any content that was presented.
-I might have ultimately failed in communicating the message in a way that truly touches people. This makes me so angry at myself, because I try so hard at this element.
-Good use of imagery and analogy. Living stones, building project and temple imagery 1 Pet 2. Football analogy, catch a football (a message) but only credit "for a catch" if we hang on to God's seed of a message and allow it to take root in our hearts. Pebble in pond analogy, requires personal inward searching for a message to hit home, until we can see a seed message have a ripple affects on our lives.
-Down side of analogies is that sometimes I'm too cryptic, and should just go plain-Jane. If I have 3 weeks to give a talk I have too much time to think in my head, and then unfortunately the only one who understands the message is me. Maybe I failed miserably at this element as well.
-Personally, this has been a lot of thinking, and a real mental and emotional drain. I haven't slept much in preparation. How my one pebble of a message touches the pond of people's lives the world has yet to see. What I do take comfort in is that I think I can say with a clear conscience that I tried my best to listen to God's voice in the direction and tone of the talk. I gave it my best crack, the best way I know how, and ultimately I rest in God's sovereignty to bring a ripple affect in people's lives from a small pebble of a message. So I move on, try to repent and construct better messages next time, and in the meantime preach more pointed messages at myself because God's demands so much more from me, a servant. Maybe God never told me to preach, preaching might be my dream, not God's plan. If that's the case then may my job in the secular workplace be equally as glorifying to God as any pastor's message on any given Sunday.