Videos on Sunday Morning

[Pergamum]

Perg,
I'm not arguing against all visual aids or circumstances at any time: I am urging caution and thoughtfulness in bringing in distracting things. We have the commanded elements of worship. We must use prudence as we surround them with necessary circumstances. To me, an object pointed out or a feature of the building mentioned in order to illustrate would not be as distracting as a screen with bullet points. If a preacher brought in a mustard seed as a visual aid, it would not cause the same sort of scandal as if he brought in a donkey to illustrate Balaam's ass.
This matter of circumstances is for sure hard to sort out, and the pendulum goes to either extreme even on this board, where we have acapella EP-ers as well as the full band of the OP's congregation. I tend to fall on the side of keeping circumstances to a minimum, so that they are an aid to worship and do not distract.

Very good response. Thank you.

"I tend to fall on the side of keeping circumstances to a minimum, so that they are an aid to worship and do not distract." That sounds like an excellent principle.

 

[Silas22]

In the past, the churches I've attended have provided videos of the missionaries we support over seas before collecting a missions offering. I dont find those kinds of videos to be distracting. I would never use a video to illustrate a sermon point, nor would I have an "introduction to this preaching series" video that megachurches commonly employ- that's just theatrics.

 

[Jack K]

The purpose and tone of the video or pictures matters a great deal.

I say NO to theatrics.
NO to entertainment.
NO to pacing and variety (when it's a sub-set of entertainment).
NO to showing visitors that we can be edgy.
NO to turning a sermon into a classroom lecture.

But YES to providing words so the congregation can sing in unison or follow along as Scripture is read.

YES to guarded use of pictures for instructional parts of a sermon. The fact that a sermon has some instruction in it does not mean it has been turned into a classroom lecture. Good preachers are able to teach and still also preach. There may be times when a map or other illustration aids in understanding. If it destroys the solemnity of the occasion, it's probably wise to refrain. But again, I think many preachers would be able to use a map and still keep the proper sense of occasion. Much depends on the preacher, and perhaps the congregation.

YES to pictures and video as a part of a missionary report. When the church has sent a missionary, I believe there is warrant for an edifying report from that missionary to be included in the church's Lord's Day gathering, based on passages like Acts 20:7-12. If you would be more comfortable doing this before the call to worship or after the benediction, that's fine, but don't exclude your missionary from reporting. And a video fits the nature of a report.

MAYBE to a video welcome from a pastor. But I have to ask, why not do it in person? In most cases, I suspect a video would be chosen for one of the NO reasons listed above.