Monday, May 23, 2011

Book Review: Flickering Pixels by Shane Hipps

I listening to Podcasts from Mars Hill church in Grand Rapids, MI and Shane Hipps is one of the pastors of that church, so when I saw this book on the shelf at Pella Books bookstore, it caught my attention. Subtitled "How Technology Shapes Your Faith" this book takes a look at how the message of Jesus is delivered and the medium used to deliver it.
Shane does a great job of unpacking how technology has changed through the ages and also looks at how the message of Jesus has been influenced by those changes, both positively and negatively. For example, he talks about moving into the print age, books became available to everyone (positive) but people no longer needed to pass on oral traditions and peoples memories weren't as sharp (negative).
Shane also looks at how the medium impacts the message, or how what we say changes by how we say it. He then unpacks how that has shaped the church and the message of God.
Ultimately, Shane makes the statement, and I agree with him, that the church is God's medium and message.
All in all, I thought this book was excellent. It really made me think of not only what message I am communicating and but how do I communicate, I would highly recommend this book.

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