What Walt Disney Taught Me About Preaching
You guys know that I like to read. But I am not one who reads just for the sake of reading. If a book is poorly written or just doesn’t hold my interest I’ll put it down for good. I have read some of nearly all the books in my library, there’s over 1,000, but I’ve read less than half of those in there entirety. (Yawn, I know, but hold on I’m going somewhere with this.) Of the five or six books I’m reading now, there is one that is taking most of my time. It is the biography of Walt Disney. It’s no Mickey Mouse to read either at over 700 pages. I have read many biographies and find almost all of them to be interesting. This one goes beyond interest to fascination. What an unusual man! He was never satisfied with anything he ever did. He was often brutal with his employees. His family life was strained by his long hours and compulsion to create something new. But with all those negative qualities, kids loved him and he became almost a grandfather figure to millions. The thing that fascinates me most about Disney was his ability to shape culture or at least recognize change when before anyone else. He was the first to make a full length animated feature. He pioneered color movies and television. He created the first visually stimulating amusement park that created a new genre of entertainment, the theme park. First there was Disneyland then came Disneyworld. Walt Disney, as much as anyone else I know, led us into a new era of communication.
For centuries people shared family, national, and cultural information through the spoken word. There were no scrapbooks or photo albums to pass along to the kids. Instead people sat their children down and shared stories of their past that had been shared with them by their parents. Added to this were their own stories to bring the family history up to the present. This process repeated itself generation after generation until entire cultures had a collection of stories that were unique to their own experience. Then with the invention of the printing press the world began to slowly evolve to the written word as the vehicle to pass one generation's stories on to the next. The problem was that the stories now became impersonal. They were recorded by someone you didn’t know about someone you had never met. This was the beginning of kids hating to study history. No self-respecting son or daughter would ask mom or dad to read from a history book as a reward for going to bed on time. Not as they had begged to hear stories from grandma or grandpa about the time they wrestled a bear for supper. Then with the dawning of the technological revolution, of which Disney was a pioneer, something strange happened. Words began to be replaced with pictures. First black-and-white still photos, then black-and-white moving pictures, followed by black-and-white moving pictures with words, next came color moving pictures with words, then color TV’s in homes, now Ipods with pictures… Who knows where this is going to end.
Way back when Walt Disney knew this day was coming. He knew someday that a picture would be worth a thousand words. Just think if you have gone to one of his theme parks what emphasis is put on the visual stimulation of the mind. The moment you walk through the gates you are bombarded with scenes of fantasy, the past, the present and the future. Note even how commercials on TV have changed. It’s mostly imagery and little facts. How many automobiles are sold because of legroom anymore? Most car commercials have only fleeting images of the car itself. Often the fleeting image is more appealing to the potential customer than the car itself. Ok so I have rambled on for a while. By now you either get my point or you don’t. And you’re wondering, “What has this got to do with anything spiritual?” I’m getting to that. Why is it that the entire world has been in the age of the visual for at least two generations, maybe more if you believe as I do that generations barely last a decade anymore, and the church is still clinging to the past? Why do church buildings often end up being devoid of art and color? Why is drama tolerated instead of celebrated in worship? Why do preachers hide behind pulpits and criticize creative use of visuals by those who don’t? If we are visual learners why don’t we teach the most important life lessons with captivating object lessons? For those who say we should return to the teaching methods of Jesus I say “AMEN”. Jesus pointed at a flower and said, “Consider the lilies…” He cursed a fig tree and later came back and told why. He walked on water to prove that you could do the impossible. He helped a child into his arms and said, “The kingdom is for people like this child.” He described the difficulty of a camel going through the eye of a needle, perhaps while holding one in the sun for all to see, to explain how to obtain eternal life. I could go on and on. Jesus was a visual teacher. So yes, let’s get back to teaching like Jesus. I can think of no better way to serve the creator than by being creative. If I don’t see you Sunday I’ll see you around the throne.
In His Shadow,
Pastor Ken
For centuries people shared family, national, and cultural information through the spoken word. There were no scrapbooks or photo albums to pass along to the kids. Instead people sat their children down and shared stories of their past that had been shared with them by their parents. Added to this were their own stories to bring the family history up to the present. This process repeated itself generation after generation until entire cultures had a collection of stories that were unique to their own experience. Then with the invention of the printing press the world began to slowly evolve to the written word as the vehicle to pass one generation's stories on to the next. The problem was that the stories now became impersonal. They were recorded by someone you didn’t know about someone you had never met. This was the beginning of kids hating to study history. No self-respecting son or daughter would ask mom or dad to read from a history book as a reward for going to bed on time. Not as they had begged to hear stories from grandma or grandpa about the time they wrestled a bear for supper. Then with the dawning of the technological revolution, of which Disney was a pioneer, something strange happened. Words began to be replaced with pictures. First black-and-white still photos, then black-and-white moving pictures, followed by black-and-white moving pictures with words, next came color moving pictures with words, then color TV’s in homes, now Ipods with pictures… Who knows where this is going to end.
Way back when Walt Disney knew this day was coming. He knew someday that a picture would be worth a thousand words. Just think if you have gone to one of his theme parks what emphasis is put on the visual stimulation of the mind. The moment you walk through the gates you are bombarded with scenes of fantasy, the past, the present and the future. Note even how commercials on TV have changed. It’s mostly imagery and little facts. How many automobiles are sold because of legroom anymore? Most car commercials have only fleeting images of the car itself. Often the fleeting image is more appealing to the potential customer than the car itself. Ok so I have rambled on for a while. By now you either get my point or you don’t. And you’re wondering, “What has this got to do with anything spiritual?” I’m getting to that. Why is it that the entire world has been in the age of the visual for at least two generations, maybe more if you believe as I do that generations barely last a decade anymore, and the church is still clinging to the past? Why do church buildings often end up being devoid of art and color? Why is drama tolerated instead of celebrated in worship? Why do preachers hide behind pulpits and criticize creative use of visuals by those who don’t? If we are visual learners why don’t we teach the most important life lessons with captivating object lessons? For those who say we should return to the teaching methods of Jesus I say “AMEN”. Jesus pointed at a flower and said, “Consider the lilies…” He cursed a fig tree and later came back and told why. He walked on water to prove that you could do the impossible. He helped a child into his arms and said, “The kingdom is for people like this child.” He described the difficulty of a camel going through the eye of a needle, perhaps while holding one in the sun for all to see, to explain how to obtain eternal life. I could go on and on. Jesus was a visual teacher. So yes, let’s get back to teaching like Jesus. I can think of no better way to serve the creator than by being creative. If I don’t see you Sunday I’ll see you around the throne.
In His Shadow,
Pastor Ken
posted by Pastor Ken at 6:23 AM
<< Home