“The Medium is the Message”

Something that I have been working through lately is the concept that “The Medium is the Message” I’m going to post more about it on Monday but here’s a quick post. Marshall McLuhan wrote the book “Understanding Media” back in the 60′s. He was way ahead of his time with his understanding of what the impact media would have on society and how it would drive and shape culture. Take the current church as an example. In Western Chrisendom (especially in Southern California) we are constantly looking for new ways to be efficient and effective. We use marketing tools such as Constant Contact to make our e-mail simplier and to track it better. But, in doing that we tend to move away from face to face dialogue, phone calls and personal interaction. We also make the statement that if you have a computer and accesss to the internet you are somehow more valuable (or at least more in-the-know) to our ministry. Our message is that efficiency in what we do and in what you do is a high value. But, haven’t we lost something there. I’m working through this idea and more of an analysis of how the Church interacts with pop media in the form of the written word this semester for my D.Min. Stay tuned for more good stuff. (or at least I think its good) Ironic don’t you think that I’m talking about the Media being the message and then I’m posting it on a blog. But, if you comment something is working right?