The Archbishop of Canterbury does YouTube

I confess. When I first read this I burst out laughing, which is definitely not the response the Church of England is looking for with its Fresh Perspectives Initiative.

The video-sharing website most used for pop promotions, film trailers and personal “vidcasts”, is set to become the next tool in the Church of England’s battle to curb declining attendances.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is planning to use the site to broadcast his sermons in an attempt to make the Church more relevant to the internet generation.

A video will also be put on YouTube later this month urging other churches to advertise the contemporary style of their services and suggesting ideas introduced under the Fresh Expressions initiative, which was set up by Rowan Williams.

What got me laughing was the idea -

“The potential of YouTube is enormous,” a Lambeth Palace spokesman said. “It provides limitless access to what any minister has to say. You have to preach where people are listening.”

YouTube is enormous – it is changing how content is delivered, and I actually think providing the Archbishop’s sermons online so they can be seen is a good idea. It’s good for researchers, good for people who missed the sermon and actually want to hear it.

So why am I laughing?
I don’t know.
I’m not a sermon person, I don’t download podcasts,  I don’t watch church on TV, if I am in a pew and the sermon starts I blank out, which has to be a terrible insult to all my ordained friends.
I hate getting preached to.
I don’t mind being taught.
I don’t know why sermons rarely help me learn, they seem to sail over my head.
There is an art to preaching, I get that, and I know Rowan Williams is academically brilliant and I learn a great deal from him, but…

Using YouTube is taking the sermon to the people, a step past text. Like radio. Or TV.  Politicians have embraced YouTube, of course. In the scramble to be seen as less ‘top down’, power people think YouTube is cool.

I don’t know if sermons will translate well on YouTube. 
Given how ministers have embraced blogging and podcasting, this is just the next step. It’s not going to cost the Archbishop much really, just a bit of time, and maybe a bruised ego. YouTube is as welcoming to Archbishops as it is to actors, it is still a great equalizer because of how the content is delivered.
The article tends to portray the concept in terms of numbers and is literally aimed at a demographic supposedly ’lost’ to the Anglican church, I don’t feel too guilty about laughing.

Whether ‘teenagers’ click over because this is a ‘relevant’ decision remains to be seen.
If I can remember I’ll pop over to YouTube when the Archbishop has a sermon is up and have a look.

Meantime, Real Live Preacher has been there.
He has a series up on how to read the bible for people that don’t know how to read the bible.
Which is most of us. 
The good part about his seven/eight part series is that each segment is blessedly short.
Definitely not crammed down your throat sermons and definitely none of the sub-language of the US pew crowd.
He recommends books to read on how to read the bible, which is a resourceful way of crossing mediums.  He is himself, and has learned and earned the intimacy of the internet the hard way. Worth a listen.

via Jordon Cooper
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jonnybaker