The Digital Age of the Christian Ministry
The Digital Age of the Christian Ministry
By Bro. Julius C. Lowe
Much has changed since the turn of the 21st century. The world as we know it has become more technologically advanced than ever. So much of what happens in today’s world revolves around the use of your mobile phone. In fact, in 2020, there are about 3.5 billion smartphone users around the world with 77% of Americans owning a smartphone.
Another interesting statistic involving smartphones is that 70% of all media time is spent on smartphones. Your phone may be so busy, it may have five or six screens just for all the apps downloaded onto your phone that you use every day. And maybe, one of those apps you use on a weekly basis is a church app.
In fact, in 2020, there are about 3.5 billion smartphone users around the world with 77% of Americans owning a smartphone.
The religious experience has come a long way since the days of our parents and grandparents. How many of us are old enough to remember when “words on the screen” meant an overhead projector with someone writing on transparent plastic. Nowadays, “words on the screen” means videos and slideshows of scriptures and songs throughout worship service.
But it’s not just the visual aspect of church that’s become more advanced, now you have pianos with electronic keyboards as opposed to your old school approach to music of hand claps and hymns. Tithes and offerings are now more advanced too, with more churches having the option of giving members the choice to pay online and through credit, as opposed to when tithes and offerings contained solely cash, checks, and communication cards (how many of us are old enough to remember those).
Several churches have upgraded their worship service through the use of apps. One such church is The Rock Warehouse Church in Parkersburg, WV, who in an interview with AP News in 2019, detailed how the use of church apps has enhanced their overall worship experience.
“We maintain the app,” Said Gary DeMattia, The Rock’s IT specialist about the church’s service app. “We add sermon notes for the Sunday service as well as keep an archived system of sermons dating back to 2011. The sermon notes we add also have a place for congregational members to add their own notes.”
“Technology isn’t the problem, because it can be useful. Rather we should be concerned with the blurring line between technology and the very definition of church.” - Skye Jethani
DeMattia went on to describe the church app “as basically our website. It has podcasts, donations, an events calendar, our mission and vision, we do live streaming of each service. We’ve had pretty good success with the livestreaming so far,” he said. “We have a lot of people who work out of town.
“We can tell how many times the app has been downloaded, how many times it has been logged in to and what the average time is. We don’t know who is logged in, but statistically, how many. You can have the app and know what we are about.”
While the digital ministry is clearly doing great good in the 21st century, it still has its fair share of critics and skeptics who wonder if it can replace the church as we know it. The church finding ministry applications for available technologies is actually not a new concept in truth. The idea of using various media to build long-distance relationships has been around since the days of the New Testament, as evidenced by the Apostle Paul, who wrote letters to the early churches, as author, pastor, and speaker Skye Jethani first pointed out years ago.
Church leaders have adopted everything from print media, radio, television, and cassette tapes, to the more recent social media and podcasts to convey and spread their messages. As Jethani points out: “Technology isn’t the problem, because it can be useful. Rather we should be concerned with the blurring line between technology and the very definition of church.”
“Evangelical Christians use the word church very broadly—to mean a physical building, a Sunday morning event, a cultural institution, and a local or global community. Only that final definition conforms to the New Testament use of the word,” Jethani said.
“When I sit next to someone in the pew, I am conscious of their physicality in a way I can’t be online.” - Alan Noble
“Once you understand that Church is not an event, a sermon, or a concert, but rather an incarnate community living with Christ and one another, you realize in can’t be disincarnated,” he said. “Use the tool, but don’t call it a church.”
Despite this, the use of technology in the congregation still has many opponents, one of them being Alan Noble, an assistant professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University and author of the book “Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age.” Noble argues that the church body is more than just our mental—it’s also including our physical bodies as well.
“When I sit next to someone in the pew, I am conscious of their physicality in a way I can’t be online. I can smell them, I can tell if they’re distracted or concerned, how they’re reacting to a sermon,” he said in an interview with Christian Today. “We are not brains in vats. We are embodied creatures. That’s how we were designed.”
“...while ministering to homebound people is nothing new by any means, digital technology has a great potential to reach out to people in those situations.” - Pastor Alex Wigus
However, there are those that believe that online churches could serve a great purpose to those who are unable to be in church, those who are homebound or isolated. Writer, professor, and church leader Angie Ward believes there could be a purpose to the online church, but narrowly—for those confined to their homes or as a mission field to draw people to the church.
Alex Wigus, who is the pastor of Logan Square Anglican Church, a small congregation in Chicago that limits it’s technology usage to an occasional recording sermon audio and a topical podcast stated that while ministering to homebound people is nothing new by any means, digital technology has a great potential to reach out to people in those situations.
However, we as a church can also get caught up sometimes in how we interact digitally with our congregation and believe that our church is doing well because we have a certain number of likes or views on social media...
“Beyond that, it’s up to the body of Christ to go to those people.” Wigus stated to Christian Today.
Noble had a different outlook on things: “The appropriate response in that situation is for the ministers to go to that person regularly and care for them. That’s so important for a suffering person. To look someone in the eye and commune with them is more an example of what Christ calls us to do than giving them a streaming worship service.”
Bottom line is, technology is changing everything within the church ministry, with more and more churches advancing their communications through the use of new technology. One of the biggest things that makes going digital in the church ministry satisfying is that you can immediately begin to see the results in real time and understand how it engages the people within your church, God’s Word, and the community.
However, we as a church can also get caught up sometimes in how we interact digitally with our congregation and believe that our church is doing well because we have a certain number of likes or views on social media or so many people watching our weekly weekend video stream. That’s why it’s so important for us as a church to line up our use of technology with our mission as a church, that way we reach as many people as possible no matter where they are, and no matter what platforms change.
Author Bro. Julius C. Lowe and his mother Sis. Tawonjah Bathea