Preaching the Word in a World of Memes
Language constantly changes. This explains why Merriam-Webster adds new words to the dictionary each year. Last year, their editors added “Rizz” (slang for charisma) and Deepfake (an AI-generated deception), along with approximately 1,000 others. But it’s clear that we’re living through changes not just in the words we use, but in how we use those words.
Digital technology has triggered three transformations in how we communicate, or use our words. Each of these transformations in our words has significance for those called to preach the Word.
The first transformation is that of pace. Our written communications accelerate with new technological developments, conditioning us to send, receive, and react at faster speeds. It takes far less time to compose an email than to write a memo by hand, leading to more frequent communication that is less thought out and often more intense in tone than before the rise of electronic messaging.
The second transformation is that of length. As we communicate faster, we communicate with brevity. Our written words are often devoid of detail or context, subjecting our messages to an ambiguity of meaning. The standard character limit for a text message has historically been 160 characters, just longer than a Tweet. Opinion and judgment fits within this word count, though nuance and supporting detail are often left out.
Because of this ambiguity, a third transformation has occurred. Perhaps in response to the lack of contextual clues in rapid textual communication, the written word, once textual, has become pictorial. From emojis to GIFs, the words of the digital age are often illustrated. To live in a tech-shaped culture is to communicate through a mash-up of text, image, and symbol.
One of the most popular forms of this new pictorial language is the meme. A meme is a widely known visual that is typically annotated with text. Writing for The New York Times on the history and meaning of the meme, writer Alexis Benveniste defined a meme as a “self-replicating” unit of knowledge, one that “rips through the public consciousness.”
Memes are the reason why a friend may make a controversial point with an image of a smug-looking coffee drinker inviting you to change his mind. They explain why a co-worker may have used an image of the character Boromir from “The Lord of the Rings” to tell you why your idea wouldn’t work, or why your significant other expressed skepticism about your ideas using a picture of Fry from “Futurama.”
By some indicators, the typical Millennial views 20-30 memes every day, usually through messaging channels or social media. Millions of memes are shared daily on Instagram, making them one of the leading sources of content in our social feeds. Meme-based communication is so popular that some companies, most notably Google, even have internal meme generators on employee intranets.
Alongside emojis and GIFs, memes are a daily experience within our tech-shaped culture. And this experience is undoubtedly influencing not just how we communicate - but how we learn, and how we come to believe in something
The popularity of memes, GIFs, and emojis shows that our communication is losing the capacity for abstraction. As our culture comes to expect additional visual context via a meme or emoji, we also come to expect that language will appear alongside an external reference point. Ideas that spread tend to connect to shared cultural experience. Jokes are told in relation to pop culture events. Political arguments are made relative to sports images. Business decisions are made alongside the context of sitcom characters. These visual references have become a stand-in for the crucial contextual details that accompanied the written word in a more analog age.
The emergence of a world of memes has significant implications for preachers and pastors. When we step into the pulpit, we are proclaiming the unseen, telling of a God whose action in our world can feel subtle, even invisible. This stands in contrast to a culture whose communication preferences are becoming increasingly visual.
This also challenges our ability to teach the foundational doctrines of our faith. Salvation, justification, and sanctification are abstract concepts that defy simple visualization. Indeed, we preach the good news of a triune God, whose relational nature is challenging to define through images.
I am not suggesting that preaching ought to involve more memes or emojis, or that our sermons would be more effective if accompanied by a popular animated GIF. The last thing the church needs is to subject our sermons to pop culture references, or to inundate our congregations with attempts at cultural relevance.
Instead, I think the implication is that the preacher must work to anchor the unseen promise to concrete stories and experiences. To preach effectively in a digital age is to tilt the balance in our message away from abstraction and towards the lived stories of God's work in our contexts. By doing so, we ignite the imaginations of our context so that others might visualize how God shows up in the particulars of our time and place. While our surrounding culture utilizes references to media and entertainment, we will reference the particularity of God’s work within our context.
In a meme-loving culture, congregants don’t need a snappy reference to the latest movie, sporting event, or awards show.
But they might need a sermon that helps them to visualize the specifics of how a member of the community has experienced the in-breaking of a relational God. They might benefit from a Bible study that helps them to consider the promises of God and how they have specifically supported a fellow congregant through challenging times. These references to specific people, places, and stories are the references our proclamation needs to reach a meme-based culture.
Preaching the Word to a world full of memes will require us to give new life to this ancient and sacred story. That new life emerges when we shift from the abstract to the concrete, from theoretical concept to lived experience.
Ryan Panzer
Ryan Panzer is the author of “Grace and Gigabytes: Being Church in a Tech-Shaped Culture” (Fortress Press, 2020) and "The Holy and the Hybrid: Navigating the Church's Digital Reformation" (Fortress Press, 2022). Ryan has spent his career in the worlds of church leadership and technology. He received his M.A. from Luther Seminary while simultaneously working for Google. Ryan serves as a learning and leadership development professional in the technology industry and as a speaker and writer on digital technology in the church. Ryan also serves as the Resident Theologian at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Madison, WI. For more writings and resources, visit www.ryanpanzer.com.
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