I enjoy made-up words. Two of my favorites from my small church production world are: Pulpinate - to bring a moveable pulpit up on stage during an event; and Administrivia - the obligatory bullet list of reminders that come up at each church staff meeting.
I think my absolute favorite was made up by Grant Layman, one of Covenant Life's executive pastors: undistract.
I like that word so much that I've stolen it and used it as the name of this blog. I like it because it sums up in one word the goal of using technology in church services. Technology should undistract people.
"Undistract" leads to three goals for technology in church:
1. Avoid Mistakes - I don't know anyone involved in church production who tries to use technology to distract people. But technology can distract if not handled with care. Feedback, misspelled lyrics, a sound mix that buries the vocals - all these mistakes can cause people to think about the technology rather than the content it is intended to support.
2. Make Excellence Invisible - "Undistract" is more than just avoiding mistakes that call attention to the technology. It also means avoiding, as possible, drawing attention to the technology in any way at all. The technology should be invisible. After a "perfect" production, those in attendence will leave talking about how great Jesus is, not how great the lighting looked or how cool the video loop was.
3. Capture Attention - I suspect that anyone who has attended church for more than five minutes could testify to something that distracted him, even if it was just a wandering thought about what he would be having for lunch that afternoon. That person needs to be undistracted, and here is where the power technology can be harnessed for great gain. Technology can be a tool to draw distracted people away from their own thoughts, away from all the things around them, and focus them on what is most important during the church service: the truth of the Word of God.
Over the next few posts, I'll expand a bit on each of these three parts of undistraction.
