Reverence. Awe. Reflection.

While traveling, I’ve been privileged to visit some of the world’s most renowned churches, among them Notre Dame, Sainte Chapelle, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, St. Peter’s Basilica, and the Sistine Chapel. In each, I have been overcome with a reverence that’s different from what I feel when I enter my modern church at home. This sense of awe comes from a deep kind of knowledge innate to my faith. I understand what is being portrayed in the stained glass and murals, but not just intellectually. Sculptural depictions of the crucifixion move me. Shuffling through these churches on various trips has always been a spiritually enriching, reflective experience for me.

I’m not alone in this. There is a trend unfolding in modern churches. Leaders are asking two big questions: Will sacred art help people engage more fully with the Bible? If so, how can it be presented in a cost-effective, yet meaningful way?

Industry experts see technology serving as a bridge between ancient art and contemporary constraints. I recently spoke with Luke McElroy, founder of TripleWideMedia.com, an online marketplace that helps churches procure content for environmental projection and multiscreen technology. He paraphrased wisdom from Episcopal priest and author Ian Cron: “Pastors and artists need to work together. Pastors speak to the human mind through intellect, the front door to the mind, which can easily be closed. Artists enter through the back door, the imagination—and that can’t be closed.”

McElroy’s own Nashville church, like thousands of others, uses technology, art, and media every week to help tell biblical stories. This isn’t new. What is new is how those same tools are being used to introduce sacred visual elements—something McElroy is helping client churches figure out.

Churches that regularly embrace liturgical practices may find that technology can help people participate more fully in various forms of worship, especially those that center on the written or spoken word. Coupling a simple prayer with imagery as it’s recited can give it increased significance, taking the words themselves off the pedestal and helping people focus more on the meaning the words convey.

We also treasure the words of Scripture, but can a Scripture reading be enhanced with appropriate imagery? Can we engage more deeply with the Bible’s meaning as we see visual cues that connect with it? This has been a Christian practice for centuries. Today, projection technologies can keep costs down and allow for versatility.

You could commission a painting or mural, but projection is usually far more affordable and nonpermanent. A church can project any kind of image onto a screen, or for a more enveloping experience, onto entire walls (now called environmental projection or EP). With EP, a room can become a completely immersive space—or one with live action accompanying the verbal story.

Nashville visual worship curator Stephen Proctor has created EP environments for several churches and video productions. I spoke with him about ways churches of any tradition and with any level of technology at their disposal can incorporate sacred art through technology. Here are his tips:

• Start by studying iconography and Celtic manuscript illumination. Most everyone is familiar with the idea of using illustrations in sermons, but often we stay at a basic level. Studying these two fields can teach you how to incorporate imagery that encourages viewers and hearers to think more critically and even engage in meditative thought about the sermon, song, or passage.
• When using environmental projection, learn to slow down and really sit with images. Does the image have more to say? Can it be more than just a background? A forest, for instance, has roots and leaves and can be used as a visual metaphor for spiritual growth. Explore how you can use an image to illuminate what you’re talking about, instead of relying on imagery as a decorative element only.
• If you’re already making technology and sacred art elements part of your teaching or worship, keep exploring. Become more informed about liturgical practices and borrow from them to infuse your worship and teaching with meaning that can touch the hearts and imaginations of your people.
• Through environmental projection or standard projection, bathe your worship space in the colors of the liturgical calendar, perhaps especially leading up to Palm Sunday and Good Friday.
• Don’t be afraid to turn technology off altogether. That may be the best way to help people focus on the meaning of the message, song, or sacrament.

Even in churches with a rather Spartan interior design, there are ways to incorporate visual liturgy to inspire worshipers the way stained glass has done for centuries. The meaning behind this sacred imagery is powerful. Start by learning more from the visual wisdom of tradition and then leverage that power through technology. Allow the very walls of your facility to help people engage with Scripture. Help them become doers and not hearers only.