Contextualize the Message, Part 2

In his 1964 book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, Marshall McLuhan introduced his now famous line “the medium is the message.” Only the smartest people got it back then. Now, 45 years later, we can observe it every day. Just watch a television commercial. Advertisers don’t sell products, they sell cool. (Think: Abercrombie & Fitch, Mac, Starbucks.) These days, how you say it is more important than what you say.

Just to simplify, let me give you an example. If you were to hand someone under the age of 30 a cassette tape and say, “This is a really cool song,” you can be certain it will never be listened to. Not to mention the fact that they won’t have anything to play it on, the medium is so outdated that what is on it cannot be cool. The medium itself (cassette tape) screams, “Un-cool!”

Now, McLuhan would tell us that I was over-simplifying his life’s work—that what he meant was so much more than this. I get that. But this concept is no small matter to those of us who believe we have the most important message ever delivered. So it is proper that we should consider the media with which we communicate it.

It should be said that McLuhan was no Luddite. However, he was well aware of how media affect not only the messages they contain but also those who receive them. Like other educators (Neil Postman for example), he believed that technology was a force to be reckoned with. But McLuhan’s proposition isn’t just about technology. Let me give you another example.

Have you ever stumbled onto a television preacher and been stunned at the delivery? Try turning off the sound. It can be pretty disturbing. Especially if you consider that the message that is being communicated is in everything except the words. So, with the sound off, what is being communicated? That is the message—whether the sound is on or not.

One more. Let’s move to street level. I was having lunch the other day with an old friend that I hadn’t seen in 10 years. As it turns out, he carries fake $1,000,000 bills which have a salvation message on the back. (He got them from Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron.) And he indiscriminately hands them to people he meets. I was mortified. It goes against everything I believe about connecting people with Jesus. Why? Well, what is the message being communicated? It’s not the one on the back of the fake bill.

Here’s the real message. I don’t know you. And I don’t have time to get to know you. But I have an agenda, and it supersedes common courtesy and your measly feelings. So here it is. You’re going to hell. (So sad.) But, you can change that right here, right now before some freakish cash register accident claims your life. Yes, if you will only say these words (printed here for you) you too can have eternal life. Oh, and by the way, it’s okay to feel inferior. I do have superior knowledge about what is best for you. You don’t have to thank me.

Some of you may think I’m exaggerating about how unchurched people feel about this kind of approach. I’m not. In fact, many Christians feel the same way. I have a friend who just had a t-shirt made that says: “I’m already saved. Leave me alone.” Except it says it a little stronger than that.

So, with McLuhan in the back of our heads, how do we contextualize the message for the next generation? Here’s another way to ask the question. How do we assure that the medium we use communicates the real message we want to express?