Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
This was part of Paul’s stump speech, a common theme captured in Paul’s letters to various churches. He spoke a version of Robin-Hood-esque democracy into a religious world that was autocratic by definition.
Core to the strategy that saw the church spread like a virus from Jerusalem throughout the known world within a hundred or so years? Decentralized power. The Romans systematically tried to cut off the head of the church… and it just kept spreading. Foundational to the Gospel of Jesus is the concept that it’s an insurrection of the heart. The Jews long wanted a Messiah with a sword and instead their Savior came to win hearts, not build armies. Through Jesus we learned that you can stop a political or religious insurrection with a vicarious leader or lead by an army. But an insurrection of the heart is literally unstoppable because it spreads in every direction asymmetrically.
A few weeks ago I was sitting in church during the sermon– reflecting on this Pauline thread when this idea popped into my head…
“What if everyone in this room had a microphone?”
In other words, a microphone is a tactical device. The person with the mic on can be anywhere in the room and gain the attention of those present.
I started to wonder: What if everyone in the congregation knew they could say something and had permission to do so? What if everyone’s voice was heard because they were truly seen as equally important as the person with a microphone? What if everyone in the room had a microphone and had permission to say something whenever they wanted?
- You’d find out who your leaders are…
- You’d find out what’s really important in the room…
- Worship time would be completely different…
- I guarantee you the teaching time would be different if anyone and everyone had the ability to say what they are thinking…
- No one would be able to hide…
- Some would love it and some would hate it…
Are Microphones a Problem?
I’m rarely in a room where I actually need a microphone. I did theater. I did choir. I can project my voice to the back of a room with the best of them.
Churches really don’t use microphones because they need them. (Or lights, or stages, or projection)
A professional musician doesn’t need that stuff. A professional speaker doesn’t need it, either. Projection? Great for showing a video or making a presentation. Not really needed in a worship service.
These things are used as tools to command demand your attention. (I am not just making this up, by the way, Dan Kimball’s book The Emerging Church brought all of this up more than 10 years ago. Go read it if you haven’t, it’s excellent.) You can’t not listen to the person with the microphone, it automatically makes that person the most important person in the room.
And yes, I know I’m deconstructing a little here, but I wonder if demanding a congregations attention is really leaning into Paul’s words? I wonder how I can celebrate the Holy Sprit’s presence in His people and celebrate the ministry being done through His people (aka… cause for worship) by limiting the voices of all but a small handful of parts of the body?
I think microphones make that nearly impossible. Microphones silence the Spirit’s work within the whole body when we gather while broadcasting the Spirit’s work of a limited few.
And maybe that’s how it ought to be? Maybe that’s the natural order of things? If I’m honest I don’t know the answer to that.
But it is limiting.
It is silencing.
If Microphone’s Are a Problem, So What?
I’m not saying microphone’s are of the devil. This thought is merely that… a thought, maybe a reflection or meditation or even something I’m bearing witness to.
All I’m thinking is that we need to acknowledge that the tools we use to demand attention are silencing other voices, they are limiting who can speak and be heard.
For those of us who often find ourselves with a microphone strapped to our body week after week after week… we need to bear this in mind. We need to remember the privilege that for whatever reason… that our voice has been picked over others.
Let us not be a group of people who silence others voices with silly contraptions like microphones or LED lights or man-made platforms— but let us be those who use our voices to give voice to the silenced, celebration to the Spirit’s work, and honor to the One in whom His Name we gather.
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