This is the year 2014.  A recent study discovered that 75% of American homes own a HDTV.  The same study learned that 51% of those HDTV households own more than one HDTV set.  38% of all homes in America own multiple HDTV’s.

Let’s take this information and apply a bit of reason…

If most Americans own a HDTV, I’d say it’s safe to assume that most Americans are used to watching programming in high definition.

I remember when my wife and I got our first HDTV and a Blu-Ray player.  We watched the first Transformers movie.  It was hilarious to us how bad the special effects were.  It was hilarious the blemishes that were noticeable.  There were so many things that we didn’t notice in the theater that now on our 55 inch HDTV were jumping off the screen to us!  We laughed so hard!  We were so distracted we couldn’t really enjoy the story of the movie!

Good news!  Hollywood caught up!  Within a couple of years the makers of movie magic stepped up their game and again were making great special effects and hiding blemishes.

Most Americans watch TV.  Most Americans watch that TV on a HDTV.  Most Americans are used to seeing great edits, un-noticeable cuts, and hearing perfect audio.

Hollywood caught up; why hasn’t the church?

One of my biggest pet peeves when attending a church service is a church showing a video of poor quality.  I find myself wondering if they think they’re pulling one over on me.  Then I feel as if they’ve insulted me and my ability to tell the difference between good and poor quality.  I begin to wonder why they felt this story or concept or whatever it is was important enough to show in the service but not important enough to be captured well?

I KNOW I’M BEING PICKY.  Before you write me a letter explaining to me that I’m incredibly picky, superficial, unspiritual, or whatever it may be, understand that I know I’m picky.  I would submit the idea that a lot of guests to your church will also be picky.

I believe one of the best ways a church can tell a story is by eliminating any distractions that may take away from that story.

When a video is shown with bad audio, jerky cuts, horrible lighting, tacky background music or any number of things like these, the distractions will take away from the story.

Church creative leaders, please don’t just care enough to tell the stories.  Please care enough to tell the stories well with no distractions.  If you can’t do it well, please find another way to do it.

The stories are important.  Care enough to capture and tell them with the importance and quality they deserve.  Eliminate the distractions and let the story be heard.

And now back to my HDTV…