Notes from a POMO Future
Posted March 5th, 2009 by Michael Kooiman
Last year Greg Prato published a book called A Devil on One Shoulder and an Angel on the Other: The Story of Shannon Hoon and Blind Melon. I don’t find this noteworthy because I’m a fan of Blind Melon (actually, I’m only a fan of the song “No Rain”). I don’t find this noteworthy because his book is ranked #7837 on Amazon.com (#95 in the category “Memoirs”). I find it noteworthy because Greg Prato wrote and published the book himself using Lulu.com. Greg Prato is a rebel.
At one time, book publishing was tightly controlled. You submitted a proposal or a first chapter and a few months later a publisher expressed interest. You were assigned an editor (someone with knowledge in your area) and together you completed the book. Sometime, often far in the future, the thing was published. No more. I could sit down tonight, bang out 200 pages of blog (like the one you are now reading) and send it to Lulu. It would be published online immediately (after using their dandy wizard). Within 5 days you could order on Lulu, and some time in the very near future (if the demand was great enough) it might appear on Amazon.
Publishing is suddenly post-modern. Greg Prato, countless musicians and millions of aspiring film-makers have decided the same thing: let the people decide what is worthy of attention (and sales). The era of tightly controlled access to bookshelves and CD racks is over, and the people can now bypass publishers and find talent on their own. The modern era of editors, publishers and established critics has come to an end.
What on earth does this have to do with the church? Let me tell you. The church is ancient (established religious tradition) and modern (carefully structured institution). We have some trouble with post-modern. And while there many definitions of post-modern, at its core it is a reaction against established conventions and theories. This does not mean the end of faith, only the end of our ability to claim the “truth” or the correct way to function. In other words, there is my truth, and there is your truth. To the modern mind this is very frustrating. Sorry moderns.
Like book publishing, the church enjoyed occupying the centre and being in charge. We liked having minister-editors who could assess what was worthwhile and what was not. We were trained to decide who was worthy of getting married in the church and who was ready for confirmation. We liked the power of editing our communities, deciding what was proper and what should appear in our version of print. Those days are gone.
The people we are trying to draw to our congregations don’t care a fig about denominational differences. They don’t care about rules or order or whether funds are unified. Like Amazon, they want talent: and in churchworld this means faithfulness, love, compassion and openness to the community.
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Comments
Are those days really over?
You say that the days when "minister-editors" made the decisions about "what was proper" are over. I would beg to differ there. Many ministers (not all) will only yield this power when is is pried from their cold, dead hands. And in many cases, by the time that happens, their church will be dead too. Vibrant churches, however, will be those which value and incorporate the talents and wisdom of their parishioners. This will not be easy. Identifying talent is not always easy, especially when it is only in its formative stages, and needs to be grown. Compromises will be required. You may not always have talent in the areas where you need it, or too much in others. And then, just as people questioned the authority of Jesus in his time, many will also do the same today with those who want to share their talents. This is especially true in music, where music directors can feel that they are the final authority on music issues (some employment contracts - the model one of the college of organists of Canada, for example - say so explictly).
Yes, access to electronic media means much more timely and less restrictive access to new material. But that doesn't mean it will be adopted. Just because I have a web site with new hymns that are freely available to any congregation (which I do) doesn't mean that congregations will use them. Some of this is publicity-related. With so many resources out there, it's easy to overlook or never find many good resources. (I do wish the UCC had an on-line clearinghouse where resources could easily be shared. Perhaps that is the intention of this Emerging Spirit site, but it seems just a little too awkward to use and too underused to serve that purpose). Some of the failure to adopt is tradition- or authority-based, i.e. if it's not the the hymnal, it's not a "proper" hymn. (This despite the fact that we desparately need modern voices that speak to where we are, not just traditional voices which tell us where we have come from). And sometimes it's just a matter of taste.
Thanks
Great reply...thank you! What's your hymn site?
Music/hymn site
My site is http://post.queensu.ca/~ab25/spirit
(I only post on forums such as this when asked - it's not my intention to hijack sites for the purpose of blatant self-promotion!).
Bookin' it!
Our annual report this year was published (ISBN# and all) in a format you would recognize as a school yearbook.
A couple dedicated editors, a hoard of proof readers and contributors from every corner produced a 100 page, glossy report you might actually want to read. We used MS Publisher and then just sent the PDF file to a local printer; the cost was $20 each. PDF version on CD are available free, and if requested we could run a text only version on the copier.
It was a special occasion, our fifth anniversary, so it covers more than one year.
(abaer - if you don't plug yourself who will? I really need to check your site out some day.....)