Jay Richard Akkerman

The Graphic Gospel Jay Richard Akkerman

The purpose of the study was to determine which factors related to congregational receptivity toward the use of visual media in preaching by exploring factors including generational group, gender, dogmatism, postmodernism, and postliteracy. The study consisted of a researcher-designed, cross-sectional quantitative survey of attitudes toward the use of visual media in preaching. The survey was completed by 113 respondents age fourteen or older at New Hope Community Church of the Nazarene in Tempe, Arizona. The research findings contradicted the popularly held notion tying age to receptivity toward visual media, and underscored the importance of pastoral integrity in a visual hermeneutic.