Question
Can We Be Discipled Through Screens?
Screens can support discipleship — through Scripture, sermons, teaching, and Christian community at distance — but they cannot substitute for the embodied, communal, sacramental practices through which the historic church has formed disciples for two thousand years.
The question matters because the digital age has produced strong incentives to relocate Christian formation into screen-mediated spaces. Online church, podcast catechesis, app-based prayer, and digital small groups all offer real benefits, especially for the homebound, the isolated, and those without local options. None of these should be dismissed. But none of them can fully replicate the embodied dimension of Christian formation, because Christianity is not primarily a transfer of content — it is incorporation into a body (1 Cor 12).
The body of Christ eats together, suffers together, confesses to one another, lays hands on one another, washes feet, baptizes bodies in water, and shares bread and cup. None of these have screen equivalents. Even the best digital community is a complement to embodied gathering, not a substitute for it. The danger of the digital age is not that it offers screen-mediated discipleship but that it can subtly train Christians to expect that all of discipleship can happen this way — and to find embodied practices inconvenient by comparison.
Key Takeaways: Screens as Supplement, Not Substitute
Core Concept: Christianity is incorporation into a body, not transfer of content.
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12 (the body); John 13 (foot-washing); 1 Corinthians 11 (the Lord’s Table).
Where Screens Help: Teaching access, distance connection, supplementary catechesis.
The “So What”: A church that lets screens become primary will form disciples shaped more by digital convenience than by embodied communion.
About the Author
James Spencer, PhD, is a theologian, author, and host of the Thinking Christian podcast, where he writes and speaks on Christian formation, political theology, and technology. He holds a PhD in Theological Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and completed the Institute for Educational Management at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He serves as President of the D.L. Moody Center in Northfield, Massachusetts, as adjunct faculty in Wheaton College’s MA in Leadership program, and as an Associate Research Fellow at the Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, Christianity.com, and Sojourners. His forthcoming book is Discipleship and Discernment in the Digital Age (InterVarsity Press, Fall 2026). Learn more at jamesgspencer.com.