Perhaps I haven’t been paying enough attention, but I've found this whole financial crisis business very confusing. I've found myself ignorantly flinging around the term 'GFC' (global financial crisis) and blaming it for many (unrelated) problems in the world (and thanking it for reduced petrol prices) but I've struggled to understand why everything went wrong and continues to get worse. The terms 'sub-prime mortgage' and frozen credit markets' don't mean a lot to your average punter - people definitely like me, and perhaps like you too.

I've recently come across some videos created by people who have a wonderful way of explaining complicated things - cutting through the technical jargon, and using great visual imagery to communicate the important details.

Take for example this clever video that uses animation and nifty graphics to illustrate how we got into the mess we're in (hover your mouse over the video below, and press the 'play button' on the bottom-left):

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

I've also been impressed by the videos produced by Common Craft. Take for example their innovative presentation to help the uninformed (or confused) understand how the President of the United States is elected:

Electing a US President in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

Why am I discussing videos on Presidential elections and credit crises on a technology ministry blog? I wonder what potential video explanations might hold for Christian ministry. In generations that less 'churched', we can assume little knowledge of even the most basic Biblical truths. The concepts of 'sin', 'judgement', 'propitiation' etc. require explanation require clear explanations.

We are very good at explaining the gospel using words - and I am not for one moment suggesting this should cease or change. We are even good at filming people explaining the gospel using words - take for example this video of Mark Dever:

What Is The Gospel? - Mark Dever from Shane Trammel on Vimeo.

Can we go the next step and use words and engaging visual imagery to communicate the gospel? We've done it with gospel tracts such as 'Two ways to live'  - is it time to harness the next available technology to proclaim the gospel?

Perhaps this has been done already - please post a link in the comments space below if you've seen this.

I wrote to Common Craft asking if they've done a video explaining what is a Christian and how to become a Christian. They responded: "We’ve done a number of non-technical videos, but none focused on religion or Jesus.  We’ll consider it a suggestion.  :)"

In the meantime, I'll throw the challenge out there. Is someone interested in (and equally important - able to!) create a video in the style of the first two videos that uses both words and imagery to communicate the gospel? I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd love to see what our creative community can come up with.