 Hey, welcome back everyone to our second lecture on PC314 media and technology ministry. We're going to move forward. We had interesting discussion on chapter 4 earlier class. So let's move into chapter 5 now. We want to talk about the gathering place, how this has changed and what we are seeing and we'll discuss here again. I just want to kind of lead us to have a little discussion just for people to share their thoughts. So let's go back to Bible times. When the Lord Jesus ministered, let's talk about the New Testament times, things were revolving around the temple and the synagogue. So that used to be the place people used to gather and they would hear the reading of the scripture and sing psalms and hymns. That used to be they would bring their offerings and sacrifices and so on. Then the church was born, their preaching happened. You know, in the public, you know, from the upper room, you can imagine with Acts chapter 2 preaching from the upper room, it was all out on the street. Peter preached the gospel, people got saved and they were meeting in Solomon's court, which is a place in the temple where they were preaching and when Paul would go, he would typically go into the synagogue where the Jews would gather and he would try to present the message of Jesus and eventually, of course, the numbers have increased so much where people are meeting for house to house. So that's what we see in Acts chapter 2. People are meeting house to house, they had the big gathering, they came gathering in Solomon's porch, but they also had this house meetings. Just people gathering from house to house, sharing, praying, fellowshiping, having bread together, so on. So that continued for a long time and then we see the transition to these big church buildings and a lot of it took place around 400 AD. This was when the Emperor Shalman himself had an experience with Jesus. He began to support the church and so lands and buildings were built to promote Christianity as such and that's when all these big cathedrals, big buildings are coming. So that went on for many, many hundreds of years. Typical church building would be a big building with steeple and altar and all of those things. It was nice in one sense that there was a place for people to gather, there was a sense of awe and reverence, there was order and so on and as things moved on, somewhere in the early part of the 1950s when there were the 10 revivals and the big revivals of healing, the preaching in tents, the gospel was out, the gospel was being preached in 110s, it was being preached in the open fields, big crusade meetings and around that same time there was a transition from the people who were fine meeting in buildings that didn't look like typical church buildings. They would rent out halls, auditoriums, just regular places and meet there. So this shift happened I guess around the 1970s and so on. So you have a lot of teaching centers, world center, faith center, worship center, all these centers being established. Of course different names were given but that started happening and then from there as these centers grew, they would buy big lands, huge lands, big buildings and these buildings necessarily didn't look like the traditional church building. It was more like a big auditorium type, high-tech auditorium with all big screens and all those kinds of things. So the shift happened. You went from traditional church buildings to teaching centers. From teaching centers you went to these big auditoriums, gathering places that had all the high-tech things inside and then there was time. So again in the gathering place, try to imagine in the early church when people got together nobody had Bibles and nobody had books and song books, nothing. They just got together. Somebody had a scroll they could read but other everybody didn't have. It preached the message and they would sing songs that they had learned in a communal way. Then came these church buildings where then slowly with the printing press and all we had hymn books or song books and everybody had a hymn and we could sing together because it helped but that became focus and then as the teaching centers started developing those days there were the overhead protectors. So there was a shift moving away from everybody holding a hymn book to people looking at something projected on the screen. Of course the benefit was everybody could lift hands, their hands were free, they could lift hands, they could clap hands, they could express more and then you come into these big auditoriums these days where you have LED screens, you have Power Point, very very engaging audio visuals. So it's almost like you're entering a movie theater or something you know you have all these big screens and okay it has its advantages because now you can not only hear the preaching of the word, you can see visuals, you can see the lyrics and all of those things it has an advantage but that's you know what we're seeing these days and if you go to this website, Stage Design Ideas, we go there and you look at all the different kinds of what's happening on stage you know. So before there was some sacredness, an altar space from where the preacher would preach and there was a sacred place where prayer from which prayer would be made. Now that space has changed so much it's you know it has lighting and instruments, it has all kinds of designs you know. So things have changed so much from the places where people gather and then again that's a very drastic change when technology came in and we are talking about media and technology and media technology now began to have a part in this whole service. So now the service could actually be streamed live to other locations you know. So people started or churches, pastors, it's happening all of the world, they started having satellite locations. Now most probably a part of this also started from the tent revival. So I think the first person to do this at least in known history was Oral Roberts where when he had his tent meetings, he had the first person to use cameras in his tent meetings and it would go live on television so that people around the United States could actually participate in what was happening in that healing crusade, revival under the tent. So he kind of pioneered that and that came into the Sunday morning service where of course the Sunday morning service would go live on radio and then later on live on television. So people would sit at home and watch the Sunday service and then with the internet and Yonge Cho used that pretty well. So in the mid 1960s or I think in the 1970s, Yonge Cho in Seoul, Korea set up one location. He actually connected many locations through television, TV monitors. So this is how he could have thousands of people listening to him preach. So he used it very well and they had many other locations and he was kind of pioneered the replication of Sunday service and from one location to other locations. Now his, the motivation there was because everybody couldn't fit into one auditorium, they had multiple auditoriums and these were connected by television and people would watch in the other auditoriums but they all came at the same time and they participated and then with the internet churches began to stream live and open branches in other places. I mean it doesn't have to be in the same vicinity, it doesn't have to be in the same city, it could be in the city or it could be in other cities. So the pastor is preaching in one place, they have a congregation there, that same message is streamed live to maybe two, three, four other locations, people are there and the satellite churches are there and people are participating or listening to the same pastor, the same message in other cities, sometimes in other parts of the world. So you have these live streamed satellite churches. Then along with that, and especially during the pandemic and even before that actually, people started connecting to services online from home because now technology everything was very easily available, you can sit at home, connect your laptop, you watch the service at home and so people started forming these groups or home groups or church groups and homes and so on. And it's happening all over the world but some of the churches that are using it a lot, I've just mentioned here, Life Church I think is probably the biggest number, in terms of number of churches that are satellite churches and live streamed churches connected. So they probably are the largest maybe in terms of numbers. There's Elevation Church, again based in North America, this Kingdom City, they're from Australia and they're spread across in different countries so that's very interesting because they connect across countries as well. So the whole thing has changed so much where the pastor is preaching one place and people are sitting in other parts of the world connected to that service, listening and so on. And there are pros and cons to all of this. So I want us to think about what is the good and the bad and what should be avoided. Okay, technology has come, media has come, there's become part of the church service which in Bible times they didn't have, even 700 years ago they didn't have it. And here we are in a day and time when media technology is so much part of a church service, so much part of a church ministry and we are reaching globally, wonderful. We are able to reach many people in many parts of the world, other languages, so it's wonderful. But you know, what are the pros and the cons? We shouldn't forget that there could be downsides to all of this and also what are some of the things we must avoid? So in what is happening in today's contemporary church, in the way people are gathering and the way people are being connected through technology, media technology, what are the pros and cons? What is the good and the bad and what are some of the things we should try to address and avoid is something I would like to hear, we can discuss and share our thoughts. So please feel free, just like we did in the last chapter, share your thoughts on how media technology has affected and changed the way we gather and the way we worship together, your thoughts on it. One of the things I can think of is, so even though we are able to reach many people who does not even have access to a church, physical church, but it has also given rise to a celebrity culture and that is quite dangerous and there's no one to correct in that area. People fall prey to that and it has been seen in many areas. Yeah, that is one thing in church, it's wonderful. The celebrity culture, that is so true and I don't know why that has happened where on the one hand it's a good thing that if one church is able to stream live and go to many places, but I don't know why in the result the past has become such a celebrity, but it has happened and what you're saying is true. And we have to be careful, important point. Please feel free to share anyone else, how media and technology has affected the gathering place, the way people gather and worship together. Go ahead, Tanya. Thank you, Mr. I think we started seeing a lot of changes with the pandemic happening. I hear like people saying church is not a building, it is the people that make the body of Christ at the same time. At what it says in Hebrews 1025, like we need to gather, we need to spur each other and encourage all those aspects of fellowship who's really being missed, I would say. Yes, there is scope of some kind of fellowship, especially during COVID times, I remember like people from different locations, they could come in a Zoom meeting. There are of course many ministries that cropped up during those times. So people from different locations could join together and there is fellowship. Yes, especially in Zoom meetings, I would say like small groups, but there's no tangible fellowship. Like you don't really see and experience what the other person is going through and all that. Also, the other thing that is I feel is an advantage of such online services and all that is those who do not have access like old people or disabled people who really they want to attend the service are able to at least attend an online service. So that's good in a way. Another thing which I could think of would be missing is mentoring part of the discipleship that needs to happen would not happen if we are doing the online and using media mostly for these things. Yeah, these are some things I feel. Good, thank you for sharing that. Anything else? How media and technologies affected the way we gather, the way we worship together, fellowship together? Is it good and what should we be careful about? So about satellite churches. So is it like the pastor just live streams the same pastor speaks everywhere even though he's not there? Is it like that? I just want to know about Yeah, so that is what actually that's what happens. That means you can imagine, for example, the main church or we call the home church would be in Muncidhi and then they would have at that same time churches and many other congregations in many of the cities. Now, many times they would have a they call them a campus pastor. So they would have a campus pastor in those places. But when so and they may have a local worship team. So they'll all start worship at the same time. And exactly when the pastor starts preaching in the main church, he comes on the screen, he's on screen in all the other locations. So everybody's hearing the same message from the same pastor in all these satellite churches. And, you know, there are big numbers. So that for whatever reason people don't mind it. They're hearing the same message. And these things are happening. It's going well, you know. So that was that's happening. And some of them are even across continents. And I think the technology some amazing things, especially what I saw Kingdom City Church do during COVID times, you know, they would actually have worship teams. There'd be one worship in Australia, one in Malaysia, one say some other part of the world, three different worship teams, different parts of the world and they blend the worship. So it's amazing. It was really amazing how they would do it with technology. So anybody watching, it's like as though these three teams are on the same stage, but actually the three teams are in three different parts of the world. And but they're all it's through technology when they see on the screen, it looks like they're all standing on the stage and people are worshiping, you know, in those auditoriums. They're all in different parts of the world, but they're actually it seems like they're worshiping with the same worship team, but it's actually in different parts of the world. And then the preacher preachers and it, you know, so amazing things are being done with the help of media and technology in the way the worship experience is happening. But like if you pointed out, we have to think about, you know, fellowship life-to-life relationship, all those, you know, the mentoring, so on. Then there are positive things, you know, like people cannot go to church, definitely benefit. So there are good things, but there are also the other things to think about. And then like John pointed out, in some cases, I'm not saying it happens every time, but in some cases, the pastor becomes like a big celebrity, you know, and that kind of draws a crowd, but also the attention is on one man. So I just thought here, one of the things that we've decided, you know, when we, in our own journey as a church, you know, when we were opening up our branch churches, we could have used technology, that means just like what we're doing, we could live stream from one location to the other and, you know, tell people what's the main, what's the service on screen, etc. We could do that. But one of the things we made a decision and we had a lot of discussion, you know, in our personal team leaders, you know, we had discussions and we felt that we will not live stream the main service into other satellite locations, other campuses. Instead, every campus will have its own worship team, its own teams, its own pastor. We will preach the same message, we're sharing the same word, but each pastor is preaching and caring for the congregation. And we felt that doing this would help us nurture many, many pastors at the same time, because, you know, you're actually doing the work, you're actually ministering, you're actually preaching it. And so it'll help us nurture many leaders. It'll also keep the attention off of one main pastor. Yes, there is a senior pastor is leading us and all that, but the attention is not on that one person, every congregation has its own pastor taking care of them. Only if we reach a point where there is a congregation, but we don't, they're not able to appoint a pastor, then okay, our next best option is okay to stream into that place. But that's only if we are not able to send somebody physically to minister, then that is when they will use the, you know, the livestream. Otherwise, let's send somebody physically, let's have somebody physically ministering, because we look at it as an opportunity to nurture up more and more leaders. The more they preach and teach, the better they become. So that's kind of a decision we made earlier on when we had these discussions, when we saw other churches doing livestream, and that was our approach. I'm not against churches that are doing livestreaming of satellite church, that's their choice, it's fine. We chose to take this approach, which is what we are doing and following. And we want to plant more churches, but with real people who are fast playing and leading those congregations. Any other thoughts on this, on the gathering place and how things have changed? What are the pros and cons? One of the things that we have also seen, okay, so I see John Paul's comment, I think we should be careful about our conduct, our personality on screen, live stream and real life. Yeah, so this should be consistent. Who we are on screen should be connected, or should be the same as who we are off the screen. I think that's what John is telling. Yeah. Thank you, John. So what I want to say was one of the things that we have seen is is that in the case of where one pastor is being streamed into many satellite churches, if something happened to that one pastor, maybe there's a moral failure or something, it immediately impacts all the satellite churches immediately. And that has been observed in these satellite churches, because everybody's listening to the same one pastor, all the churches are connected. While there are benefits, the negative is if something happens here, every church, every satellite church is affected. It's very difficult. I'm not saying everything has to shut down. It's difficult to sustain once the impact has happened. So that's something to keep in mind. I see Divya's comment on how home churches are coming was result of lack of in-person church services. Yes, so home churches are being established wherever they're in-person churches, larger congregations would not relax home churches. Good. Okay. If there are no more comments, we will move to the next chapter. Anybody else wants to say anything about this? Any observations? Any thoughts? Okay. Let's move to the next chapter, which is how worship has changed over time with technology, media technology, and so on. So let's just think about it. And again, here we'll have a little discussion at the end. So if you follow worship starting from the Old Testament times on, in the Old Testament, obviously, you know, one of the earliest recorded instances there, but you know, after Israel, they cross the Red Sea, they are prophesying, they're dancing with Timbrel, celebrating worshiping God. And then of course, worship took place in the Tabernacle. They would come and offer sacrifices. Then there was a physical building temple. Solomon's temple was built and we see amazing, you know, worship happening, especially in the Tabernacle and thereafter in the temple. In the Tabernacle, David appointed musicians and singers, big number. I think he had about 200 worship leaders, musicians, several thousand singers and worshipers and people who pray. So especially in David's time, in the Tabernacle, worship was happening and for 33 years, it went on non-stop, 24-7 worship. So I imagine all of that was happening without hymn books, without songbooks, without PowerPoint, without projection, nothing. It was happening. So think about it. A lot of it had to be spontaneous, spirit-inspired worship, 24-7 worship and prayer going on in the Tabernacle without any of these things that we have today. We come into the New Testament, worship, we see worship again continuing in Synagogue, the early church, the Apostle Paul tells us, you know, to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, sing and make melody in our heart to the Lord. So worship was going on. A lot of it was very spontaneous without any of the things that we have today. And then formal church organ music around 780, the organ came in, then worship the Roman Catholic Church became kind of a, it's referred to as a Gregorian chant, where the priests would say something and the congregation responds. So that kind of, that kind of a responsive chant type of worship was going on around 800 AD in the primary Catholic Church. Then in the 15th, 1516th century, just right after the Reformation began, Martin Luther, Calvin, they had their own opinions about congregational worship. Martin Luther, John Calvin wanted to include words of the people, whereas Martin Luther wanted songs or hymns to reflect words of scripture. All right, so you're not exactly quoting the words of the Bible, but you're expressing what is in scripture. So they had different positions, but both encouraged the writing of hymns that were very word focused. One wanted to use the actual words of the Bible. One said it's okay to represent what the Bible says or express what the Bible says. Fine, fine. But the good thing was both wanted to keep the songs and the hymns focused on the Word of God. And that gave birth to amazing hymns, which we, many of the hymns, we keep singing even today, which are so full of the Word of God. And thank God for these people who emphasize that, keep your hymns based on the Word of God or include the Word of God in your hymns. The German composer, Johann Sebastian Bach, he was greatly influenced by Martin Luther and he tried, very interesting. He tried to include scripture in his music, in his cantatas. He was given a task in mind to compose a cantata every week using Bible verses. That was his responsibility using Bible, using scripture, compose a cantata for the Sunday service. And so music then became a very powerful expression of scripture, which was very good, you know, that the focus was on the Word of God to be sung in hymns or put into music. In the revivals that took place, some of these were global movements, songs which would be choruses, a lot of small, small, simple choruses were being written, you know, so not just hymns now were, these are spiritual songs, songs that express what God was doing, calling people to awaken, so on. 1900s with the revivals that began to take place, again, both the Beersuzes Street Revival, the Revival in Wales and other parts of the world, we had a lot of gospel music, gospel choir happening and so on. So all of what we can say is, still this point, a lot of it was scripture and so on, but something shifted around the 1970s. And yeah, so you know, I'm not saying it was bad, but this is the change that happened. In the 1970s, in America, especially on the West Coast, so what happened was, there was a cultural revolution around that time and there was the hippie movement of it. A lot of the young people got into drugs and they just basically stepped out of society, just against society and so on. But there was a move of God amongst those people and they got sick. So you can imagine people coming out of drugs and the kind of music that was there, the rock and roll music, coming out of that, getting sick. A pastor who was very instrumental in reaching those people was Pastor Chuck Smith, who was the founding pastor of Calvary Chapel, Calvary Chapel, spread around the US, but he was on the West Coast of the United States, was reaching these people, these people got saved and eventually he found, it all started in his house and eventually he formed Calvary Chapel, but the thing was these people who got sent, they didn't want to sing the hymns and the choruses that the church was singing up until that time. They wanted rock music, the drums, the guitar and all of that. So it was in that situation where we had this Christian rock. So they brought that style of music into the church and they started writing songs that fit into that style of music and Christian rock music came into existence around that time and Pastor Chuck Smith welcomed it. The traditional churches would not welcome, they would not accept drums and guitars and those kinds of instruments being played and so now of course the logic there was Pastor Chuck Smith saying, this is the way they like to worship, they want to sing, fine. As long as they're getting saved, they're coming out of the drugs and the hippie culture and they're coming to Jesus, it's fine. And there was a man, Larry Norman and you will find some of his YouTube videos and songs that he wrote. In one song he wrote, why should the world have all the good music? I think that was it. That was the title of the song. The whole thing was, I mean the Christian rock, you can listen to some of Larry Norman's song but he's considered the pioneer of Christian rock and you can listen to some of his songs. It's not necessarily chapter and verse, it's more of feelings. This is what I feel and this is expression of ideas and thoughts in that very, very, very vibrant type of music which and some of it you could say was an expression of scripture and not all of it. So there was a big shift that happened and out of that what we call as contemporary Christian music was formed or came out in the 1980s subsequently, vineyard churches, vineyard music came out with their songs but it's taking this whole more Christian rock music to another level trying to bring in writing contemporary songs, expressing feelings and thoughts and of course there was some amount of the word and scripture and so on, worship and so on. Then we have other you know songs that came out in the 1990s, Integrity, Hosanna, Hosanna Integrity Hillsong, other Christian bands in the 2000s again lots, lots, lots of different Christian bands, Christian artists and so on. So we've gone from worship without any support, no books, no hymn books, no bibles, I mean no song books, it was more spontaneous. We've gone from there to today where there is so much of you know instruments and all kinds of things that are happening in the music, Christian music world where sometimes it almost seems like entertainment like if you have these big concerts and all of that, stadiums are packed with thousands of people and Christian worship bands are performing and sometimes it's genuine worship, sometimes it seems like entertainment with so much of instruments and all kinds of things involved, lights and screen and so on and when you think about the words, the contents, you know you've gone from people like John Calvin and Martin Luther who emphasized God's Word to be put into song or put into music to today where sometimes you wonder what is the Word in this song, what is the theology in the song, you know, so we go this song, so I'm not saying everything is bad but this is where we are, so we've got to think about this, you know, the contemporary Christian music, what is the good, what is the bad, what are the things we need to be careful of, can be, I know we just have about 10 minutes, it may not be enough for discussion but I just want to open up and let us share our thoughts on what we are seeing in the world of Christian worship, Christian music, which is primarily to worship God and of course songs can encourage and edify one another which the New Testament teaches us to do, to speak to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to build each other through song but what are your thoughts, what are your reflections, what is good, what are things, not good, what are things we have to be careful about, we just love to hear, go ahead, go ahead. Thank you Pastor, yes we see like worship, the style of worship, the content of the songs all have changed over time and mainly I was thinking of most like majority, I won't say the whole of it but majority of the songs nowadays are very feeling based, focus more on you know the self rather than towards God but there are of course good songs that talk about the nature of God and have scripture songs, scripture into the songs, yeah so yeah I think that there is a season in every believer's life where they need certain aspects of this but as we grow I think it's more of what Jesus was saying in John 4-24 like the worship need to be in spirit and truth so more of scripture and more of pointing towards God, spiritful worship should be something that we need to you know that should be kind of a filter to know what kinds of songs we need to listen to because maybe the focus is not on the right places in some of those songs, yeah so we need to be careful because what we hear influences us. Can you hear me? Yeah so I just think that worship should become ministry the perspective of why they sing, I don't see sometimes it's not about just singing, just playing some random music such as doing it as a culture but they should also understand it's not just it's a ministry it's the way we show God and I also think cultural context must be taken care of in some of these things because contemporary music it just depends on where we are worshiping sometimes so when I go back to my place they still stick to hymns they still do that and in some churches they don't but I think yeah that ultimately it's all about being led by the spirit not support the hymns or the phantom brady ones but it's good to take just to have a little look on how people have been built all these days and to just help them to grow in that way suddenly if you I've seen people come to the church and suddenly they start singing the contemporary songs people get offended by it people they feel like it's it's not right it's you're going in the way of the world we can help them understand slowly little by little through the teaching that it's not like that but I think sometimes it's better to take the cultural even into context because we don't want people to speak something different through the time while we are well our intentions are to make them worship God and even the hymns are good the the the rakes they haven't done are actually good but sometimes I feel like even hymns become just like an order of the church not like especially for ministry time it just becomes a pattern that the church follows like four hymns a day when we start when we end there's a hymn and then in between two hymns for the offering and then and then that's it that's that's what they consider us worship time so that's I think the intention the motive has to be right that's what that's what I believe there should be a vision even for the people who are in the in the worship team in the worship ministry that the time should be a time where they get the people get closer to God that's what I believe yeah thank you thank you okay I see John Paul's comments the pros being able to worship freely some songs come from a place of revelation from God's word which identifies a church on the phone some of the negatives sometimes we move away from God's word and yeah like this just become focused on emotions sometimes the focus is on winning awards creating celebrities sometimes the light and the smoke the production itself yeah it takes away the heart of true these are true valid things you know valid points which we have to be careful of today you know because we've got all media and all of this thing which are tools for us to use but we cannot let these tools lights and media and the production cannot make that the focus worship is towards God we glorify God it should be based on scripture it should enable us to express our heart and yes there is feeling involved there is emotion and it should also identify when it's directed towards others identify the believers as well so I think we you know while we are grateful to God for you know all that we enjoyed today in terms of media and technology and the contemporary expressions one we don't want to lose the beautiful hymns wonderful hymns that were written and passed but because they were based on the word they continue they're still very valuable we still sing them we shouldn't lose that and we must also keep our focus that worship is for God unto God and we shouldn't get distracted by all of all these other things that happen when we use the tools that we have right so as we journey forward you know we must be aware and nowadays we can you know you can go to ai tools and tell it to write a song and write a song for you in in a minute you say write a song about this and it'll write a song you know you can go to chat tpd and tell it right so that's another big issue now you know who's going to write the song is it a person inspired by the Holy Spirit or is it some ai tool that can write songs and divya says even sermons and all that so i have to you know the god has called us to worship him tools are there tools are there yeah yeah people have access to tools that being should know when and how to use them correctly without losing focus okay let's pause here for today thank you for participating thank you for sharing your thoughts will pick things up next week move forward but somebody please close and pray and then leave a distance let's pray father almighty god in the name of jesus we thank you for today we thank you for your word we thank you for these lessons that have made us to learn a lot about worship father king of glorious we move into the new era for the suck all the instruments that we shall be using in churches lord god so that we are not diverted from the true worship and into the worships of idol into worship for emotion and self and the promotion of the self we pray that later Holy Spirit be the one always to guide us we pray and declare all this in Jesus name we have prayed amen thank you everyone have a wonderful rest of the day i'll connect again so God bless bye now