Catalyst 09 :: Shane Hipps

Catalyst 09 :: Shane Hipps

Shane Hipps is the Lead Pastor of Trinity Mennonite Church. Before this, Shane had a career in advertising as a strategic partner where he worked on the multi-million dollar communications plan for Porsche Cars North America. Here he gained expertise in understanding media and culture. Shane is a dynamic communicator and sought-after speaker on issues of faith, culture, technology and spirituality. He is the author of Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith and The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture: How Media Shapes Faith, the Gospel, and Church. Shane lives with his family in Phoenix.

  • Christianity is fundamentally a communication event.
  • It’s a story of God revealing Himself to the world using different forms of media: poets, prophets, donkeys, stone tablets, etc.
  • God is in the business of communication.
  • How we understand communication impacts the way we communicate the Gospel.
  • We have an assumption that the methods change and the message stays the same.
  • We believe you have to innovate your methods otherwise the Gospel becomes increasingly irrelevant.
  • We believe our methods and our media are neutral – i.e. porn through the TV is bad, Christian TV is good.
  • The opposite is actually true.
  • The medium is the message.
  • How you say something matters as much or more than what you say.
  • What you use to communicate with will determine how your message is receive and understood.
  • The flickering pixels we look at reshape pathways in our brain that change the way we see and perceive the world.
  • There’s a difference between printed words… processed primarly in the left side of the brian – sequential, logical, etc.
  • Images is right sided – it’s an experience.
  • Images invite argument.
  • The moment you use images and not words, it pins the logical side to the back of the brain and creates images.
  • If you want to sell something, images are the way to go.
  • Images and words are not interchangeable.
  • They are fundamentally different modes of doing things
  • About every 7 minutes you see an ad.
  • Movies are made to be seen.
  • How you say something will shape how it’s understood.
  • This puts us in a ministry pickle.
  • Here you have a need: a need to innovate the method.
  • Where does that leave us?
  • When you evolve your methods you change the message.
  • Jesus made the exact same observation.
  • Mark 2:22 – new wine into new wineskins
  • The container and the content need to match.
  • The wine itself is new.
  • We knew the wineskins were new, but sometimes we forget the wine was, too.
  • You must update your methods and your message.
  • The message actually changes.
  • It has changed.
  • The Gospel message has changed based on where culture was and who the people of God were and what they were wrestling with.
  • There’s different messages.
  • The message never changes.
  • The ever-changing Gospel never changes.
  • You are the still the same person you were when you were a child, but you’ve changed. You’re still you, you’re just different.
  • The look, function and feel of a mustard seed is different that a mustard tree. They are the same but always changing.
  • What if what Jesus said is true? That the Gospel is living thing, not a lifeless artifact.
  • God needs more gardeners and less guards.
  • A guard is motivated by fear. They’re afraid something will be broken, stolen, or messaged up.
  • A gardner is motivated by love. They are filled with anticipation.
  • Gardeners protect but never to the point of stunting growth.
  • The Gospel has no room for fear.
  • You don’t have to be afraid … all you have to do is love.
  • Perfect love casts out all fear.
  • In our best efforts to preserve and defend the Gospel we’ve become guards and not gardeners.
  • We need to become open to
  • There’s certain things that NEVER change: Love wins, grace is free, peace is possible, etc.
  • How it’s changed is in how it’s expressed, felt, and seen is changed because of how we change.
  • There are diamonds in the rock of Scripture that we have yet to discover.
  • The Gospel grows.
  • Each leaf that grows on the tree depends on branch behind it, and the branch behind that.
  • We need to be become gardeners of the Gospel that grows; not fearful guards.

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