The Language of God from United Church of Christ on Vimeo.
I’ve previously commented on the need for churches to use contemporary media to get their message out in an attractive manner, using today’s ways of communicating. The above is a good example that has already been forwarded to me by several followers of this site. How does it compare to your church’s advertising? Young people can produce this sort of advertisement on their computers – so a parish can have a film clip sitting on the front page of your website produced by the youth group. A diocese can produce these professionally and have it on its website and on local television. A national church can have such an ad on national television.
I have the United Church of Christ’s Book of Worship (1986) sitting on my bookshelves. It is a fascinating liturgy resource. The Slogan for the “God Is Still Speaking” program, “Never place a period where God has placed a comma”, is a quote from Gracie Allen.
I like it, I like it …
Outstanding. Great point that youth in a parish can put something like this together. So often there’s a disconnect between church and their lives on-line. This kind of project can help close that gap.
Bosco, Kathy; very good points about the youth involvement. Probably good to remember to have it not just youth though, to make sure that whatever ads go out have a clear Gospel message.
Youth sometimes get so caught up in the praising that they often innocently forget to mention sin, the cross and salvation in Christ – things which after all are the single most central messages of the Church!
Interesting point, Vincent. I would have thought that good leadership and oversight would be provided at each step for something as significant as this – and not having the vicar/pastor suddenly say “no” at the end requires some sort of care along the way. It is good you make such presumptions explicit. As to the focus of young people – that must vary. In my own experience with young people I regularly find them passionate about reconciliation, justice, and care for the environment, amongst other things – so a balance is a good point.
I pastor a small UCC congregation. I wrote a review of this latest ad if anyone is interested in an “insiders” perspective.
http://theprophetjoel.com/2010/04/the-language-of-god-the-uccs-latest-ad/
Thanks Joel. It is very helpful to read a review from someone who takes for granted that their denomination makes ads of this quality. Most of us, I suspect, could only wish that our churches and denominations were this engaged with the contemporary context and its possibilities. You’ve clarified that the intention of this ad is for the internet and that YouTube found the numbers viewing it so surprisingly high that it froze its counter. Nonetheless, in the week this has been up on the web 43,000 are on the YouTube counter, and 41,000 are on the vimeo counter.
I suppose I had never considered that this is a rarity among denominations. Thanks for that reminder.
With more lambs and fewer hoggets in Ordination training these days, I think the Anglican Church is in for a wee change 🙂