Media Formation
A few days ago my husband pulled up this old video that had been recorded back in 2015. It was an interview with us talking about our role at church during a brief season when we were the discipleship pastors. Our 15-year-old son was in the room when we were watching it and he said, “Well, it seems your views on discipleship have stayed the same.”
His comment was funny, but it was also true. The words we spoke during that interview had been deeply formed in us over multiple decades and we still live by and resonate with them today. We talked about the value of being in community and how our rough edges are softened by living life with real people walking through various seasons.
It is important that formation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. If everyone you learn from is saying the same thing or they always say what you want to hear then you need to expand your circle to include more voices, even some that might be uncomfortable.
We live in a time when a lot of our formation comes from media. Whether through books, podcasts, music, or social media, a myriad of voices speak into our lives on a regular basis. Sometimes this can be overwhelming as we have to sort through which voices are worth listening to and which ones we have time to explore. But it is also pretty amazing the access we have to incredibly wise and educated voices helping us grow in so many fields.
If you’ve seen me in person recently I’ve probably recommended a book called Garden City to you. It was written by John Mark Comer back in 2015. A main premise of the book is that all of us are invited to live lives that create flourishing in this world, right now, today! Comer says “We were put on earth - because the entire cosmos is this God’s temple - to make visible the invisible God. To show the world what God is like. We are the Creator’s representatives to his creation.”
In other words, our vocation, as NT Wright often refers to it, is to be image-bearers of Jesus. That isn’t just for the people who work in churches or carry the title of pastor. It is for all of us. It is for the garbage person, the CEO of a corporation, the nurse, the teacher, the fisherman, the doctor, the mom, and the differently abled. Each and every one of us has a unique opportunity to live fully in the here and now. And the way that we live matters. The way we talk to each other, the way we talk about each other, the way we treat another human - whether we agree with them or not - it all matters because it is us showing up in every sphere of life as God’s representatives.
Our knowing Jesus isn’t just about getting to be with him forever. Of course that matters and is important, but it is also about his kingdom coming and his will being done here on earth as it is in heaven - right now, not just at some future point when all things are made new.
The Bible is an amazing gift that has been given to us. It helps us learn more about God’s character and it shows us this beautiful big picture view of God’s deep love for the world, God’s rescue plan, and ultimately the way God will make all things new. The Bible is full of wisdom to help us grow in our journey with Jesus and fills us with wonder concerning the Holy Spirit. And yet, as amazing as the Bible is, its job is not to be a textbook.
This is incredibly important.
Dallas Willard writes, “Our reverence for and faith in the Bible must not be allowed to blind us to the need for personal divine instruction within the principles of the Bible yet beyond the details of what it explicitly says. A distinguished minister once said on television that if we would only accept the Bible as the Word of God, all differences between Christians would be resolved. But in fact it is Bible-believing Christians who disagree with each other most often and most heatedly.”
Willard is reminding us that we can hold the Bible in high regard while at the same time realizing that the Bible isn’t explicit about much of the everyday bits of our lives. We can love Jesus and still have different opinions about many things. The way we handle those differences brings us back to the principle of love. In John 13:35 Jesus makes it clear that people will know that we are his disciples by our love.
Early in 2020, I realized that my media consumption had very little diversity. I started looking for new voices to add to the conversation, voices that could help me see parts of life that were unfamiliar to me. My compassion and love for people have grown as I have expanded my learning to include more diverse voices. The more time we spend getting to know real people and hearing their stories the kinder we will become.
Much like the views my husband and I hold regarding discipleship were formed over decades, so too are the views we hold on many things. If we are in a vacuum while those ideas are forming we might miss out on seeing a fuller, more beautiful picture of humanity.
This month seems like a good time to look at media and the role it plays in our spiritual formation. Over the next few weeks, we’ll explore books, podcasts, and social media and the ways these tools can both form and deform us over time.
~ Melissa