Not everything worth saying needs to be preserved

[mike]

I liked this quote from barnhart.

The class is going well I think. There was a push after the first session to record it but I resisted. Snapchat may have a point, not everything worth saying needs to be preserved, especially within church life.

These days so many things related to church are being recorded, video and audio. There are literally insane amounts of material available online. I remember the trend of recording sermons and having catalogs of sermons available for mail order, then later for online download. Now YouTube is free and a very handy place to archive video of everything imaginable that is church-related.

I would enjoy a discussion on the pros and cons of this.

[mike]

Our church records its sermons and distributes them by email to church members who want them. It's useful if you missed the service and want to listen to the sermon. During Covid when we couldn't sing in nursing homes, we taped singing sessions and published them on YouTube and sent the links to the facilities, and their residents would gather to watch them.

I think there is a lot of good use for recorded material, but that not everything needs to be recorded, and certainly not everything should be distributed publicly. I think that knowing a sermon will be broadcast to the public can keep a speaker from saying everything he might want and need to say to a local gathering. I think that publishing material for public access should be on an opt-in, discretionary basis, and that it is best not to just publish everything by default.

[temporal1]

it’s a different world now with “everything” recorded, IRT, IRL, videos+pictures - everywhere one goes, wanted or not.

is it a generation or more now that never knew anything differently?

many will never have the experience of driving cross country, even coast to coast, with no phone, no camera, -.50/gallon gasoline.

i agree with you, it affects decision-making, i’ll say, in countless silent ways that will not be recognized.
life goes on, altered. as it’s always done.

God designed with genius level flexibility. we don’t even notice what we’re doing, or, ALL of what we’re doing.

i’ve an aversion to mics+cameras, i often have a creepy sense “being out” knowing mics+cameras are everywhere,
i suppose some today might feel creepy without them!

specific to church .. i’ve become reliant on recorded messages. i wouldn’t doubt overly reliant!

many years ago on MD i noticed the internet was useful for the elderly and shutins (of all ages).
i appreciated how it gave these an outlet, no matter pain or physical condition. the internet did a lot to level the communication playing field for them. there was one young man on MD who was pretty confined. MD helped him. i was glad for that.

[steve-in-kville]

Most conservative circles I've been part of recorded audio and distributed the tapes/CD's to the shut ins and the like. Don't remember anything being videotaped. Both groups had a tight stand against the web at the time, so there was no websites to stream anything.

In my current fellowship, livestreaming is bigger than recording for the elderly.

[temporal1]

Most conservative circles I've been part of recorded audio and distributed the tapes/CD's to the shut ins and the like. Don't remember anything being videotaped. Both groups had a tight stand against the web at the time, so there was no websites to stream anything.

In my current fellowship, livestreaming is bigger than recording for the elderly.

yeah. this reminds me.
20+ years ago, our church sermons were carefully recorded by volunteers, my teen son was one, then quickly taken to the nearby radio station to be aired for those who couldn’t attend. other churches did this, too.

i think the pandemic had a big impact on normalizing all these tech functions. for a couple of years.
that’s long enough to effect changes.

[Neto]

Reminds me of something Dr. Kenneth Pike (WBT-SIL linguist, creator of the Tagmemics approach to language analysis) said:

Not everything that is worth doing is worth doing well.

The point is that an over-emphasis on perfection can tie up both resources and "man-hours" on tasks that are necessary, but perhaps not of long-range importance, possibly preventing the achievement of more important tasks, some of which are of long-range or even eternal value.

[Ernie]

Our church records its sermons and distributes them by email to church members who want them. It's useful if you missed the service and want to listen to the sermon. During Covid when we couldn't sing in nursing homes, we taped singing sessions and published them on YouTube and sent the links to the facilities, and their residents would gather to watch them.

I think there is a lot of good use for recorded material, but that not everything needs to be recorded, and certainly not everything should be distributed publicly. I think that knowing a sermon will be broadcast to the public can keep a speaker from saying everything he might want and need to say to a local gathering. I think that publishing material for public access should be on an opt-in, discretionary basis, and that it is best not to just publish everything by default.

Our church decided some years ago that we will not put our sermons online because we want brothers in the church to speak to the local church, not some nebulous online audience.

[barnhart]

Our church decided some years ago that we will not put our sermons online because we want brothers in the church to speak to the local church, not some nebulous online audience.

I think communication is a two way event. Even if the audience is only in the mind of the speaker, it still shapes the communication. I wouldn't want every conversation with my family recorded and broadcast, and I feel a similar reluctance with my church family. When a church family studies God's word together, they influence each other just by their presence.

[RZehr]

There’s been a new interest at our church to refrain from putting sermons online. And we’ve not live-streamed, but discussed it, and it is getting the same pushback.