The Muppets Reloaded and What Churches Can Learn

Talk about making a comeback. I remember watching The Muppets over twenty years ago, but they seemed to disappear sometime around 1990. That seems to be changing as they are quickly refreshing their image through social networking sitesYouTube in particular. A few months ago they posted their version of Bohemian Rhapsody which has had close to 13 million views.

Their latest video to hit YouTube is Beaker’s Ballad. It pokes fun at itself and Digg/YouTube/forum flamers. Here’s the video:

This makes me wonder how churches can do a better job at doing the same thing. Churches have notoriously been behind the times and are considered by many to be irrelevant with what’s going on in the surrounding culture (when did we stop using felt boards for teaching?). I hope we can change that.

While face-to-face and in person conversations are the most important things we can do, the church should be involved where people are. Thankfully the cost of doing things like this, in terms of both dollars and time, has come way, way down in the past few years.

Greg Simmons posted some thoughts along these same lines today over at Church Tech Matters. He wrote:

I’m trying to let go of the worry about the “How to…” and focus on the “Why to…”  God has still been able to use the tech/media and the operators – with all their imperfections – to reach people in need.

That kind of reminds me of what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:22-23:

“I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.”

The task of the church is reach people with the Gospel using whatever means necessary. We live in such exciting times with the tools and resources available that allow us to connect in new and compelling ways. Let’s not squander the opportunity God has given us.

[Thanks to Mashable for posting the link to the video.]

2 thoughts on “The Muppets Reloaded and What Churches Can Learn

  1. Kevin,
    I agree. Its a difficult topic to think about. There is something about being unplugged when I come to church. Every other place I am during the week, I'm plugged in, but at church I'm asked to unplug. I think technology is good, I mean I love technology, but not as much as you, you see….but I still love technology.

    It is a downer to me, when I walk into a church and see a flat screen, but then again, I would run away from the felt board.

    Thanks for making me think.

    I guess, I keep thinking about it and let you know when I decide.

    • You're on to something about the need to unplug from time to time. Jesus modeled that for us. I'm not sure that our weekly worship times are the best place for that. When I think about unplugging I think about REALLY unplugging. As in going off alone and not being around anyone or anything that would distract me. I hardly ever do that, so I can't really talk authoritatively about it.

      What turns you off about a flat screen TV in church?

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