“Creating an Environment so Someone Can Come to Christ”: “Relevant” Environments, Audio/Video Technology, and Ritual Practice

Abstract

Th e expansion in the U.S. of a House of Worship (HoW) market has seen the increase in professional audio and video devices use by evangelical denominations and corporate practices of designing, manufacturing and marketing specifi c devices for this niche consumer. Th is paper explores how HoW personnel are taught to conceptualize the use of professional audio and video devices to create culturally "relevant" worship environments. Amidst vectors of control, mastery, and militarized and nationalist discourses, personnel learn particular dispositions towards device use, and niche products are marketed to HoW users. Th e tensile nexus of these discourses and their attendant practices converge in performative aspects of ritual.