Entertaining is not Illuminating

We are starting to head into the heavy travel season. Deb and I were on a United flight recently and we were at the point where the plane was pushing back from the runway. You know the part where the pre-flight instructions are given to the passengers. Probably most of us tune out this part because we have heard it so many times before; "Pull the belt low and tight across your lap", "be sure to put the oxygen mask on your child first", "in the unlikely event of a water landing", etc.

United took a different tactic. They created entertainment. The video below shows the same information but presented in the form of travel or life events.

I did find myself paying more attention to the video because it was mildly entertaining. I am not sure how much of my recall of what was being actually said was improved or not. Imagine however it we knew the plane was going to have a crash landing or there would be extreme turbulence. We would probably be all ears and hanging on every word coming from those pre-flight instructions.

Much of our culture seems to revolve around boiling serious matters to entertainment and slick productions. It seems harder and harder to talk to things that are deadly serious in a straightforward manner. Many church services seem inclined to produce slick multi-media productions that the simple proclamation of the gospel. Thankfully while our church, Christ Community Chapel is really good at producing these types of productions, it ultimately points forward to the simple message of the gospel spoken during the service by a lone man with a microphone.

Like the pre-flight instructions, we should hang on these words and not dilute them. I am always disappointed by someone who says "I did not get anything out of that service" as if the point of the service is to entertain you. The very words themselves have power in and of themselves. Paul says in Romans 1:16 that the gospel is "power of God unto salvation". It is a life or death message that requires us taking it far more seriously than we do.