Digital Media and the
Local Church by Dr. Steve McMullin
Digital media is bringing change to the Christian church in ways and to an extent that few people expected. At first, many congregations saw new media as an opportunity to communicate with a wider audience but did not anticipate ways that media have transformed communication and the experience of community. We live at a time of great social change that is powerfully related to the digital revolution. The institutional church is in decline, and new media are changing how faith is experienced and practiced. These changes are more complex than many people realize, and the complexities of how digital technologies interact with the Christian faith make it even more puzzling.
congregation emphatically told me that their church would never use social media because they would not be able to control the content. At that moment I took out my cell phone, did a Facebook search, and showed them that young adults in their church, without asking for permission, had already started three active Facebook pages using their church name. The pastors were aghast. Later, as I met with the congregation’s young adults, they talked about how social media and texting made them feel part of their congregation—even though none of the content was being filtered by the congregation’s leaders. New media made the young adults feel empowered in their digitally mediated experience of faith and community.
After centuries of mostly one-way communication (from pulpit to pew, or from teacher to student), today people engage in online dialogue and experience online community. Online faith communities cross traditional social and cultural and ideological barriers. Congregations can provide online and multi-site opportunities for community that are likely to include individuals and groups who previously would have been excluded.
Digital media can empower people whose voices may have been marginalized in the institutional church. People with disabilities who were excluded from worship by an inaccessible building can now participate online; those who work shifts on Sunday can access worship online according to their schedule; a retirement home for the elderly can become a video venue for a multisite congregation. Weblogs facilitate open conversations about topics that had been taboo or at least unpopular
While I was conducting research, the two pastors of one historic
in traditional church settings; YouTube videos allow the wide dissemination of creative expressions of faith; online translation tools overcome language barriers that might previously have limited cross-cultural connections. These and other online platforms can operate entirely outside of the traditional institutions that had defined church life for centuries. It helps when congregations and their leaders understand that digital media do more than communicate information more quickly and more widely. Communication itself changes in a digital age. There are good reasons why young adults sit across the table from one another in a restaurant texting each other rather than just talking. They communicate through texts what they would not communicate in conversation. Similarly, there are ... continued on page 8 Spring 2020
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