I’ve been thinking a lot about how multi-sensory our culture is…
There used to be a time when people could sit through long talks. The Lincoln-Douglas debates of the 1860 presidential race have always stood in my mind as an example of this. Lincoln & Douglas traveled around and cordially lectured on and debated politics for 8 hours at a time. People simply had the attention span or the endurance to take it.
Today, however, we don’t even have television shows where the scene last longer than a matter of seconds before changing. Most channels even have ticker tapes on the bottom or are running advertisements in the corners. The rate of sensory change that we’ve become accustomed to is lightning quick.
My point in thinking all of this through is the growing conviction that a 35 minute sermon is too much for people to handle if there isn’t some kind of change of pace or sensory change.
If we are going to be a relevant and engaging church we need to learn to communicate at a very high level and integrate as many creative and multi-sensory elements as possible.
The calling is to be a creative church.
