Speaking to the Eye

Words, words, words. Note spoken, but written. Marketing firms have found ways to litter our visual fields with an array of slogans meant to elicit emotions and desires about products and services that will bring us closer to our (perceived) ideal lifestyle. While my husband and I were driving through metropolitan New England a few months ago, we commented how we eerily felt as though we were driving through words. Billboards layered haphazardly from buildings and frames, posters covering walls, digital screens projecting giant commercials made one’s mind feel as though it was unable to download the amount of information necessary to keep up with the ‘demands of the road.’ Every curve of the Massachusetts Turnpike was canvassed by a series of nouns to facilitate distinction, adjectives to arise desire, and verbs to encourage action. By the time we arrived at the university in Cambridge, our eyes and mind were desperate to see nothing.

So often our churches have become muddled with the same amount of visual clutter that plagues our streets, malls, and places of work. The church bulletins that were given out in our grandmother’s day may have simple, half page notes that expressed service times, the hymns to be song, births and deaths within the congregation, and the location of the spring pot-luck; however, many bulletins today serve as the church’s menu….or better yet, its resume. Photoshopped pictures of the pastors plaster every page; logos piled one on top of the other to promote everything from the youth camp to the baby dedication; to which countless hours and resources have been devoted to the forging of this thing which more often than not is read by only a handful, and discarded by all.

Escaping to the loo at my seminary I was horrified to be bombarded by three different advertisements taped to the back of the stall door. Being rather strapped to one’s placement in the 30” by 60” of space, I was forced to read about the upcoming Tea, the Beth Moore study to come, and the decline in tithing. Yes, church marketing has found its way into our potties.

We must ask ourselves if we are drowning our churches in the same media that bathes our highways and retail centers. Having an informed congregation is important, and staying relevant is equally essential, but we must become conscious of what we are projecting in the name of communication. I confess my affection for Photoshop, and my past position as a youth ministries publications and marketing director, but I had to find a balance. I realized that I spent more than eight hours a week writing and designing a publication that found sanctuary crumpled on the ground, rather than devoting time to publications of a spiritual and theological nature, let alone time with people who needed me.

It may be understood that words were given to us by the Father to lead others and ourselves into lines of communication Him, but often it seems we use words for everything but that purpose. When our words are no longer a reflection of divine translation, but rather become a means of communicating our interests, they lose their innocence and become as seductive and deceptive as the words that clutter the Massachusetts Turnpike.