Media is the Magic Key. We can unlock the door to vast numbers of souls, reaching them on the latest devices, riding the waves of technology into their hearts. We only have to seize the latest device and, modeling ourselves and our efforts on the cutting-edge trends, rise to the top of the consumer pile.
Well, I'm sitting down here in the production basement by myself, and that paragraph I just wrote scares me to death.
I'm reminded of a scene in the 1981 anti-war movie "Das Boot" about a German submarine crew in WWII. Halfway through the film, after the U-boat and its crew have endured days of depth charges exploding outside their hull, the unflappable diesel engineer is suddenly seen stumbling wide-eyed and shaken from his post near the propeller. He is heading for the conning tower - the escape hatch - and he is going outside. It doesn't matter that they are 200 feet under the Mediterranean Sea, he is leaving the boat. The captain has to grab a pistol to prevent him, but the rest of the crew has shoved the engineer back to his station to keep the boat viable and chugging along.
Right now, my wife Denise is the IMM Acting Director. We're both learning the advantages of not hyper-ventilating under pressure. She hasn't had to pull the pistol on me yet...
However, striving in this media missions endeavor under pressure is teaching me something. IMM is not the Magic Key. We will not save the world. The Gospel is the key, not media. The Gospel will survive all forms of misuse, abuse, mouth-breathing puppet skits, sweaty honky-tonk revivals and the crepe paper flames of Hell. The Gospel will communicate what it was intended to communicate despite our best efforts. Our responsibility is not to save the world. We cannot. Our calling is to be on message. Dive dive DIVE!