Tom Troeger on Preaching in Multimedia Culture

Ten Strategies for Preaching in a Multimedia Culture Book CoverThomas H. Troeger in 1996 wrote “Ten Strategies for Preaching in a Multimedia Culture.” Thomas is on the faculty at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado, USA, focusing on preaching and communication.

Troeger starts by clarifying his terms. By preaching he does mean preaching in the sense of verbally communicating with congregations. By ‘multi media culture’ he means the world of audiovisually oriented people.

Quoting Pierre Babin he seeks to develop effective communication characterised by resurgence of the imagination, the importance of affective relationships and the dissolution of national and cultural frontiers.

He acknowledges the potential for distortion and resistance in engaging with emerging culture. Neil Postman, in Technopoly, wrote, “A preacher who confines himself to considering how a medium can increase his audience will miss the significant question:”In what sense do new media alter what is meant by religion, by church, even by God?”. Troeger responds with the continued call to take the risk of translation into new media. He appeals to what Andrew Walls has called ‘infinite translatability’ of the Christian gospel.

Troeger provides ten strategies for communciating with media savvy people, without the use of any television or computer screens.

1. Assume there is more to the story. Troeger points us to the legends developed around the magi who visited Jesus as an infant. Likewise the stories spun around Noah. He gives us his own sermon on the married couple who received large quantities of wine from Jesus at their wedding, enough to preserve for special occasions throughout the rest of their lives.

The other nine strategies:
2. Create a parable
3. Play with an Image
4. Write the Sermon as a Movie Script
5. Use a Flashback
6. Reframe a Sacrament
7. Let a little child lead you
8. Play a game
9. Listen to the Muffled Voices
10. Compare Translations

I appreciate Troeger’s avoidance of associating multi media culture with young people. Likewise his care not to assume that mature Christians will grow out of thinking in terms of movies, music, story and play.

I’ll be drawing on some of Troeger’s pointers as I work with the Uniting Church in Australia’s national Lay Preachers’ Conference this week. The topic: “Same light, new light switch: Preaching for new generations”.

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