The “God Experience”

As you watch the broadcast of the 2012 Olympics, keep in mind what you’re listening to could be the Milli Vanilli of sound.

You can’t “lip sync” sound, but you can record it and play it to match live events. Much of that — along with extraordinary sound effects and placement of microphones — are all an elaborate plan to bring you as much of the “sounds” of the games as possible.

Have you ever wondered how, when watching the games on television, you could hear the archer’s arrow whisk through the air? Or clearly hear the sounds of rowing as the paddles glide through the water? According to Dennis Baxter, chief Sound Engineer for the 2012 Olympics, capturing or enhancing the sounds of the Olympic games has been done for about two decades now, all with the intent of creating a fuller experience of the events for folks watching the competitions on their televisions at home (read and hear more about Baxter’s work at the Olympics here http://n.pr/NbhjV8).

Baxter says people want experiences, so some sounds are pre-recorded and matched to live events, others are amplified, and still others are added effects to round out what people expect to hear when they see an event.

People want experiences.

That desire is contributing to a significant slide in ticket sales for the National Football League (NFL). With bigger television screens, including 3D, and broadcasts that include instant replays, close-ups, analysis, social media connections, and other interactivity, why pay all the money and go through all the hassle of going to a stadium? Instead, you can invite your friends over to watch the game on your mega screen in a comfortable, air-conditioned or heated (whatever is needed) environment without having to drive anywhere. It’s a more comfortable, fuller (and cheaper) experience.

To counter the loss in ticket sales, the NFL is working on enhancing technological and social media opportunities at the stadiums in a plan it hopes to roll out within a couple years to provide a more enticing “experience” at the football games, hoping to lure people off their couches and back into the stadiums.

People want experiences. Or, perhaps more to the point, they want the stimulation that comes from experiences. They want sights, sounds, and connectivity that provides an experience that leaves them feeling stimulated.

Even at church.

Many of today’s churches are good at creating an “experience.” You can feel the floor vibrate from the sounds of the worship band, visuals play on massive screens, fog rises from the stage, and dramatic stories are told. All done to help you “experience God.”

There’s only one problem with that: God is not an “experience.” He is a Being. Yet, we’re constantly encouraged to “experience God,” as if He were a hi-tech simulation at an amusement park.

But He isn’t.

You can talk with God, walk with God, enjoy God; you can serve Him, be blessed by Him, and get to know Him. Because He is a Being, not an experience.

Could it be that so many miss out on getting to know God personally because we keep directing them to an “experience”? Could it be that so many look for an “experience” with God because the church keeps trying to create one?

When it comes to God, are you looking for an experience or a relationship?

Scotty