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I am the student minister at a church in Saint Charles. I lead the team and work primarily with High school department. I love to teach and simply being with students. I hope you enjoy the thoughts that I have expressed and I look forward to hearing your opions.

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cautions with media

April 15th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under
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I remember several years ago I made the mistake of a lifetime. Actually, my tech guys did, always blame them it makes you feel better. I don’t remember what the point of the message was but I was using a clip from the movie back draft. It was near the end when they were up on the roof and they were arguing with each other. It would have been a great illustration except it went about 10 seconds too far and then all of a sudden one we heard the “f-bomb.” What happened from there was night mare for me. I was stuck calling the parents of every student in the room, whom of which for the most part thought it was funny that i was calling them and making such a big deal about the whole thing.

I would like to share with you some thoughts that I have when it comes to choosing our media to use during our program times. Here they are:

1. Read the reviews - often this is the first place that i will go when i am reviewing media. It gives me a good look at what the issues are and often leads me in an understanding of what message is being shared. It can save you a lot of work.

2. Be Selective - it is so easy to use a clip based off someone else’s opinion or ideas and never actually sit down and view the movie ourselves. We need to watch an entire movie if we are going to be showing just a clip. It will help us in our preparation as well as give us a full understanding of what is being communicated through the movie. Sometimes there are clips that would really communicate a point well but when you look at the whole thing it can make you a little nervous.

3. Permission granted - realize that when you show a clip you are ultimately granting permission for your students to go home and tell mom and dad that you said it was okay to see this particular movie. With that said, rated “R” movies would not be a good idea unless you are willing to take a 15 year old to the movie with you.

4. Follow copyright laws - there is just simply no way around this. Too many of us have used clips and even shared music that we had no legal right to share. I now nobody likes to deal with this, but we have a guy on staff who has written and published some of his own stuff and he references this as taking food from the table of an artist. Follow the laws, it will make you feel better in the end.

Just a few of my thoughts on using media in your ministry.

There Are 3 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by Josh Boldman on 17 April 2008:

    I had a friend of mine who was in youth ministry (notice I said, “was”) a few years ago. He was doing really well and the kids were really responding to his teaching style. So, the Senior Pastor thought it would be a good idea to let him preach a Sunday Morning sermon. Well, he planned it all out and got to Sunday. It was an excellent sermon, except for the fact that he used a clip from the Simpsons to illustrate his point. Now, I think that the Simpsons are an amazing piece of social commentary that can be used to illustrate virtually any point. However, his Senior Pastor, the elders, and a majority of the congregation didn’t think so. He was fired the next day.

    So, yes, it is extremely important to be selective and to consider your audience carefully.

    Josh Boldman
    http://www.joshboldman.com

  2. Comment by David Mehrle on 18 April 2008:

    Josh - thanks for your comment. I would say that is even a little bit of an extreme response by the leadership. It does not seem real fair to just jump all over a guy and then let him go, where’s the grace?
    In light of your response I should probably add a new thought: Make sure you know the culture of your audience. This could have saved him his ministry.

  3. Comment by BJ on 25 April 2008:

    Totally agree with steps 1-4. Maybe we should add a 5th.

    #5 - Actually watch the clip yourself.

    I know, this is assumed. But I think youth workers sometimes use “suggested” clips without seeing it themselves. Then they transition on the fly.

    Lots of curriculum comes with suggested movie clips. Most are fine to use, however, it may be easy to use their suggestion without screening the clip yourself. After all, don’t the people who write curriculum know everything?

    There was a ski trip two years ago where our speaker used a clip from Dumb and Dumber. The clip was great and included a very teachable moment. But then the clip went too long and showed the infamous “carrot and lumps of coal on the snowman.” Then our tech guy paused the movie, instead of stopping the movie, right on the shot where it showed where the carrot and lumps of coal were positioned on the snowman. The room full of high school students never recovered. Great memories, glad no Sr. Ministers were in the room.

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