recently i finished reading shane hipps new book "the hidden power of electronic culture." due to a busy summer it took me all summer but i must say it's one of the best books i've read over the past few years. i was expecting some real general thought on recent technology and effects on culture specifically circled around church. however, i was blown away with some deep probing into history to uncover behaviors and truths. i found myself saying over and over again things like; "hey i've wondered why we do that? never thought that this was why i was so frustrated."
great for me is that the book is accessible for us non-academics. this is a great read for laity and clergy in laying out the groundwork for approaching ministry. reading this will give one a new lens that sees why we'd do certain things in our lives & ministry and gives reason for asking questions to faithfully move forward in ministry that is of the gospel and not of our culture norms.
one of my fav short excerpts comes relevant to a previous post.
Spectacle is not an entirely bad thing; there are clearly elements of worship that call for excellence and are rooted in performance, drama, and reenactment. However, left unchecked, spectacles actually work against the creation of authentic, missional community. Spectacle creates publics, not communities. credited to
another thought that i take away from his shared thoughts are that power of the parable will become more influential in the postmodern era as multiple messages are carried through a parable versus the modern teachings of a linear path, found in the letters or Saint Paul or the book of John.
my one critique would be a general mention of the emerging church conversation. you can get the impression that this feeds the promotion of the emerging church, but if you look closer it's under the same critique, but it is illustrated a bit more how they are adapting to this power of technology to be relevant as church.
highly suggest making this one of your reads in the coming year
