Don Carson. John Piper. Mark Driscoll. Tim Keller. Mark Dever. Josh Harris. CJ Mahaney. Rip. Sync. Play.
Remember when you had to read Desiring God to know what John Piper thought? Remember when you had to buy JI Packer’s sermon collections on CD? Remember when you had to travel to a conference to hear John Stott speak?
How things have changed! Now every mega church has its main webpage, every famous preacher has his downloadable sermons, and every well-known Christian leader keeps a blog.
These days, if you see a slightly daggy middle-aged man walking along, ear buds in place, with a frown of concentration on his face instead of a swing in his step, he may be listening to a sermon on his portable MP3 player. And that harassed Christian mother in the playground might be keeping an eye on her children to the background sound of talks from the latest American female speaker.
Last year, my husband gave me an MP3 player for my birthday, and suddenly my mental life became filled with new voices. I’ve listened to John Piper expound the Psalms, Don Carson preach on spiritual warfare, and Carolyn Mahaney teach women from Titus 2.
The unique dangers of this wonderful new world of accessible sermons didn’t occur to me until the day I listened to a talk on Psalms 42-43 by the minister from our previous church, Neil Chambers. I know this man—his pastor’s heart, his godly integrity, his love for his people. I know his context—the sorrows and joys of his congregation, the suburb he preaches in, the outreach programmes he oversees. I know his church; I’ve taught children in Sunday School, I’ve chatted with mums about their lives, and I’ve sat with a depressed friend during the service.
A whole world of responsibilities and the memory of a loving community came back to me as I listened. There in the background of the soundtrack were the familiar sounds of my old church. I could hear babies crying, chairs scraping on the wooden floor, the endearing croak in my old minister’s voice, and his familiar tears as he prayed for his people. I could see, in my mind’s eye, the intense Australian sunlight pouring through the white Venetians, and balloons from last night’s party hanging from the rafters. I could feel the uncomfortable heat from the old-fashioned wall heaters on my head, and taste the homemade biscuits left by the grabbing hands of children during morning tea.
MP3 sermons come with no strings attached. The preacher has no direct teaching authority over me. He’ll never address the specific temptations of my congregation and context. The prayers at the end of his talk are for the people sitting in front of him, not for me. I won’t have to set up chairs before he speaks, or cook a meal for someone listening with me. There’s no need to encourage, or to be encouraged by, the people listening with me because I’ll probably never see their faces.
Don’t get me wrong; I love MP3 sermons. Like Christian books, they nourish, teach and challenge me. They give me the rare privilege of hearing some of the greatest preachers of our generation. They allow me to be encouraged by Bible talks even when I’m missing sermons at my own church to care for my children or to teach Sunday School. They give me a precious opportunity to be taught by godly women.
But MP3 sermons can never replace the real thing—sermons heard, week by week, from a minister I know, love and respect—a pastor whom God has placed over me—a man who understands the world we live in, who speaks to us where we’re at, who encourages us to bear familiar burdens, and whose prayers are for us. A man who speaks to a place where we can’t escape the needs of others.
On my MP3 player, there’s a long menu of great sermons begging to be heard. But I’ll also go along to our church faithfully, and listen to my minister John preach God’s word to me and my local church family.
Great post, Jean. Thanks.
So mp3s aren’t the same as hearing preaching at church. Does that make them dangerous? No.
They are just another means by which the word of God can be spoken to the world. The word will do its work even without the mediation of our favourite priest;-)
People will listen to mp3s. I’d prefer they were listening to Driscoll and Piper than Hamish and Andy.
I wish there were more mp3s from Matthias’ back catalogue available for people to listen to. I fondly remember, back in the 80’s listening to cd’s of mid year conferences and bible teaching from churches I didn’t go to and preachers I didn’t know. I would lend my cds to friends . This wasn’t a substitute for regular teaching at church but a wonderful complement. Listening to them helped me be more committed at church. I wish the net and ipods had been available then!
Far from being dangerous, I think this new technology gives us great gospel opportunities.
What a helpful post, Jean.
Like you I can see great benefits in being able to listen to so many different preachers thanks to MP3s and the like, but like you I can also see some dangers. Let me comment on 2 dangers that concern me.
1. It is easy to listen to famous preachers and compare the local preacher unfavourably with them. yet the local preacher knows the people and the issues they have. The local preacher is the one who likely to be taken to task by people who find his challenges too confronting, and it will be the local preacher who will encourage people with a real understanding of where they are at.
2. Sermons are not primarily intended for individuals to hear them apart from the gathering. We all need to hear the sermon at the same time so that we can discuss it with one another, take action in response to what we have heard together, and pray together.
Thanks for your comments. Yes, I agree that MP3s are valuable, like reading Christian books, as I explained in my third last paragraph. When I said “danger” I didn’t mean they’re subversive, just that there are dangers we have to be aware of as we listen to them – which would be true of anything helpful, from reading books to listening to sermons at your church (e.g. hero worship, believing someone over the bible, etc. …). I’ll certainly still be listening to many MP3s, and I’m deeply grateful to God for them!
On the Matthias back catalogue: oh, yes, I agree, wouldn’t it be wonderful if there were more MP3s available here? Australia is still catching up to the US here. How I wish all our best home-grown preachers and conferences offered their sermons as free downloads on line! Many do, like Neil’s church at Bundoora Presbyterian, but not all. A hint in the ear of the right people at the right time …
Recently I’ve been listening to MP3 sermons in the car instead of listening to the radio, and I have found this to be enormously helpful and encouraging. It is fantastic to be able to hear preachers such as those you mentioned so easily and freely.
Yours is not the first article I’ve read recently which, while acknowledging the benefits of MP3 sermons, seeks to highlight their pitfalls. Nathan Walter had a similar purpose, it seems, in his article “iPod, iSermon, iRighteous?” in the July-August 2008 edition of “The Briefing”. Mark Thompson, in his post “Now what was that text again?” on this site, makes reference to …the massive internet presence of some very powerful preachers who do not follow the expository model.
Why is it that we are being warned so often of the dangers that MP3 sermons can pose, when in reality these dangers have always been there – particularly when we consider the use of Christian books? There are plenty of Christian books out there with dodgy theology, whose authors are in danger of becoming “gurus” in the minds of their readers and whose knowledge of their audience is much more out of context and impersonal than that of the readers’ own pastors. We can still fall into the trap of replacing personal Bible reading with the reading of Christian books. Yet despite all these pitfalls, the benefit that a great book can bring to the growth of the Christian is celebrated much more often than its misuse is warned against.
I acknowledge that, as an aside in your article, you appreciate the value of MP3 sermons. I also appreciate and affirm the warnings of making sermons and books a substitute for church. But it seems that the general thrust of messages regarding MP3 sermons today is to be wary. Shouldn’t we rather celebrate the blessing they can be, and encourage their use, with caution as an aside, rather than the other way around?
Thank you for reminding us, Tim, that we should focus on what’s good about this fantastic new resource God has given us. I love MP3s, and I have grown greatly through listening to them.
I apologise if I sounded overly “negative” in my post. If I did, it’s because I was trying to make a “positive” point about the value of hearing sermons at our own church, but maybe I expressed myself poorly.
I have read of one woman who stopped going to church because she thought MP3s were enough (was that in one of the posts you mentioned?). Clearly this is a danger with Christian books too, but perhaps it’s a particular danger with MP3s, because they seem close to “church”??
Anyhow, I appreciate your thoughtful responses, everyone.
I’d like to make another plea for those who publish MP3s of sermons to firstly give us the biblical text!
A few I have listened to in the car were not helpful to me, because I did not know the text the talk was based on.
With others, the producers of the talk did advise us what the passage was, but we didn’t get to hear it.
If I were better organised, I’d read the passage before setting out on my journey, but this is not likely to happen in the near fuutre!
Also, when the Word of God is well-read, sometimes that is what sticks in my mind and not your words of wisdom, I’m sorry to say. [Or am I?]
I recently listened to Tim Keller’s talk <i>The Prodigal God</i>. It was a helpful talk, but the woman who read Luke 15 for us at the beginning of the recording did such a wonderful job that I was left with God’s Words, not Tim’s, ringing in my mind.
Please put the Bible passage at the beginning of the recording. [Haven’t convinced our church to do this yet, but!]
Tim, I can see one major difference between Christian books and Christian sermons.
Books give us time to think, whereas MP3 sermons don’t. Of course, we could press pause, but we often don’t, and we could stop to think about the first sermon before selecting another one to put on, but we often don’t do that either. How many of those who listen to a sermon on the way to work would spend the return trip thinking and praying about it? How many would just pop in another one and settle for “Christianity-lite”?
In contrast, when people read a book, they move through the text at a slower pace and generally stop for a break at a convenient place, because they don’t have the time available for more sustained reading. Some of us read a book over days or even weeks; in between opening the covers of the book we reflect about what we have read so far and ponder what the author might discuss next. Of course, it is possible to read a book straight through and then pick another one up straight away, but this isn’t as easy with books which really test the intellect and challenge the conscience.
I’m reading Carson’s book on the prayers of Paul (A Call to Spiritual Reformation) at the moment and using just this approach: one chapter every week or even fortnight is enough for me to chew over and then act upon before I move on to the next. I am also really appreciating being able to skip back and re-read easily. My prayer life has changed <b>heaps</b> in the past two months as a result. I am not at all tempted to try and find the original sermons from which Carson developed the book online. But then I am a very visual, book-oriented person.
One of the dangers for me is that I will read far too many blog posts – especially those of Jean and Nicole. Blogs are, unfortunately, a bit easy to skip through, over, and on to the next. When people post things which make me think, I need to do just that. Stop and think, rather than move right on to the next post.
I guess every genre for Christian teaching has it’s own potential problems in our present technology-driven world.
Sharon
you could argue that the ipod pause pause button gives you more time to think than the live sermon.
Blogging is really speaking isn’t it? If it was writing it would be serious and we’d need to stop and consider what we were committing to text, there would be editors involved, there would be no interchange, less rantings of grumpy people…
On the Matthias back catalogue: oh, yes, I agree, wouldn’t it be wonderful if there were more MP3s available here?…A hint in the ear of the right people at the right time …
Hi Jean – yes, your message reached the right person’s ear. And it is not the first time people have asked us this, so maybe it’s time to say something about it.
In thinking through whether sermons should be given away for free, I’d just ask people to bear in mind that not all Christian ministries are funded by donations. Matthias Media is one that seeks to meet its costs by selling stuff, not by putting its hand out and making it harder for other ministries that have to seek donations. Selling CDs is a valuable source of income that helps us pay our rent and salaries and insurances, etc.
Having said that, we know the world is changing, and we are constantly reviewing our policy. At some point it is probably inevitable that we will have to stop selling them and give them away online. It may not be far off. But when we do it, we do want to make sure that it doesn’t mean we have to put out our hand to the Christian community to ask them to replace that loss of revenue by donations. How we achieve that is something we continue to ponder. Seeing MP3s as a drawcard to bring people to our web site is an obvious marketing plus, but will it cause growth in sales of other things sufficient to make up for the loss of sales in CDs? We’re not sure yet, and we probably need to take the risk in a year that is a little easier than this year has been or next year is likely to be. But we keep weighing it up.
Ian
I was beginning to think I was the only strange Christian! I do not listen to regular sermon series for the reasons outlined above. I am certain it undermines my own pastors’ preaching, at least in my sub-conscious.
However, listening to conferences is a different matter. Few of us have the opportunity to attend these and to hear great preachers and teachers speak in unique settings is a blessing.
I am also willing to make exceptions for unusual topics (eg Dever’s 66 book sermons, but only listen occasionally) which can only assist our spiritual walk.
More good will be achieved through the faithful preaching of faithful pastors week by week than by “mp3 raiding”; however, let us also give thanks for those faithful preachers in other congregations on whom we can draw when times demand.
Hi Jean,
Just read a recent post at pyromaniacs
http://teampyro.blogspot.com/
“Porn and paper pastors” and it reminded me of your post. I think you are both saying the same thing but his is a more blokey in the analogy.
I didn’t comment at the time, but, your post made me start thinking about when and why I use my MP3 player. Usually its for selfish reasons (don’t want to be disturbed on a train etc). I’ve started to use it less in the hope of having a conversation with someone.
Thanks for your post and insights.