Everything I needed to know about preaching I learned from watching TV

2006·0.65 MB·English

by  Phillip Hamm

TELEVISION AND COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION AND THE EFFECT IT HAS ON
PREACHING

“EVERYTHING I NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT PREACHING I LEARNED FROM
WATCHING TV”

A THESIS

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF

GORDON-CONWELL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE

DOCTOR OF MINISTRY

BY

J. PHILLIP HAMM

NOVEMBER 2006
CONTENTS

DEDICATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii

ABSTRACT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .iii

CHAPTER

1. THE PROBLEM TELEVISION AND COMMERCIAL
PRODUCTION CREATES FOR THE PREACHER . . . . . . . . 1

2. THEOLOGICAL MANDATE FOR COMMUNICATING GOD’S
WORD IN A FORMAT THAT CONFORMS TO THE LISTENER’S
MINDSET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3. PRECEDENT RESEARCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

4. TEACHING OUTLINE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

5. REFLECTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

WORKS CITED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

VITA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
DEDICATION

This thesis is dedicated to my precious wife Christy and our children Abby,
Jonathan, and Ethan. Thank you for sitting on the couch by my side as I “researched”
countless hours of television programming.

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ABSTRACT

Preachers find it increasingly difficult to maintain the attention of their
audiences. Each sermon must compete with hours of high quality, professionally
written, fast paced television that is regularly watched by church attendees. Try as
they must, preachers struggle against such stiff competition. The only way to contend
in the world of communication is to learn the concepts that make the television so
powerful. A preacher has no choice but to learn the communication techniques that
television and commercial producers use to get and keep the attention of the viewer
and communicate the unchanging Word of God effectively.
This thesis-project is an attempt to give preachers an overview of the
communication techniques used by television and commercial producers. To achieve
this goal, the first chapter describes the problem. The second chapter is a Biblical and
Theological defense for using modern communication techniques to deliver the
ancient stories of scripture. The third chapter reveals some of the common techniques
professionals use when making television shows and commercials, and the relevancy
of using such information in sermons. The fourth chapter contains a lesson plan and
handouts used to teach preachers the information contained in chapter three. The
thesis ends with the presentation of conclusions drawn while teaching the lesson, as
well as remarks of the students to whom it was taught.

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CHAPTER ONE
THE PROBLEM TELEVISION AND COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION CREATES
FOR THE PREACHER

People have short attention spans. Albert Book says, in research concerning
advertising, that “it is much tougher to gain and hold the audiences attention” (Book,
Cary, and Tannenbaum 13). This insight is not only true for commercials and
television but also for sermons. During sermons people only listen for a few
moments before turning their attention to something else. George Temple, in a recent
article for REV magazine, states that “my mother knew I could watch TV for hours,
but I only lasted a few minutes in church before the squirming, fidgeting and
pestering my little sister would begin” (Temple 70). He continued by describing
what an incredible experience it was when the pastor showed a Billy Graham film.
For the first time in his life, he was receiving information in church in the same way
he received information elsewhere. People will stop paying attention to sermons
when the preacher fails to communicate in a mode in which the listener is accustomed
to receiving information. This problem is due in part to the television viewing habits
of our culture. These habits cannot be changed nor can the way television programs
and commercials are made. Therefore, preachers would be wise to learn from the
media how to communicate in a way that listeners are accustomed to receiving
information.

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Justification of the Problem
Television and video images are replacing the positions that humans once
filled. No longer are people able to march into their local warehouse stores to
purchase their family's annual allotment of toilet paper and find several women
happily handing out hotdog samples. Now as people enter a store they find a series of
television sets advertising an array of products. Each television set has a built-in
VCR or DVD player playing a video. At the point when the video or DVD is
finished, it is set to loop the program back to the beginning. This tactic is used so that
the television set can convey as much information to viewers as possible before
something else catches their attention.
Do advertising agencies and television producers know communication
techniques that pastors should learn? Is there a reason commercials are made to tell a
story in thirty seconds or less? Why do people pay better attention to some television
shows than others? What makes people change the channel on some commercials but
are entertained by others?
People in our churches are not different from other Americans. They likely
have the televisions in their homes on for the national average of seven hours and
forty minutes a day as reported by Neilson Media Research. The same research
shows the average American watches over four hours of television a day (“Facts”).
By the age of sixty-five, the average American will have viewed over two million
television commercials (Clark 195). Research shows that 50% of U.S. homes have
three or more television sets (Rideout, Vandewater, and Wartella). Forty percent of
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Americans say they "always or often watch television while eating dinner" (Gentile
and Walsh 8). The people in churches are exposed to the same advertising techniques
as everyone else. They watch the same thirty-minute situational comedies. They are
being conditioned, without their knowledge, to receive information in a format
dictated by the television producers and advertising executives that create the hours of
television they watch. How can preachers compete with these professionally
produced videos and commercials? How can preachers expect people to come and
listen attentively to a thirty-minute sermon? How can preachers communicate to
people the most important information they will ever need to hear if they fail to hold
their attention by not adopting the communication techniques with which our culture
has grown accustomed? Pastors must learn to address the unchanging, eternal truth of
God's Word in ways that keep the attention of modern television viewers.
This project will consist of three main parts. The first part will show the
theological mandate for communicating God's Word in a format that conforms to the
listener’s mindset. The second part of this project will systematically analyze the
theories behind modern media communication. What are the theories and
philosophies that drive advertising executives and television producers to create
commercials and programs? The third part will take the information contained in this
thesis to help pastors learn communication techniques that will enable them to gain
and hold the attention of listeners during a sermon. Pastors must comprehend why
listeners’ attention spans are drastically shrinking. However, it is not enough merely
to understand the problem; pastors must use their knowledge of modern
communication techniques to change their presentation style. The information will be
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collected, analyzed, and organized into a lesson plan that will be used to teach one
session in a Doctor of Ministry course at United Theological Seminary. Such
information will be helpful in teaching students to know their audience and to shape
their communication style to meet and keep that audience’s attention.

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CHAPTER TWO
THEOLOGICAL MANDATE FOR COMMUNICATING GOD’S WORD IN A
FORMAT THAT CONFORMS TO THE LISTENER’S MINDSET

Just as we need an interpreter to communicate to people in a different culture,
preachers are the interpreters of God's message in their own culture. There are many
barriers they face as they stand before the congregation on Sunday mornings that
could hinder the communication of the message. The people who fill the pews each
week are struggling with disappointing marriages, problem children, financial
difficulties, and struggles at work. The greatest barrier preachers face in
communicating however, is keeping the listeners’ attention. Holding the listeners’
attention requires among other things that preachers learn modern communication
techniques. It is apparent from scripture that God has always chosen to speak to His
people in a format with which they are familiar.
Jesus employed several methods to communicate clearly and keep the
audience’s attention. He used ideas and images familiar to those listening. Matthew
chapter eight tells of an incident when Jesus and His disciples were getting into a boat
to cross over the Sea of Galilee to "the country of the Gergesenes" (28). A multitude
now surrounded Him, and thus He gave the command to depart to the other side of
the lake. Not long after entering the boat, a large storm arose and began to batter the
fishing boat in which Jesus and his disciples were riding. They feared that they all
may lose their lives. Jesus then "rebuked" (Matt. 8.26) the wind and waves. The
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word "rebuke" is used in this miracle to demonstrate His power over demonic forces.
The term is used by Jesus only when casting out demons. The use of this word "may
presuppose evil spirits as expressing themselves in the storm" (Hagner 33). This
incident shows that Jesus had authority over nature and demons. The only one who
has authority over such things is God; however, the disciples did not yet grasp this
truth. They had been taught a complicated lesson in a powerful and relevant way.
These were fishermen who understood the ways of the sea. God had their undivided
attention when the storm began and they found their lives in peril. They were clearly
focused on the event that was before them. Although they did not grasp the gravity of
the lesson at that moment, some time later they would recall the events of that day
and completely understand the message: Jesus is God. This lesson would be
memorable for the disciples because Jesus communicated in a manner with which
they were familiar.
Matthew 13 is another example of God communicating in a relevant form.
This chapter is a discourse comprised mostly of parables. Jesus would use these short
examples to communicate to the disciples the eternal truths He was teaching. These
parables each compare the Kingdom of God to something relevant to the disciples’
lives. Jesus used common experiences such as farming, fishing, and cooking in these
short stories. Each disciple would be able to relate to one or more of the examples
given by Jesus. When Jesus explained the parable of the sower (V1-9,18-23), the
parable of the wheat and tares (V24-30), and the parable of the mustard seed (V31-
32), He gave the disciples a clear picture of the Kingdom of God. Because they were
never far from the realities of farming, the ideas of seed being sown on hard ground
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