So mp3s aren’t the same as hearing preaching at church. Does that make them dangerous? No.
They are just another means by which the word of God can be spoken to the world. The word will do its work even without the mediation of our favourite priest;-)
People will listen to mp3s. I’d prefer they were listening to Driscoll and Piper than Hamish and Andy.
I wish there were more mp3s from Matthias’ back catalogue available for people to listen to. I fondly remember, back in the 80’s listening to cd’s of mid year conferences and bible teaching from churches I didn’t go to and preachers I didn’t know. I would lend my cds to friends . This wasn’t a substitute for regular teaching at church but a wonderful complement. Listening to them helped me be more committed at church. I wish the net and ipods had been available then!
Far from being dangerous, I think this new technology gives us great gospel opportunities.

Thanks for your comments. Yes, I agree that MP3s are valuable, like reading Christian books, as I explained in my third last paragraph. When I said “danger” I didn’t mean they’re subversive, just that there are dangers we have to be aware of as we listen to them - which would be true of anything helpful, from reading books to listening to sermons at your church (e.g. hero worship, believing someone over the bible, etc. ...). I’ll certainly still be listening to many MP3s, and I’m deeply grateful to God for them!

On the Matthias back catalogue: oh, yes, I agree, wouldn’t it be wonderful if there were more MP3s available here? Australia is still catching up to the US here. How I wish all our best home-grown preachers and conferences offered their sermons as free downloads on line! Many do, like Neil’s church at Bundoora Presbyterian, but not all. A hint in the ear of the right people at the right time ...

Thank you for reminding us, Tim, that we should focus on what’s good about this fantastic new resource God has given us. I love MP3s, and I have grown greatly through listening to them.

I apologise if I sounded overly “negative” in my post. If I did, it’s because I was trying to make a “positive” point about the value of hearing sermons at our own church, but maybe I expressed myself poorly.

I have read of one woman who stopped going to church because she thought MP3s were enough (was that in one of the posts you mentioned?). Clearly this is a danger with Christian books too, but perhaps it’s a particular danger with MP3s, because they seem close to “church”??

Anyhow, I appreciate your thoughtful responses, everyone.

Tim, I can see one major difference between Christian books and Christian sermons.

Books give us time to think, whereas MP3 sermons don’t. Of course, we could press pause, but we often don’t, and we could stop to think about the first sermon before selecting another one to put on, but we often don’t do that either. How many of those who listen to a sermon on the way to work would spend the return trip thinking and praying about it? How many would just pop in another one and settle for “Christianity-lite”?

In contrast, when people read a book, they move through the text at a slower pace and generally stop for a break at a convenient place, because they don’t have the time available for more sustained reading. Some of us read a book over days or even weeks; in between opening the covers of the book we reflect about what we have read so far and ponder what the author might discuss next. Of course, it is possible to read a book straight through and then pick another one up straight away, but this isn’t as easy with books which really test the intellect and challenge the conscience.

I’m reading Carson’s book on the prayers of Paul (A Call to Spiritual Reformation) at the moment and using just this approach: one chapter every week or even fortnight is enough for me to chew over and then act upon before I move on to the next. I am also really appreciating being able to skip back and re-read easily. My prayer life has changed <b>heaps</b> in the past two months as a result. I am not at all tempted to try and find the original sermons from which Carson developed the book online. But then I am a very visual, book-oriented person.

One of the dangers for me is that I will read far too many blog posts - especially those of Jean and Nicole. Blogs are, unfortunately, a bit easy to skip through, over, and on to the next. When people post things which make me think, I need to do just that. Stop and think, rather than move right on to the next post.

I guess every genre for Christian teaching has it’s own potential problems in our present technology-driven world.

On the Matthias back catalogue: oh, yes, I agree, wouldn’t it be wonderful if there were more MP3s available here?...A hint in the ear of the right people at the right time ...

Hi Jean - yes, your message reached the right person’s ear. And it is not the first time people have asked us this, so maybe it’s time to say something about it.

In thinking through whether sermons should be given away for free, I’d just ask people to bear in mind that not all Christian ministries are funded by donations. Matthias Media is one that seeks to meet its costs by selling stuff, not by putting its hand out and making it harder for other ministries that have to seek donations. Selling CDs is a valuable source of income that helps us pay our rent and salaries and insurances, etc.

Having said that, we know the world is changing, and we are constantly reviewing our policy. At some point it is probably inevitable that we will have to stop selling them and give them away online. It may not be far off. But when we do it, we do want to make sure that it doesn’t mean we have to put out our hand to the Christian community to ask them to replace that loss of revenue by donations. How we achieve that is something we continue to ponder. Seeing MP3s as a drawcard to bring people to our web site is an obvious marketing plus, but will it cause growth in sales of other things sufficient to make up for the loss of sales in CDs? We’re not sure yet, and we probably need to take the risk in a year that is a little easier than this year has been or next year is likely to be. But we keep weighing it up.

Ian

Hi Jean,

Just read a recent post at pyromaniacs
http://teampyro.blogspot.com/

“Porn and paper pastors” and it reminded me of your post. I think you are both saying the same thing but his is a more blokey in the analogy.

I didn’t comment at the time, but, your post made me start thinking about when and why I use my MP3 player. Usually its for selfish reasons (don’t want to be disturbed on a train etc). I’ve started to use it less in the hope of having a conversation with someone.

Thanks for your post and insights.