Questions
How Can the Church Help Christians Resist the World’s Pressures in a Digital Age?
Summary: The church resists digital-age pressures by modeling a different kind of community—slowing the rhythms of life through worship, confession, and communion; teaching explicitly about how technology forms us; and fostering covenantal relationships where believers are known not for performance but for participation in Christ.
The church’s role is to model a different kind of community—a community that forms people in truth and love rather than in self-promotion and competition. In a world obsessed with visibility, the church must become a place of depth. Its rhythms of worship, confession, and communion slow us down and draw our attention to God and one another. By gathering around Word and Table, the church teaches us that presence, not productivity, is the essence of Christian life.
Teaching and formation must also address the digital explicitly. Churches should help believers understand not only how to use technology but how technology uses us—how it shapes our imaginations, desires, and sense of identity. Sermons, classes, and small groups can become spaces for theological reflection on digital habits, inviting honest dialogue about how our online lives align with our confession of faith. In doing so, the church reclaims its role as a community of discernment.
Beyond instruction, the church must foster covenantal relationships. Many of the pressures of the digital world—comparison, anxiety, isolation—thrive in the absence of genuine community. The church offers an alternative, a fellowship where people are known and loved not for their performance but for their participation in Christ. Within such relationships, we are strengthened to resist conformity to the world’s patterns because we are reminded daily of who we are and whose we are.
Finally, the church should embody hope. Our resistance is not rooted in fear of technology but in faith in God’s sovereignty. The digital age, with all its complexity, lies within the providence of the Creator. The church’s task is not to retreat but to bear witness—to show that life together under Christ’s lordship offers a more human, more joyful way of being. By living differently, the church prepares its people to live faithfully.
Key Takeaways: The Church as Alternative Community
- Modeling Depth: Worship, confession, and communion create rhythms that slow the pace and center presence rather than productivity.
- Explicit Teaching: Sermons, classes, and small groups should help believers understand how technology uses us—not just how to use technology.
- Covenantal Relationships: Fellowship in which believers are known and loved for participation in Christ rather than for performance.
- The “So What”: The church’s resistance is rooted in hope, not fear—witnessing to a more human, more joyful way of being under Christ’s lordship.
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; he has been quoted in The Telegraph; and he is a regular guest on Stand in the Gap Today with the American Pastors Network. His forthcoming book is Digital Discernment (InterVarsity Press, Fall 2026). Learn more at jamesgspencer.com.