The twenty-first century has presented pastors with many challenges, among them the use of technology in the church.
Recently, my colleague Bryan Barrineau, a NextGen Pastor at FBC Enterprise in Alabama, and I completed a new study on the use of technology in the local church and its implications for church assimilation and discipleship.[1] On the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic, churches began to emerge from the shadows of isolation and distant discipleship (most widely in the form of digital ministry), attempting to discern what their new normal might become.
For some, when the doors opened and people were able to reassemble in-person, livestreams ceased and their attention quickly shifted back to embodied assemblies and face-to-face ministry priorities.
For many others, however, the idea of “doing church” had shifted dramatically. What once had to happen in real life, among physical gatherings of actual believers, could now be disembodied and happen on screens and digital devices from the comfort of one’s couch.
CHURCH A CLICK AWAY
Though questions about the biblical validity of “online church” have circulated for over a decade, few have explored the empirical implications of technology and its implications on the “reach and teach” (Matt. 28:19–20). The pandemic added
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