"Reading is loosing to watching because viewing requires less mental processing".

There are two major challenges for the church that I intend to highlight here. The first is how to communicate effectively within and without its walls given its tradition of word based communication.This becomes a challenge given that the environment in which the church is operating has shifted to a vision based communication framework. The young people have rebelled against all forms of institutionalism and associate words with (a)old ways and forms of communicating (b)the stigma of the old ways of establishing social order and power structures and(c)lacking fascination,simplicity and quickness of understanding necessary for a fast- lane type of society.
The second challenge is how to shift to a vision based communication structure and still be relevant to those of "us" who were taught how to read stories(words) but never taught how to read images. Amongst these people are also those who are sceptical about the use of pictures in church.This problem becomes more intense when one realises that any visual communication process requires a two way path between its producer and the receiver.
In brief I would therefore suggest three things significant for congregations. First we are now living in a visual world shaped by television, computers, magazines billboards and movies. We just have to incorporate visual aids in all our church communications.Secondly pictures by themselves are not very meaningful and can even be misleading.Try a communication way in which words and pictures are given equal significance and used in a balanced and complimentary role.Lastly avoid using images in an offensive or simply sensational ways.Images that carry weight and are remembered are those that combine aesthetically pleasing design elements(beauty) with content and relevancy to words.