Recently, a commenter on ChurchMag brought it to our attention that not everyone enjoys our discussion of Science Fiction, comic books, video games, LEGOs, and other seemingly worthless tidbits of juvenile fun. I totally understand where this person is coming from. I have a ton of middle school student friends on Facebook because, until last year, I was a youth pastor. Few things are more annoying than scrolling through endless, silly “Which Disney Character Are You” surveys.
That being said, I’d like to respond to anyone else who was curious about why we post so much about fun stuff like Sci-Fi, LEGOs, a whole host of other cool stuff.
Sci-Fi: The Cultural Barometer
I write a lot about Science Fiction because it is a huge part of the larger tech/geek culture that I’m immersed in. Paul quoted Greek poetry; I quote Science Fiction. I’m not trying to compare me to Paul in the slightest regarding quality of our words or grandeur of our influence, but I am making a point that Paul did say that he tried to be “all things to all men.” We’re geeks for the geeks.
Sci-Fi is a cultural barometer in so many ways. More than most genres of entertainment, Sci-Fi explores philosophy, morality, and even theology freely and with a near reckless abandon. On top of that, it’s the Sci-Fi/superhero movies that are consistently drawing huge crowds while openly asking deep, philosophical questions about morality, life, death, and sacrifice. Granted that they ask these questions between explosions, fight scenes, and alien incursions, but they’re still asking them.
Technology: The Moral Frontier
Technology is where morality issues are being explored with increasing regularity. Do a quick Internet search for “the singularity” or “3D printing human organs DNA” to see what I’m talking about. Science Fiction saw this coming decades ago. Now we’re here, and the larger Church has little or nothing to say about it. ChurchMag would be remiss to not pay attention to this and to not present it to our readers.
Church Tech is Where the Fun Is
Lastly, church tech is fun. We talk about LEGOs and other fun things because that’s where many of us started. I played with LEGOs throughout my childhood, and in fact, my wife, daughter, and I just sat down for some LEGO fun on Sunday. When I came to church tech for the first time, it was because it looked fun. It excited that childlike impulse to press buttons and watch the lights light up, to connect this wire with that plug and hope it doesn’t go “boom.”
I understand that maybe the Sci-Fi nerdy stuff isn’t everyone’s thing, and that’s cool. Personally, I work in a fairly stressful environment that often robs me of my creativity. When I see a funny Star Wars video, it’s a breath of fresh air, a bit of stress relief. When I see sweet piece of superhero artwork, I’m inspired by the creativity of a fellow creation of the Creator. If that doesn’t hold true for you, I totally understand and would never hold it against you. I would, however, ask that you give us a bit of mercy in return, as we express ourselves within a superhero/Sci-Fi/LEGO immersed culture.
How do you feel about the superhero/Sci-Fi/LEGO fun?
[Images via Dunechaser via Compfight cc & Great Beyond via Compfight cc]
Al says
Fair enough – thanks for elaborating.
Phil Schneider says
Hey, Al! Thanks for taking the time to understand.
Al says
Phil, a couple more thoughts that came to mind as I listened to your podcast last week about having fun in church tech. I agree that fun is, or should be, an integral part of church culture, both within a staff and in the congregation as a whole. But I realized what gave me pause with regard to some of the content you guys post is this question: Is it relevant to your core mission and audience?
You cite Paul being all things to all men, but he was characterizing himself in an evangelistic context; is that your mission also, i.e., to speak to unchurched people? My assumption in reading and listening to Churchmag has been that all or most of your audience is already Christian, and that your content is to help those people do their jobs better. And your mission statement does claim you’re the “#1 resource for *church* technology and creativity.” (As opposed to, say, unchurched techno-geeks, or unsaved church tech staffers, which I assume would be a small group, given most churches’ hiring guidelines.)
Sure, there’s a place for lighter/fun/less relevant posts, but the volume of that material is borderline overwhelming at times, at least to this reader’s ear. Of course, I could be in the minority and the majority of your audience may well be into SciFi and cool toys and such. You know your audience, and if that’s who it is, then you should stay on mission and continue doing your job well. But if you’re just posting about what *you* find cool and fun, then you might need to reassess either your mission or your content.
Having said all that, I do still commend you on a lot of really helpful material. I’m reading through Jeremy Smith’s “Mind the Social Media Gap” series right now and making notes on how to implement some of the strategies in the church I work for.
Phil Schneider says
Al, you’ve got some really great points here. We’re not really being evangelistic, and perhaps we’ve been a bit overly zealous in sharing what *we* find to be cool and inspirational. Maybe we’ve incorrectly assumed that the majority of our readers would find this material interesting. Or maybe we have a lot of readers who don’t remember ChurchMag before it was ChurchMag.
There used be several separate but connected blogs, one of which was Church Creative, and I think a lot of this material would have been posted there. Back in this days, before I was a writer for CM, I only followed a few of those blogs. Why? Because a few were beyond my interests, my skill level, and so on. Now, with them all being merged, I can see how the loss of ability to self-select can be frustrating.
Al says
Hey, thanks for the comments, Phil. I’m one of those newer visitors to the site, so what you say explains some of my confusion.
jamie says
A slightly nerdy point.
The word LEGO is already plural. You don’t need an ‘s’. “Legos” just sounds wrong to me.
there. I said it.
(otherwise keep up the good work. It’s important to engage with culture!)
Phil Schneider says
Really? Huh. Learn something new every day. Thanks for the comment (and correction)!