Is digital technology as harmless as a hammer?
A recent TGC article by Brett McCracken is titled “Are Churches Losing the Battle to Form Christians?” The opening lines are:
Among the many ways 2020 has been punishing for pastors, one of the most disheartening is the way COVID-19 has further accelerated the already troubling tendency of Christians being shaped more by online life and its partisan ideological ecosystem [I would add a few other labels here] than by church life and its formational practices.
I agree mostly. The awkward part of this statement is that online life now seems to be one of the church’s essential formational practices and environments. The troubling nature of our media saturated lives, partisan echo chambers, and reality mediating devices grows more pronounced in the midst of COVID-19. And perplexing to me, mirroring this growth of our technological dependence, is the church. For our current crisis, technology with its limitations and opportunities seems to be what has both opened horizons and definitively bounded our horizons of possibilities. One of the primary learnings many churches seem to have had is the need for a permanent “online campus”. Obviously, streaming amazing content and finding a way to digitally connect with people in the midst of COVID-19 is better than nothing. Right. Right? But hold on a second, is that obvious? And is it obvious that every church should designate more and more resources and time to curate online, digitally mediated experiences for the people we are trying to form to be like Jesus? I am not so sure.
Are churches losing the battle to form Christians? Many are. Perhaps for a variety of reasons. The one that interests me presently is the dependence on a tool, digital technology, that has immense formative power, much of it necessarily at odds with genuine Christian purposes. Digital technology does form. But simply because you are a Christian, employing it for “Christian” purposes, and labeling it “church”; doesn’t mean you control or have even contemplated the formative influence of this tool. The cry to innovate, innovate, innovate is often a distressed grasping for the closest technological straw. To offer people a digitally mediated church experience and have them conclude what it means to BE the church is to stream content while you sip your latte in your jammies from anywhere in the world on your super computer phone is absolutely destructive to the future of the church. And I will explain why in future posts.
Obviously there are unique pressures on pastors and churches right now. I get that as a pastor who chose to not plant a campus in the middle of COVID-19. Online presence is a good stop-gap measure and a useful tool for churches to consider. However, these unique pressures don’t excuse poor theology, quick decision making, and short-sightedness. In fact, the crisis and pressure make moving forward with wisdom that much more indispensable. In other words, WE need to think through the tools and technologies we currently employ and are rapidly adopting due to COVID-19 pressure. Interrogate before you innovate. And if we aren’t increasingly critical, not just about what tools we adopt, but their formative influence and consequences; well, churches probably won’t lose the battle to form Christians. Formation will still happen. I am just not sure we will be able to call the end result Christian.
To Be Human 