Modern Technology
My friend Josh asked me a while back, "What does the Church need from filmmakers/media producers? In light of the simplicity of the gospel and the need to teach just it and nothing more, what can the media producer do to help the Church do its work?"
That is pretty much the question I've been wrestling with for years.
[2005] Around the time I began college, I was on the "Church marketing sucks" train. There was a whole lot of talk both on and offline about how "The Church has the best message in the world but the worst marketing, we have to do better at marketing and stay relevant to culture!"
[2010] Around the time I finished college, I was on the "Media is too modern and flashy and techy and maybe it doesn't belong in the Church at all" train. I had become cynical of slick video editing and light shows and attempts to "stay relevant."
[2015] Now, I think the pendulum of those two swings is finally reaching some equilibrium as to the Collins' place as filmmakers/media producers helping the Church do its work. We have a lifetime ahead of us to grow in this craft, and there has been and will be plenty of mistakes to learn from. But I think what God has been teaching me is that it's the Spirit of the thing, not the letter.
Poorly-produced Church-, gospel-, and missions-media used to make me auto-cringe to the point where I couldn't even pay attention to the story being told. Because I was aware of what good camerawork and editing looks like, I judged such media without giving it a chance. And excellently-produced media used to make me celebrate, "Take that, badly-made media! This is how it should be done!" But I still wasn't really paying attention to those stories being told either. I was paying attention to the professionalism of the production.
But nowadays, even with poor production, if I care to try to see what a person behind a piece of media is trying to say, it is evident when the Spirit is present in their work. And if the Spirit is present, that is enough. Christy and I do want to bring our skills and talents and degrees to contribute to the vehicle of media communication with a standard of excellence, but that is no longer the priority to me. If the Spirit is present, we can trust that what needs to be communicated will be communicated.
We were sharing the heart of Wild Bridge Films with our pastor, Andrew, last fall and I was also lamenting about how the modern technology of it all is hard to reconcile with the simplicity of the gospel. He reminded us, hey, technology is always progressing and the fact that it's "new and modern" does not make it bad. Writing was at one time a "new and modern" technology. Media/filmmaking as a vehicle for communication absolutely has its place within the Church.
And so the filmmaking aspect of our overseas journey will settle into equilibrium as well. For all I know, the picture we have in our heads of what the film(s) will look like may totally be turned on its head. I don't think the heart of what we're doing will change, our heart to capture the common thread of Jesus' transforming work in people's lives in varying cultures. But what we think it's going to look like very well might.
Our friend Kim told us the other night, "This trip isn't just for you guys! You can't just go and have all your experiences and keep them to yourselves. You have to share them. I need this. The Church needs this." We are so thankful for encouragement like this, because even though using technology can come with a lot of distractions, it is a helpful reminder that modern filmmaking is a tool that can be used to share stories and connect humans from across seas in ways unthinkable even a decade ago. â€
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