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Church services usually follow a familiar pattern of hymns, scripture readings, and a sermon. A new generation of seminarians hopes to shake things up a bit by bringing their Sunday messages into the digital age, with lights, cameras, Web pages and more. Reed Galin reports on a production class for preachers. |
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SCRIPT:
(Locator: Trotwood, Ohio)
Instructor and student: “Have you worked any of these cameras before? I
haven’t.”
Jim Eller was a pastor. Now he teaches students at United Theological
Seminary, the art ... that is, the “new” art ... of spiritual
communication.
Jim Eller/Professor, United Theological Seminary: “As more and more
people continue to communicate digitally, we need to also communicate
that way.”
Students in hallway: “Let me set up a shot. That way I have you walking
towards me.”
Jim Eller/Professor, United Theological Seminary: “The stories we tell
don’t change, but the formats that we’re using to tell those stories do
change. We have to tell our stories in a medium that a great percentage
of the culture lives in every day.”
Jenny Smith/Student, United Theological Seminary: “It is the same God,
but it is taking into account that the people sitting in the pew are
different than they were 20 years ago.”
Jenny Smith, like most of her classmates, wants to pastor a local
church.
Jenny Smith/Student, United Theological Seminary: “It starts with a big
montage trying to get a feel...”
Smith is taking production classes at the seminary in Dayton, Ohio,
because she agrees with her instructor that just talking from a pulpit
and using printed church bulletins aren’t enough anymore.
Instructor to class: “How much video do I need to actually explain what
the narrator is saying?”
Jenny Smith/Student, United Theological Seminary: “This technology is
just another tool in our toolbox for how to connect people with God,
just like singing and music is a tool.”
Jim Eller/Professor, United Theological Seminary: “I call what we do in
video story telling the creating of a modern stained glass window. It
doesn’t happen overnight and it doesn’t happen without planning and
without an artistic eye.”
Students on tape: “Together. Together. Together. It’s better when we do
it together.”
TAG:
Students range from their 20s to folks in their 50s
for whom the ministry will be a second career. Course enrollment has
tripled over the last year and a half.
For more information on the program, contact Shannon Sellers, video
course coordinator, at United Theological Seminary, 937-529-2201.