The techno-theology gap

Since its start, the Church has been changed by new technologies – from the printing press to cars. But the rate at which those changes are coming has quickened from centuries to decades to days. Previous generations had years to understand new technology. Now, AI tools to help pastors are coming out almost weekly, and that’s just the beginning. Executive pastors wonder if the next new facility tech will make things cheaper, more reliable and more accessible. Youth pastors adapt to new social media platforms by the season. Name a church problem and there’s a custom solution, available by annual subscription. But when a basic question like “How can I tell if my church really needs this?” goes unanswered, can we really say we are wisely shepherding our congregations through these changes? Churches in Canada are overdue for some self-reflection about the influence of technology on ministry.

This is especially important because few resources exist to train pastors in what you might call biblical technical literacy. Seminaries and Bible colleges don’t teach it. Common practices about discerning the Holy Spirit through technical change seem few and far between, an afterthought compared to more “spiritual” things like ministry or programming. Most of the Christian books in this area focus on personal use – the technology in our homes. But very little has been written about how churches interact with technology.

What is technology?

One fundamental problem of the techo-theology gap is a narrow definition of technology. Technology is not just your church’s sound system, Wi-Fi network and website; by some interpretations, almost everything about how we operate is some form of technology.

Last year, for the first time ever, the Lausanne Movement published an in-depth look at church technology, which it defined as a tool, a process, a culture, a spiritual artifact, and “as shaping, or shaped by, culture.” In From the Garden to the City (2011), John Dyer says, “technology is the human activity of using tools to transform God’s creation for practical purposes.” To that, Tony Reinke adds that “technology is applied science and amplified power. It is art, method, know-how, formulas and expertise” (God, Technology and the Christian Life, 2021).

So technology is not just a tool for work. It’s also what users do around the tools. Like a shepherd can’t be separated from the staff or sheep or flock, and the fisherman can’t be separated from the net or boat or marketplace, today’s pastor is wrapped up in the technology of the modern church.

Three categories to consider

Here are three distinct categories to start with: First, ministry and spiritual formation technologies that Christians use in everyday life for personal spiritual growth, like a printed Bible, an app on your phone or a Bible study curriculum. Second, liturgical technologies involving the worship life of the church, including everything from sound systems to instruments and even music notation itself. And third, operational & administrative technologies that support church management and operations, ranging from physical materials like buildings, parking lots, bulletins and chairs, to digital resources like a Wi-Fi network, accounting software and communication platforms.

These technology categories highlight some of the materials at the heart of modern churches. But if we consider the broader true definitions of technology, we realize that almost everything and everyone involved in the church, from the musicians to the ushers, accountants, and landscapers working outside, are a form of technology.

If we haven’t identified the rest of these things as tools for ministry, how can we see them through a Christian lens? If we can’t see them, how do we lay them at the Lord’s feet? And if we are not offering them to the Lord for his purposes, then what are we using them for?

My journey into church tech theology

My own history with technology comes from working in churches and working in the music industry. I have managed the technology at some of the biggest concert venues in Canada and toured with artists across America. I have also worked in pastoral and operational roles at some of the biggest and smallest churches in both these countries. The COVID lockdown in 2020 was my first opportunity in many years to pause from working in live events and church services. I rediscovered my passion for reading. I was introduced to authors like Marshall McLuhan, Neil Postman and Jacques Ellul.

More recently, a local Bible college asked me to teach their sound technology course in their pastoral leadership program. The course syllabus showed that it was essentially the same introduction-to-sound course that I had taken 15 years earlier. My first reaction was, “Bible colleges still don’t have more to say about technology?” After so many years in and out of church leadership positions, I certainly did.

With some reworking of the course scope around a broader definition of technology, I was able to find a more practical angle to help future pastors who will inevitably be overseeing some form of technology. The syllabus was updated to include learning goals like “Appreciation for theological principles that apply to Christian use of technology” and “Equipping worship leaders to think deeply, wisely and quickly across church technologies,” as well as “Knowledge of technology’s impacts on the biblical, historic and modern church.”

Functional dualism

We need theology to ground our use of technology in the church. Without it, we risk technology forming our beliefs, rather than our beliefs forming our technology. Ignoring this leads to a sort of functional duality where we become laser-focused on the spirituality of ministry but let technology define our physical ways of operating. Technology creeps into the ministry and structures it around whatever the technology requires.

We have seats and a parking lot; therefore, we must fill them.
We have staff, therefore we must generate tithes to pay them.
We have money, therefore we must use it to the maximum of productivity.
We have a livestream, so we must have ever-increasing viewers.

Incrementally, as technology grows in the church, the philosophy of ministry slowly changes from shepherds caring for sheep to managers using machines to create products. We become more defined by what technology does rather than what God says. Pastors turn into decision-making managers, making technical measurements of efficiency, productivity and cost vs. value.

I am not suggesting that pastors should go to business school for better business training. What I am asking is, when technology defines how we work rather than our theology, who really is lord of the congregation?

Technology tells us to be faster, build momentum, constantly improve and become more efficient.

Jesus tells us that patience, slowness and inefficiency should be our method.

Technology says that more visibility, more content, and increasing connection is the way forward.

Jesus says that anonymity, isolation and silence are to be valued.

Technology values bang for the buck, lowering expenses and increasing output.

Jesus says that generosity, extravagance and wasteful resource use are just and can even bring honour to God.

So will it be technology that defines our churches?

Or Christ?

This article is part 1 in a series.