Video Clips and Drama in Preaching

Is there a place for video clips and drama in preaching?  John Piper says no, but Michael Duduit (editor of Preaching magazine) thinks that's an over-reaction.  I'm generally a Piper fan, but he overstates his case when he says clips and sketches are nothing more than "entertaining spice" that betray "unbelief in the power of preaching."  C'mon. I side with Duduit on this one. In the free e-newsletter from the publication that arrived in my email inbox today, Duduit said:

It's always dangerous to disagree with a gifted preacher such as John Piper -- I can see the e-mails coming even now -- but I'm afraid I've got to challenge a recent statement he made about the use of video in connection to preaching. I absolutely agree with every statement he made about the power and importance of preaching (you can hear his whole statement here), but I disagree with what he said here:

 

"I think the use of video and drama largely is a token of unbelief in the power of preaching. And I think that, to the degree that pastors begin to supplement their preaching with this entertaining spice to help people stay with them and be moved and get helped, it's going to backfire. ... It's going to communicate that preaching is weak, preaching doesn't save, preaching doesn't hold -- entertainment does."

I use video only occasionally in my own preaching, but I've seen it used with great effectiveness in many, many churches. I see preachers who believe deeply in preaching use visual images as one more resource for effective communication. When it is used well, it is simply another illustrative tool that helps engage young adults with truth in a visual language they understand. In that sense, it follows in the tradition of Jesus' own preaching and teaching, which was not only packed with word-crafted images, but filled with object lessons (coins, wheat fields, fig trees and so on) that would be quite comparable to the use of a brief video clip in our own age.

By all means, don't use video, drama, microphones, pulpits or any other extra-biblical tool in your preaching if you feel it might compromise your message or God's use of you as His messenger. But let's not attack or belittle those faithful preachers in a new generation who find such tools helpful as they seek to proclaim the Word of God.