Every Discipline Can Contribute Directly to Gospel Outreach

How Every Discipline Can Contribute Directly to Gospel Outreach with Media

The Christ in Media Institute holds as a fundamental principle that each and every academic discipline can contribute – indeed, each is needed in the production of Gospel messages via technology and mass media. The following suggestions might stimulate you, whether faculty or student, to consider how this is true in your own discipline. As examples, each includes even more specific suggestions using the narrower technology of Virtual Reality. Knowing your discipline, your ideas will be better than these suggestions.

In all these please ask: How can these be done to glorify God and to spread His Gospel message?

Suggestions by Academic Division

Humanities:

First of all, writing,

Writing is the most important skill of all because it spans all the rest. Nothing appears on a screen or stage until something is written. As a writer you know language, stories, and culture. You can fill one of the greatest needs: for those who can WRITE the descriptions and stories that will carry the Gospel by mass media to vast audiences.

Languages

You know a variety of languages and cultures. You can help craft and translate messages that will carry the Gospel by mass media to vast audiences.

History

You have learned that history is “His story.” You can find lessons in history, in cultures around the world that can be crafted into messages that will carry the Gospel by mass media to vast audiences.

Examples using VR:

How about taking a (virtual) narrated walk through a debtor’s prison in Victorian England? Or visiting the Academy where Plato taught? Or Mars Hill where St. Paul preached? Or strolling through the current U.S. Supreme Court Building? What kind of research would be required for a student to create authentic virtual experiences like these?

Writing: storytelling is basic to almost all media production. How will writing for a VR story differ from writing a short story for print, or from crafting a traditional screenplay? Can a VR experience enhance poetry?

Travel: walk past the Duomo in Florence and examine the Baptistry doors. Stroll through Ronda in Spain, peer down into the chasm, and practice your Spanish with people there, discussing the terrible things that happened there in the 1930s. Gaze up at the Pearl Tower in Shanghai, then ascend it and gaze down at the city – and try out your Mandarin!

I’m sure you will have better ideas than these.

Social and Behavioral Science:

Social Sciences

You know that, while the Gospel message never changes, cultures do, and you can understand cultures and societies so that the Gospel can be presented in different settings in its full power without distortion.

Psychology

You understand in special ways how people cope with their lives. You can hep craft the stories and messages that can carry the Gospel message via mass media to people of many backgrounds and cultures.

Examples using VR:

With high levels of repeatability and control, how can VR be useful in psychology experiments?

What are the applications of VR in therapy for conditions like anxiety, phobias, substance abuse, PTSD, and others?

If VR becomes widely used by children and teens in gaming and other applications, what might the effects be – especially if the games involve violence and destruction? Are there benign games, and what is their impact?

Is the “metaverse” coming, and if so, what will be its impact?

Can people successfully satisfy basic needs, such as for companionship, in virtual environments? Can faith communities thrive virtually? If so will this cause a decline in real-world communities?

I’m sure you will have better ideas than these.

Nursing:

Stories!

Examples using VR:

In teaching: what routine medical procedures can be practiced repeatedly in a virtual setting? What kinds of medical procedures, too expensive or dangerous in real life, can be experienced and practiced safely in VR?

How can AR help guide and create good nursing habits?

Can VR experiences help nurses understand patient perspectives?

In treatment: what are the applications of VR for conditions like anxiety, substance abuse, pain management, anxiety, and many others? Can VR help prepare mothers for childbirth?

I’m sure you will have better ideas than these.

Math/Science:

Mathematics

You understand that mathematics is the real world, and you can help create the stories that reach the contemporary individual with Gospel insights that touch them where they live. Some of the great stories and plays are based on mathematics. We agree with you that “Mathematics is the language in which God has written the universe.” (Galileo) How would you demonstrate this wondrous gift of God in a media production?

Examples using VR:

What mathematical structures would you like to “wander through” in VR? How can they be generated? And if Galileo was right when he said, “Mathematics is the language in which God has written the universe,” how will these amazing simulations be made to glorify God?

I’m sure you will have better ideas than these.

Physical Science

You understand both science and faith and can help create the stories that reach the contemporary individual with Gospel insights that touch them where they live.

Examples using VR:

Countless science and engineering applications of AR and VR continue to appear, especially enabling virtual experiments that would be too dangerous or expensive to conduct in reality. What is their value? What more would you like to see? And how do these realistic virtual observations help us proclaim God’s glory?

Create an AR-guided examination of a virtual spider.

Computer Science

Computer technology is essential in creating and transmitting Gospel messages by whatever medium – in theatres, online, on cell phones, or whatever technology appears in the future. You can help keep the processes of Gospel proclamation at the cutting edge of technology.

Religion:

The goal of all religious studies is first to comprehend God’s grace for oneself, and then to bring that message to all the world, telling them “all things” that the Lord has commanded. You will carry out the essential face-to-face teaching/preaching involved in church work; but in these last days, God may be calling you to the center of programs to reach vast audiences with the Gospel through mass media.

Examples using VR:

Can a VR simulation take us on a walk through first century Jerusalem? Enable us to explore the Tabernacle, or Solomon’s Temple? Can we stand in the chamber where Luther said “Here I stand”? What kind of research would be required for a student to create authentic virtual experiences like these?

And can a simulation place us at a virtual Calvary? Should it?

Can VR be used to train Christians in virtual evangelism scenarios, helping them overcome the fear of witnessing?

What would a VR setting for reading a Psalm look like?

I’m sure you will have better ideas than these.

Comm/Visual Arts:

Visual Arts

You know that communication is becoming more and more visual and that visual communication is especially important in cultures where literacy levels are low; help create the visual depictions and designs that will capture cultural imaginations and direct them to the truths of God’s Gospel message.

Communication

You know the process of effectively crafting and delivering messages so they have an impact on particular audiences; you can be at the center of the efforts to reach out with the Gospel to vast numbers of people around our country and the world.

For example, in VR

How does the virtual audience experience work in Speech class? Can it help students cope with speech anxiety?

Has anybody yet conducted an academic debate in VR? With avatars? How would such a debate differ from one in reality?

What principles of visual design especially apply in creating a virtual world? How must traditional design concepts be tweaked to work well in VR?

The traditional filmmaker directs the viewer’s attention by pointing the camera at something. That can’t be done in VR since the viewer chooses where to look, which can be anywhere. How does one control the viewer’s attention in a virtual environment? Over the decades filmmakers have developed an entire grammar of “shots” and their functions – establishing shots, extreme close-ups, worm’s eye view, tilted camera, etc. Does any of this theory apply in VR storytelling? What will be the new grammar of “shooting” in VR?

I’m sure you will have better ideas than these.

Health and Human Performance:

Stories!

Examples using VR:

Countless science applications of AR and VR continue to appear, especially enabling virtual experiences that would in reality be dangerous or too expensive. What is their value? What more would you like to see?

How can VR contribute to the study of human motion?

Some of the greatest stories come from the experience of athletes; VR can help non-athletes understand the athletic experience in new ways. And athletic success is a matter not only of body but of spirit. Where does the Gospel fit in an athlete’s life, and how can that be told in VR?

I’m sure you will have better ideas than these.

Fine Arts:

Theatre

You know stories, you know drama, you know performance. Well-written and executed screenplays – as well as live performances – are powerful means of carrying Gospel messages to the world.

Music

You know that media messages are always accompanied by music; sometimes the music enhances the message, and sometimes the music actually carries the message. Good music, reflecting the tastes of a variety of cultures and composed and performed with excellence is an essential component of Gospel proclamation via mass media.

Examples using VR:

Wouldn’t it be fun to walk around in the middle of an orchestra while it is performing? Only possible in VR (or maybe with a massive financial contribution to the orchestra).

Don’t forget: nearly every media production requires music. What is special about composing and applying music in a VR experience?

How can a virtual reality set be itself a musical instrument?

How do musical performances appear before worldwide audiences in VR? As you plan your virtual concert, what kinds of music can bring a Christian message to the generation that is flooding into VR experiences?

The VR set is an artist’s three-dimensional canvas. What should she do with it? What principles of traditional visual arts apply to virtual sets, and how must they be tweaked for fullest effect?

I’m sure you will have better ideas than these.

Clinical Mental Health Counseling:

Examples using VR:

In teaching: what routine counseling procedures can be practiced repeatedly in a virtual setting? what kinds of counseling procedures, too risky in real life, can be experienced and practiced safely in VR?

Can VR experiences help counselors understand patient perspectives?

In treatment: what are the applications of VR for conditions like anxiety, substance abuse, pain management, PTSD, and many others?

I’m sure you will have better ideas than these.

Business Administration:

A good business plan is essential to any media outreach effort. Since virtually any kind of quality media production is expensive, it requires the expertise and planning of a good business person to make it efficient and cost-effective. The skills of advertising, public relations, marketing, and finance can all be brought to bear on the challenges of bringing Christian messages to the world through mass media.

Examples using VR:

How is VR being used in advertising, marketing and sales? How can AR be used in these ways? Which is more useful?

Media production, including in XR, costs money and might even make money. What are the financial structures that support XR? And in particular, what Christian ministries can use your help in funding their XR Gospel-bearing work?

Could a Virtual Reality studio at Bethany pay for itself? How? Design a business plan for a small VR production studio.

I’m sure you will have better ideas than these.

Education

[You already know the examples which are too obvious to list…]