Will video kill preaching?

March 30, 2009 in for Churches

At the Next Wave Ezine, Bob Hyatt writes an interesting article on the rise of video preaching (one preacher being broadcast to campuses of the same church) and the dangers this presents. Bob explains – “we’re talking about the death of preaching in evangelicalism by all but a small handful of Celebrity Communicators who have little knowledge about those they teach from such far distances.” Read “Video Venues: The Death of Preaching“.

  • Jon

    It was an interesting article, and while i agree in principle and in the fact that nothing actually beats a good teacher in your local church, i find sermons from itunes, from teachers such as driscoll and goeschel, useful for supplementing the teaching i recieve at my local church. Also, individual churches shouldn’t shy away from using this medium in their own congregation. if you consider the Sydney Diocese, where the number of students graduating from its bible college doesn’t come near to what is needed by the church, and there is a huge shortage of both senior and assistant ministers, then shouldn’t churches with multi-sites and congregations, consider this medium as a way to lighten the burden on the teachers?

  • Steven Kryger

    Hi Jon, it’s interesting that many of the churches that are doing the multi-site video preaching are those that have able preachers, but have one particularly effective/charismatic preacher who is then broadcast to the other campuses. The other preachers still preach, but perhaps only 8 times per year.

    In the Sydney context, I agree this could be an effective way of ministering to people in churches that don’t have a minister, or even in more regional or rural congregations.

    I’m unconvinced that it’s a good idea for churches that already have able teachers in their midst.