wfn.org | Communicate via Modern Media or Face Disaster, Says Dutch Clergyman

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

25-January-2000 
00029 
 
    Communicate via Modern Media or Face Disaster, 
    Says Dutch Clergyman 
 
    by Piet Halma 
    Ecumenical News International 
 
AMSTERDAM- The future of the institutional churches in the new millennium 
is very uncertain, according to a prominent Dutch clergyman and Christian 
communicator, Albert 
H. van den Heuvel. 
 
    In an article in "Het Ouderlingen Blad" ("Church Officers" magazine) 
published in The Netherlands, Dr Van den Heuvel, who lives in Amsterdam, 
singled out the churches' performance in the media, which he described as a 
disaster.  President since 1996 of the World Association for Christian 
Communication (WACC), based in London, Van den Heuvel said that while 
people around the world watched satellite television, bombarded each other 
with e-mails and surfed on the Internet, the churches communicated in the 
language and images of "the day before yesterday." 
 
    The churches' message, he added, was delivered mostly in old-fashioned 
forms and in a language people no longer understood.  Sadly, he said, the 
churches were hardly aware of their shortcomings in the media field. 
 
    Van den Heuvel has held many leading church and communications posts in 
his career, including that of communications director of the World Council 
of Churches (WCC) in Geneva, central committee member at the WCC, board 
member of two public broadcasting stations in The Netherlands, and 
secretary-general of the biggest Protestant church in The Netherlands, The 
Netherlands Reformed Church (NHK). 
 
    He told ENI that while preachers and pastors had a clear understanding 
of what was meant by words such as "Savior," "Pentecost" and "grace," most 
of today's young people had no idea what they meant. 
 
    "You may find this a cause for sadness, but if you don't take this into 
account your `customers' go to the competitors," he said.  "Modern media 
techniques, with their stress on visual and virtual forms, are a threat to 
the word and print culture which are so characteristic of the churches." 
 
    Clergy had hardly any knowledge of what was happening in the field of 
communication. "Therefore they cannot help their own people to understand 
modern forms of communication." 
 
    Van den Heuvel was particularly critical of the way in which theology 
had been communicated over the past century.  "The tragedy of the theology 
of the last 100 years is not that it did not bear much fruit, but that the 
juicy fruit did not reach the local churches. 
 
    "Much theology has been considered too difficult or too confusing to 
lead the congregation through it.  The result is that preachers know much 
more than they ever say to the congregations." 
 
    As a result, he said, theology had become rather like a special subject 
developed on a desert island, with little benefit for church congregations. 
 
    Van den Heuvel predicted that in the coming decades the Internet would 
be indispensable for the churches.  "The Internet and other new media will 
become an everyday tool for every congregation, not only for information 
work, but also for pastoral care and study projects." 
 
    But this would require a major effort by the churches, he said.  And 
this effort must not be confined to the clergy.  He pointed out that 
"people in the congregation are the real experts on problems such as the 
sharing of wealth, the globalization of the market and the population 
explosion, among others.  Not the theologians, but the laity." 
 
    He described relations between the churches and the media as "far from 
ideal."  He added that the churches wanted the media "to spread only their 
own [churches] views. That is stupid, because the media nowadays are much 
more influential than the churches.  We should serve the media rather than 
expect them to serve us." 
 
    Van den Heuvel also sees an important role for the Christian media, 
which, he said, "can pick up themes hardly treated in the secular ones.  It 
will therefore be necessary to be very careful not to lose them [the 
Christian media]." 
 
    WACC has a staff of 18 and 800 members in 115 countries.  In July 2001 
WACC will hold a congress in Noordwijkerhout, in The Netherlands, on the 
theme "Communication - from Confrontation to Reconciliation." 

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