Hi-def technology vs. sacramental theology
There is a rising trend in Evangelical churches these days: pastors preaching to multiple congregations through hi-def technology:
The Sunday morning service at Fellowship Church in Dallas, Texas, was humming along with hymns and prayers when something unusual happened.
The lights in the sanctuary suddenly dimmed, and members of the church hushed as they peered at a pulpit shrouded in darkness. The parishioners then erupted in cheers and whistles as Ed Young Sr., the church’s senior pastor, emerged from the darkness with a microphone in hand.
“Please be seated, be seated,” Young said as he grabbed the Bible. “How are you guys doing today? Doing well?”
Young delivered his sermon, but he couldn’t hear or see his congregation respond: He wasn’t physically there.
Young’s parishioners were instead looking at a high-def video image of their pastor beamed into their sanctuary from a “mother” church in Grapevine, Texas.
Young is part of a new generation of pastors who can be in two places at one time. They are using technology — high-def videos, and even holograms — to beam their Sunday morning sermons to remote “satellite” churches that belong to their congregation.
The problem with this trend isn’t the technology, or even having sermons broadcast to multiple locations (EWTN essentially does this all the time). The real problem of this particular use of the technology is two-fold: (1) it encourages a cult of personality around the pastor, and (2) it diminishes the sacramental nature of Christianity, in which matter and spirit are combined in our path to salvation.
Most Protestant services revolve around the sermon, and the better the preacher, the more likely the service will be popular. Churches begin to revolve around the personality of the pastor, whose preaching ability is essential to the success of the church. But the structure of the Catholic Mass helps to prevent this problem. The focus of the Mass is not the sermon, but instead the Eucharist, in which Jesus Christ is truly present to us in sacramental form. The only cult of personality that should exist in the Church is around the person of Jesus Christ.It is great when a Catholic priest is a good preacher, but that is not the primary reason we come to Mass, and it should not be the high point of the liturgy. Instead, the miracle of the consecration is what should draw us: through the power of the Holy Spirit bread and wine are able to change into the body and blood of our Lord.
Furthermore, we believe the “Word became flesh” thus elevating our physical natures to heights unimagined before the incarnation. This taking on of flesh by the Son of God has profound implications for our lives, and it effects how we live our Catholic Faith. The Church does not allow sacraments to occur without the physical presence of the minister (you can’t receive confession by phone, nor can a priest consecrate the bread and wine if he is not physically present). This isn’t anti-technology, it is good theology, for God uses physical matter to bring us closer to Him. As much as modern technology can help us in our walk with the Lord, nothing can replace one-on-one interaction with our pastors and fellow Christians.
Ultimately, it really isn’t very impressive that these pastors can “appear” at multiple locations at one time; Jesus Christ has been appearing at EVERY Catholic parish in the world since his Ascension! He doesn’t need hi-def technology to do it, but instead through a sacramental miracle he takes the form of bread and wine and allows himself to be received by his followers. No man-made technology will ever to able to top that!
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I admire your ability to condense this issue as follows: “The real problem of this particular use of the technology is two-fold: (1) it encourages a cult of personality around the pastor, and (2) it diminishes the sacramental nature of Christianity, in which matter and spirit are combined in our path to salvation.”
Of the two problems, I think, more and more, versions of the “cult of personality” are filtering into the Catholic Church with Catholics who “parish shop” until they find a priest/pastor who suits them or some other draw. There was a time when a parishes had geographical boundaries and one needed special consent to belong to a parish outside the boundaries.
The second part of the problem is so important. It is the reason that watching a televised Mass will not suffice for fulfilling one’s Saturday/Sunday obligation. Most of us do not reflect on the Incarnational aspect of our faith except at Christmas time.
Eric – good post. It isn’t the technology that is the problem, but the lack of a physical presence. There has been a creeping distortion of the human body into Protestantism since the beginning. Think of the rejection of Christian symbols by the Puritans and the stripping down of “worship” by Evangelicals to be merely a few prayers, songs, and a sermon.
The rejection of the human body is ultimately a rejection of the Incarnation.
Excellent post. We have an Evangelical mega-church around the corner (”Northland Church”) that has a half-dozen campuses and a pastor who literally wrote the book on this subject (”The Church Distributed”). I’ve attended services and events there many times, and you’ve described the situation perfectly:
“The real problem of this particular use of the technology is two-fold: (1) it encourages a cult of personality around the pastor, and (2) it diminishes the sacramental nature of Christianity, in which matter and spirit are combined in our path to salvation.”
When the pastor walks out onto the stage–or screen–the mood evokes an Apple unveiling by Steve Jobs. The pastor is that central to the service. I also think this is why the moral failings of pastor is so crippling to individual Protestant congregations. The failing of Catholic priests have hurt the Church as a whole more than individual parishes, because individual parishes don’t follow individual pastors–they follow Jesus in the Eucharist.
In terms of sacramental nature, I think “satellite churches” are the effects of sacramental rejection, not the cause. Sattelite churches and pastor cults aren’t their major problems– misunderstandings of matter and the Eucharist are.
I parish shop for Catholic theology and non-heretical music. The pastor is at least third on the list.
See a remarkably similar post, from a former evangelical turned Catholic.
I have to admit that I agree with Ian.
What good comes of kneeling before invalid matter?
Ditto Ian and Patrick.
I parish shop to get AWAY from Fr Fluff’s Dinner Theater using the Mass as his vehicle. Not to mention the congregation that’s there to celebrate each others’ OK-ness. (Is that even a word?)
The rock band front and center always getting the uproarious thunder of applause at the end of the closing “song” is ever present and ever annoying.
Seeing parishes trying to be hip and relevant like the Protestants who do these things is sure to bear the fruit of producing ex Catholics.
They can entertain better than we can because they are not constricted by a strict order of worship as we are, at least in theory.
I am speaking as a Catholic who became an ex-catholic Evangelical-turned-revert.
I returned when I got tired of Bible studies passing for worship. I guess I wasn’t being “fed.”
Thankfully I had real worship to compare and contrast it to so I returned to Mass even before I returned to the Church theologically.
This is why I am so angered by Liturgical abuses. I recognize now the evangelizing power of Worship as Jesus sets forth in the Church and nothing on earth can supersede it.
Great web-site to find many good informed Catholics, deevoted to the Church with a good sense of humility and obedience to the teachings of St. Peter’s Chair.
Excellent post, Eric. Been there. Done that. Found it empty. I’ve seen some pastors fall, and when they fall that place at the center of the church is empty and the people wander in confusion. Every mass, in contrast, is a powerful reminder that the church belongs to Christ and He is forever there at its center.
Wonderful post. As a recent convert to the Catholic Church, I agree with and appreciate the emphasis on the Eucharist. It is exactly what I was seeking.
The Mass offers a prayerful and meditative approach leading to the presence of Jesus that, once experienced, becomes the central sacramental aspect of the faith.
At the same time, I must admit I do miss the opportunity to travel through scripture with a great teaching pastor to find nuggets of understanding that contribute to my ability to live the faith.
I am probably not alone. In the Catholic faith I have observed an unsatisfied hunger for continuing catechesis on the part of parishioners. At times I daydream that the truly great teaching pastors from the Protestant realm convert and become roving teachers that visit parishes. (Provided they learn the great theological and mystical traditions of the Catholic faith, the hidden nuggets, so to speak.)
Must admit I did not realize that parish shopping was not seen as a positive. It seemed to me to be natural.
As a result of visiting other parishes and academic settings, I found that personally I am engaged by the more academic priests who speak from their grounding in ongoing theological studies. The same presentation may not appeal to others. In either case, it is not a matter of replacing Christ with a personality, but rather finding a strong connection to community during the Mass in which I welcome Christ into my life.
Good post topic.