Dr Who has been summonsed in an attempt to ward off the imminent threat of extermination.
The Telegraph carried a story today about a conference which was held last week in order to revitalize the Church of England. Doctor Who has caught the attention of Anglican leaders, who are encouraging clergy to study the science fiction series to learn about its religious parallels.
The number of under-16s attending Church of England services fell by almost 20 per cent between 2000 and 2006, but the Church believes that improving communication can reverse that trend. Clergy have been urged to use examples from the programme in their sermons in an attempt to make Christianity more relevant to teenagers.
To an outsider looking it, the conference seemed to be missing two rather major points. The first is that the example chosen to be a way forward, the TV programme ‘Dr Who’, perfectly illustrates, rather than redeems, the problem. I suspect that the majority of the alienated teenagers the church might be wanting to attract are not, in fact, avid fans of middle-class, Prime Time TV series, which is known to appeal to mums as much as to a younger audience (especially since the successful casting of David Tennant as the Doctor). The notion that Dr Who is a way forward smacks of isolated thinking imagining what the alienated might want without ever really being close enough to them to really know.
While any by the church to attempt to communicate more effectively than it is at the moment is possibly a good thing, the second problem of the conference is that is focussing on techniques in the spoken and written word, it is only addressing the tip of the iceberg. The power in a lot of communication lies not so much in the words themselves, but in the non-verbal messages that accompany them, and these non-verbal messages are many, many times more effective than the words themselves.
Let me help the Anglican church leaders out by mentioning a few of the issues that need to be addressed if alienated teenagers and adults are likely to seriously stay or return to the fold. Let me suggest a few of the issues that are communicating very powerful non-verbal messages to many people.
- The Anglican church often communicates non-verbally that god can only be met in cold, antiquated buildings. Unless the church can create attractive and inviting physical environments, many people will prefer the warmth and comfort of their own homes.
- The Anglican church (like several others) often communicates non-verbally that god can only be introduced by people (mainly men) who wear strange clothing. This creates unnecessary cultural gaps for people to cross and need to be abandoned.
- The Anglican church often communicates non-verbally that in order to pray you must be a supporter of the Conservative Party, or at least middle-class, or at the very least a Telegraph reader. Jesus, in comparison, would be very much more at ease with the single mother who reads The Sun and who lives on a council estate. Until the church can do more to bridge that cultural divide it is doomed to continue to be a minority religion (despite its official church status).
- The Anglican church often communicates non-verbally that its main raison d’etre is the collection of money and the maintainence of church spires. Until it is more involved in practical community projects - housing, drug addiction, debt counselling etc. it is likely continue to be seen as irrelevant. I am reminded of the joke about people on a plane that was about the crash. Seeing a Vicar was on board the people pleaded with him to do ’something religious’ as they faced death. Presented with the challenge he immediately got a hat and started taking a collection.
- The Anglican church often communicates non-verbally that men are more important than women. Until it address the sexism in its structure, and in many of its members and employees, it will continue to alienate a lot of people.
- The Anglican church often communicates verbally and non-verbally that practising gay and lesbian people are spiritual failures. Until it addresses this discrimination it will continue to alienate a lot of people.
- The Anglican church often communicates verbally and non-verbally that divorcees are often spiritual failures. Given that these people represent a huge proportion of people who get married, until this message is changed, the church will continue to be seen in a negative light by many.
In the light of the above, the kind of illustrations used in your sermons are quite honestly the least of the problems facing clergy.
Excellent post. You said, “The notion that Dr Who is a way forward smacks of isolated thinking imagining what the alienated might want without ever really being close enough to them to really know.”
How right you are about this. All too often, Christians do their own guesswork and hypothesizing about what people want and need, and never bother to *gasp* go directly to the source and ask! The deacon learned this lesson years ago, when a non-Christian friend to whom he’d been witnessing looked him in the eye and said, “You’re answering questions I’m not asking.”
Your list of non-verbal messages is right on too. Our actions always speak louder than our words. Hip sermon illustrations won’t do any good if people don’t get inside the doors to hear them. And they won’t do any good if they don’t address the issues you raised, such as discrimination and navel-gazing in the place of service.
Excellent posting. Bullet points three and four are particulary powerful and relevant words which says it all for me.
Perhaps this is why the charamastic evangelical movement attracts more people, including the younger generation. More friendly, approachable and their services are hardly like stone in cold buildings. There is a lot of appeal there, until you step outside the box at any rate. I am thinking of your post of yesterday.
I wonder what the Doctor will make of all this. I am a fan of Dr Who and feel Dave Tennant has been the best Doctor yet and pretty handsome too,ooohhh!
Damn.
Yes, excellent post.
Dr Who indeed! Although I have to say that if my local priest/vicar looked like David Tennant I might be tempted to pop in occasionally.
It is a tricky business though to win people back. Particularly these days when people don’t really go out to do a lot at all - people are so much more home based what with internet, TV and computer games. Perhaps that is the market they should be exploring? Subliminal messages in the latest Nintendo DS games - they are marketing a whole lot of those at adults these days with their brain games and things. Perhaps there is a gap in the market?
I cannot think what would ever get me or anyone I know back into Church. It isn’t the cold places (although that doesn’t help), or the archaic feel to them (I actually quite like the sense of history and continuity that the Church provides, the feeling that we are doing now what people did years ago). I guess for me there is simply no relevance to my life or my way of thinking. And it does not help that I would encounter a lack of acceptance of my lifestyle (gay, female and divorced - oh dear!).
Reluctant Blogger
I would encounter a lack of acceptance of my lifestyle (gay, female and divorced - oh dear!). You might just about get by as a member of the Royal Family (and therefore Head of the Church of England) but I wouldn’t bother applying next time the Archbishopric of Canterbury becomes available.