Rob Hoskins Endorsement of VSN and Clyde

Communication grows more complex everyday. The advent of global visual media, precipitated by television, movies and the internet is challenging the churches ability to effectively communicate. There is a massive cultural shift towards the visual over and against the oral and textual, and it continues to accelerate. Increasingly, to engage your audience means creating a visual story experience. In a world being addressed through picture and image the church can ill afford to not better understand the visual revolution and use it to proclaim Jesus and Scripture. The Visual Story Network is a ministry that arrives just in time to mobilize the church towards collaboration and action in a field that has had too little attention. By helping empower the talent of visual story artists around the world and harnessing the global distribution channels that the church possesses the Visual Story Network could be the catalyst for one of the most significant spiritual movements of the early 21st century. Clyde Taber has been uniquely prepared to facilitate this strategic initiative. His rich background in global missions, insight and passion for the visual arts and networking talent have positioned him to be the chief advocate and architect for the Visual Story Network.

New Media will shape the world in which we live, the reality is turning out far stranger and more interesting than we might have imagined. The social implications of this change could be staggering."
--Will Wright, designer of SimCity and The Sims

Paul Eshleman on the Visual Story Network

We must go beyond “preach” and “print”…to “portray.” The kingdom is ripe for a revolution in the way we communicate the Gospel and disciple new believers. Visual story must penetrate everything we do in Christian missions. It is far more powerful than what we have known. It is the future of the Church. The success of the expansion of the Church will hinge on how well we personally demonstrate and visually portray who Jesus is and what impact He can have in our lives.

The Communication Challenge

The heat felt particularly heavy that July afternoon. The air conditioning inside the bank made it easier to breath. I shifted my weight, waiting my turn to talk to the young man with horn-rimmed glasses. We were new in town and I needed some cash. “I would like to cash a check” I said. He cocked his head and mumbled something I didn’t get. I repeated, more slowly, “I-would-like-to-cash-a-check," pointing to my check to make myself clear. His eyes creased and he rattled off something I still didn’t understand. After a third attempt, being very aware of the line of restless people behind me, I closed my checkbook, bowed my head and left the building frustrated and embarrassed.

The rupture in communication was not the fault of the annoyed clerk. It was mine. In the summer of 1993 we had been in France for only three weeks and I only knew a few dozen French words. I couldn't communicate with the locals and it hurt. I came to offer these people the transforming power of Jesus, but I couldn’t even manage an over-the-counter bank transaction. I still had a lot to learn.

The body of Christ today in a media saturated world reminds me of my early experiences in France. Christians do not fluently speak the “visual media” language of the people around us. In the last ten years, the Western world (and increasingly the developing world) has become inundated with thousands of messages a day through movie, television, laptop, cell phone and iPod screens.

Yet we still primarily communicate the beauty and truth of the Gospel through 40 minute Sunday sermons…to an audience that won’t come to the theatre where the sermon is playing (a church building, that is). The sermon is necessary, but no longer sufficient. People are starved for hope, meaning and purpose. Its time for God’s people to connect with them like never before through the power of visual story...to offer them not only what they need - but what they have yet to dream of…life and life abundant.

Benefits of participating in the network

Here is a list of benefits for network participants.
What is missing?

· Strategic insight into present and emerging products and best practices of visual story worldwide
· Able to leverage the your organization’s best products and practices through present & emerging influence leaders
· Access to the latest research in trending in visual media
· Benefit from unique equipping opportunities with the world’s best visual story practioners
· Unique platform for missional partnership and collaboration with present and future network participants
· Be a “first mover” (for the first 30-50 participants) catalyst by building and shaping the move of God’s Spirit in visual story

Visual Story Database

I'm thinking that a hyperlink database that would allow us to profile not only product and strategies as Clyde has produced but also a profile of any group, ministry, production company that has product or strategies could list them under their 'organizational' template that could list any product or strategy under their org. template. That way information could be listed both ways and make it easy to inventory what everyone has available in the way of 'visual story' content and make it easy to navigate between product and strategy and who has produced them and what else they may have available. That way for instance you could find 'Beyond the Gates' but click on Bearing Fruit and discover what other product they have and also their new visual story web experience. This would also be a great incentive for new groups to join and keep the database updated with new content...Thoughts?

Biblical Storying Definition

Here is our working definition: Any thoughts?
"Combining narrative and visual media in communicating the message of Jesus and Scripture illustrating a biblical world view"

Why Visual Story

Are the big issues really the following?...

THE WORLD
The world is rapidly growing more media saturated and sophisticated. “Visual literacy” is accelerating in both developed and developing nations.

Media’s dominant role in shaping the worldview of billions of people.

The rapid increase of “visually literate” primary oral learners (those untouched by writing or print).

THE KINGDOM
Visual literacy is not being addressed by the body of Christ in a broad, strategic fashion with a clear kingdom agenda. The Church is in the infancy stage of understanding visual storytelling. Creative, relevant and compelling communications are needed. Great opportunities exist for His people to leverage new forms of communication combining missional strategy and visual storytelling. Few tools exist to leverage the power of visual story. There is a tragic lack of advocacy and awareness among Christian leaders about the opportunity.

We no longer awaken and empower “called” visual communicators. We’ve lost the paradigm for the visual communicator and their medium and message in furthering the kingdom. We need to identify, equip and encourage a new wave of these messengers. We must increase the kingdom capacity to use visual story to engage lost people and godless culture with the truth and beauty of Jesus and scripture.

We do not know how to rapidly and effectively deploy new forms of media.

Private or Public

I found out I can make this blog private, 'invitation only', would we prefer this? Please weigh in...

Artists in the Church

I had an interesting dialogue with my friend Jim Hanon, Ethnographic Media to day, he writes,
"In many ways I approach all this in what could be called the naive or idealistic view of an artist, and certainly not with the depth of a trained anthropologist. There is a key element that I respond to in ethnography, (and inherent to anthropology) and the one word that would sum it up is “listening”. In the broadest sense it has empathy at its heart, and encompasses watching and understanding. This is where anthropology and art intersect and some deeply common elements are seen.

One of the Georgia O'Keefe quotes I really like is, “I paint what I do not have the words to express.” Can the Bible be translated this way? Would it be accurate? Would theologians agree? In many ways we are treading into the territory that has long kept the arts and artists at bay in the church. Youth today understand media language better than the Church and they are lost in the same translation that artists were in previous times. If artistic expression is not accurate to the truths of the Bible then it does far more damage than good. How well I know this fear, for it has occupied my heart and mind in some fashion or another all my life.

New Name

Clyde thought it would make more sense to call it Visual Story rather then Storying. I think it may sense. The only community that uses -ing is the missions Chronological Bible Storying, so with a broader audience I like Clydes take. Thoughts?

Beta site for VSN

This is for us all to start communicating new ideas, sharing our inspirational stories and helping Clyde lead this exciting venture.
Clyde I like your idea to do a couple interview sessions with historical VSN success stories. A roundtable for example with Jesus Film, GodMan, Carmel Ent. church exhibition model etc.