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Clip City

Jun 3, 2004 Print This Post

{ MOOD: Peanut Buttery | ITUNES: “Pour Some Sugar On Me” – Def Leopard }

The last several weeks I have barely had any media in my teachings. I just haven’t felt like it “added” to the story much. I am working on this week’s teaching and I have to decide between 5-7 clips I want to play.

It got me thinking about media use by pastors and teachers. Here are some random observations I have about use of video clips of any sort in a teaching:

From “The Truth Telling Power of Film”:

[he] argued stories were better at communicating the truth than either philosophy or history. Philosophy was great at providing abstract moral and ethical thought, but it was powerless to point to concrete examples of people who lived them out.  History was shackled by what actually happened, so it could lead people to real world examples, but none of them were truly exemplary.

Stories, on the other hand, have the strengths of both philosophy and history, and none of the drawbacks. Screenwriters and directors are free to take any ideal and create a character to embody it. In film, ideals and examples can come together in a moving way to inspire people to become better, or to warn them about the consequences of doing wrong.

Misuse of Film:

A lot of people throw in a clip just to use it. It doesn’t help tell their story, they just feel like they need one. For instance, this last week I was talking about the pain and devastation caused by alcoholism and I was going to show a clip from “28 Days” or “When a Man Loves a Woman.” The more I thought about it, the more I felt that it wouldn’t help the teaching one bit and that for those who have alcoholism in their families, it may be a negative thing. Here are, IMHO, some good reasons to use a video clip:

1) It tells a chapter of your story for you. In other words, it replaces a point in your message. You don’t have to explain it or spend too much time setting it up. If you can make your point better than the video clip can, then make it without the video clip.

2) It breaks up your message. A good teaching is like a good novel, it has its ups and downs. There are climactic moments and backstory and cliffhangers. Sometimes, a video clip (especially a funny or unexpected one) can release the tension from the crowd and make them ready to hear what you will say on the other side. That gives you time to make a good point and even get super serious right on its tail end.

3) It gives you a familiar point of reference. This happens when you show a clip that is either so familiar to your audience or relates to them in such a profound way that they are with you after you show it. For instance, I saw this commercial last week on TIVO and it reminded me of the church. In fact, I may use it this weekend.

Hmmm….well, I guess I just have three reasons. I am sure there are more, I just can’t think of them.

Anyhoo, back to work I go. I have to decide between 7 video clips and try to apply my own dang criteria.