How do we present ourselves? (And God?) I really liked these comments that Tim Bednar, Len Evans and Mike Todd shared about an earlier posting of mine about making the church in our image. I'm pleased to see some readers pondering the entire issue of image. (Of course I'd expect nothing less from Bednar, who, like I, makes a living trafficking in images and messages.) So, with the few minutes I have here between meetings, I'd like to expound on this issue a bit. (By the way, this whole topic was sparked by a Dean Peters post. Credit -- or blame -- where it's due.)
Church culture is so saturated by media and so enmeshed with our consumer-driven society that we accept uncritically the "marketing" images and messages of churches as simply part of our culture. Even "alternative" churches or "emerging" churches are marketed as, well, alternatives or emergences. What actually emerges, however, is an idealized version of reality. As Tim Bednar states put it in his comments, "Marketing and advertising never deal with reality. It is how I want reality to be perceived as both the designer and consumer. I manipulate it; actually, I can create 'reality'. In truth, the designer and consumer create reality together; think of it as a sort of pact of delusion."
How, then, can we have "authentic" church in our consumer-driven, image-laden society?
And about the "image" thing. Does anyone besides me ever consider the possibility that our emphasis on images to convey our messages -- and on images of Christ (for more on this, see this article -- might even border on idolatry at times?
Well, speaking of image and idolatry, I've gotta run. Got a marketing committee meeting to attend.