Media & Teaching in Church: Proceed with Discretion

I was having a conversation with a good friend recently, and we were discussing the penetration of media in church. Me, being who I tend to be more optimistic when it comes to church media. Meaning, I usually see the pros of using media in church, and sometimes tend to look past the cons. When working in church media this is not a good habit to form. Anything that is done in church, especially with media needs to have good conversation surrounding it.
What are the advantages?
What are the disadvantages?
What is the point?

All of these are questions that should be asked when discussing a new idea in church media.

One area that needs much discussion is surrounding media & teaching in church.

Something I think is rarely thought about is how the penetration of media in church has affected other people in the church with the gift of teaching.

Here’s the scenario (fake names to protect the innocent):

A guy named Brad is a youth leader in a church. The youth pastor decides to record himself teaching each week, and distribute DVD’s to all of the small groups. Each small group then watches the DVD each week, and Brad discusses it with the students. The youth pastor is a great teacher and communicator so the DVD’s are effective, but Brad becomes frustrated because he also has the gift of teaching, but feels like he cannot use it to it’s fullest potential with his small group.

I had never thought about this issue until it was brought to my attention in this conversation with my friend. I think it is one that goes overlooked many times within churches. I understand that we must all sacrifice something when doing ministry, and it may be our most passionate gifts, but this is just something to think about. Are we frustrating our “unknown” teachers in our congregations because we distribute media in our small groups?

Whether you use media in this way in your church or not, I think this issue calls us to become creative with the way that people teach in our churches and small groups.

Have you run into this in any of your experiences?

What are some other issues with church media that need to be discussed?