Using AV to tell God’s Story – Part 1
Presented at the
National Conference: God’s Story, Our Story
Organised by GoTell (www.gotell.org) & Impact at NSK, Bangalore
Oct 31 – Nov 2, 2009
Author: Ashley Chris Vinil J P
“Why use audio-visuals?”
God the creator, the source of creativity, made everything out of nothing! He existed before the created concepts of time and space. He, the light (Visual) made everything by speaking (Audio).
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good (Gen 1:3, 4)
God is an audio-visual being and He made mankind in his image – male and female, He made them. So every person is an audio-visual person!
God used his creation (nature) to speak to his creatures (including mankind), but then people were special – they refused to see or listen, much less try to understand. So God used his creative nature to produce miracles. They were the earliest form of ‘produced’ audio-visuals to tell God’s message. A flaming sword in the garden of Eden; hordes of animals walking towards the ark; the destruction of Sodom; the burning bush; the pillar of fire; the red-sea partition…the list is huge and you must be getting the idea! Each miracle was a powerful Audio-visual spectacle. God used different tools, to present his message audio-visually. Right from a voice calling from the sky to the grand spectacle of light & sound effects, God used audio-visual effectively to convey each of his message.
Even as God was using AV powerfully, his creations, desired to follow him – many a time in the wrong way! Consider this picture from mount Sinai – as God was conversing with Moses, preparing lovingly ways to build his people, the very people were busy creating a golden calf and they went on to worship it with sounds and dance! This did not just end there. For the Israelites saw the whole world around them, filled with all kinds and shapes of visual gods. And they could not even see their God!
Now, God understood their pain and predicament but then He had a plan; a plan forged at the very dawn of creation itself – that plan was to reveal himself; And He did.
6While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. (Luke 2:6, 7)
Now, Jesus was not the description of God that the Israelites wanted! He was different in every way. The one aspect of Jesus, I am going to concentrate on is His way of communication.
Jesus was not a theologian, but God who told stories Madeline L’Engle
He did not just tell stories, but he weaved his stories audio-visually. He did not sit inside a set synagogue and render hour after hour of monotonous laws, but reached out to every person – be it in the city, or in the village; be it a Jew or a Gentile; be it in the mountain-side or in the lake-side. His stories involved characters right from the surroundings, be it humans, animals or objects. He was God, who saw life unrolling around him and used it effectively to tell His message. Even in cases, when he was stuck to a place, he used relevant pictures from the lifestyle of that place, combined it with imagination, right questions and crafted a message that soon got him a huge following!
Why, even the end and beginning was communicated audio-visually.
51At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. (Mathew 27:51)
2There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3His appearance was like lightning and his clothes were white as snow. 4The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. (Mathew 28: 2-4)
So the two learning, I have got from this powerful history is this.
- God is an effective storyteller
- God is an amazing audio-visual expert
So what are we supposed to do?
- Tell the stories of God to the world around us
- Tell the stories audio-visually
No, I am not saying this is the commandment or commission of God, but what I am trying to impart here is this: Can we communicate using the techniques God had used and is still using, through His word – the Bible?
Welcome to Audio-visual storytelling
