'Technology is the future of the church,' exclaimed my conversation partner as we chatted over buffet food and Shloer in Glasgow Cathedral, just before Christmas.
I was there to MC for Crossreach's annual Christmas Carol Concert and had been tracked down by someone from a neighbouring part of the Kirk to talk about the church, and specifically where its future lay. I listened politely, bristled a little, and kept chewing the conversation over until I could properly get to grips with my own reflections a little later, hoping to solve the question of why I couldn't raise my glass of sparking grape juice with a hearty 'cheers to that' at the statement.
The church in the broadest sense has come through a lot in the recent half-decade.
Things weren't looking great from a numbers demographics point of view then a 1-2 of Covid and cost of living crises dealt a couple more giant blows. At my most sympathetic, I can see why 'online church is the future' was adopted. It became a lifeline during that time, allowing us to simulate even the faintest sense of continuing communion, however frail.
It also seems to address the so-called problems of our cultural moment, where people aren't so keen on going to church (or indeed many such similar institutions and clubs), and like to spend a lot of time on electronic devices. I am sympathetic to all this and have even at times thought, maybe this is the future. But that's not where I sit today.
I don't think technology is a panacea for church decline, far from it. This may come as a surprise. I'm sure to many, since I've arrived at EPC, I appear to have constantly been pushing the church into embracing more digital expressions of our church life.
That's true, I have, and I hope I can demonstrate, it’s with good reason.
Online technology, and the various platforms it has spawned, I believe are, even on their best day, simply tools and conduits for what is eternal about the church - the message of the Gospel and the people that gather around it.
If we get this wrong, it can either become a burden, a laughing stock, or a hindrance.
There is a now infamous photograph of storied Apache tribe leader Geronimo, stationed at the wheel of a Cadillac, in June 1905 for Oklahoma Gala Day. Geronimo is flanked by others in Native American garb, while he sits awkwardly in top-hat and suit, typical white man's attire. The photo relates a painful history, as he was actually a prisoner of the U.SGovernment at the time, simply paraded out as part of the show for that day.
He never owned or indeed needed a modern Cadillac (or indeed Locomobile Type E as the vehicle actually is). This photo and event, inspired Michael Martin Murphey's 1972 song 'Geronimo's Cadillac', whose lyrics bring out the absurdity and clash of cultures behind the image.
The ill-fitting picture of Geronimo, in foreign garb, being forced to steer the juggernaut of modernity is poignant whichever way we look at it. Whether it’s the inauthenticity, being forced to be something he is not. The burden,of having to play a part to try and fit in with the surrounding stream of modernity. Or pitiful nature of being a side-show at a gala day, little more than a laughing stock.
To me, it is all too easy for churches to rush head-long into embracing technology because 'it is the future' and we are scared of being left behind. It is too easy to get caught up trying anything and everything in an attempt at relevance, as we panic about fading numbers.
Inevitably, if these are our motivations, we risk being a laughing stock - not taken seriously by our audience because they sense the inauthenticity or desperation or both.That's why I've tried to focus on what we can do. Theologically, this means seeing technology as a tool, rather than a panacea, that can gently and accessibly reach people with the Gospel.
Practically, it means focusing on what we can do consistently, to a high standard, and filtering out the rest. We have limited personnel and resources so this is important. But the goal of all this is clear. The church existed long before any algorithms because of a life-giving message, in the person of Christ, and created an enduring community to live out that message.
There's a mystery that takes place when we gather as God's people. I'm grateful for the ways that can extend into people’s home over the ether, and the soft welcome it can give on a screen. But ultimately, whatever it looks like at EPC, I believe in some old fashioned way that the future of the church is as the past of the church - God's people gathering, with technology being a well-crafted tool to support that gathering.
Yours in Christ,
David
The Brig - March 2025 Edition
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