I mentioned previously in my posts about the Taxonomy of Emergence that I was reading The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture by Shane Hipps. I want to spend a few posts blogging about this book, because this is one of those fascinating reads that puts words to things that you've long suspected but couldn't articulate while also challenging you to significantly rethink some assumptions that you may not have realized that you've held.

The premise of the book follows largely Marshall McLuhan's famous dictum, The medium is the message. In other words, media are not value-neutral. The form in which we present a message influences the content and meaning of that message. In the author's own words:

To perceive media and technology with both eyes open, we cannot simply list the various benefits and liabilities of all new and existing media in hopes of understanding their power and meaning. Instead, the task before us requires an entirely different approach to analyzing media, recognizing them not simply as conduits or pipelines (i.e., neutral purveyors of information), but rather as dynamic forces with the power to shape us, regardless of content. Such an approach invites us to ask different questions, better questions, and moves us beyond the oversimplified but common belief that media forms can be deemed good or bad based on how they are used...It is imperative that we move beyond this paradigm and realize that our forms of media and technology are primary forces that cause changes in our philosophy, theology, culture, and ultimately the way we do church.

This is such a significant question for anyone wanting to approach our present context from a missional perspective. Over the next few posts, I want to discuss the basic framework that the author proposes in which such questions can be approached, examine some of the ways in which this framework can both encourage us and also help us to rethink some assumptions about ministry in a technologically saturated culture, and finally, offer a few additional thoughts that Shane has graciously provided on the subject.

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