We’re Discipled by What’s in Front of Us

Screens Are Discipling People

“For the first time in human history, we have the technology to literally ‘go into all the world’—yet church leaders still insist on using this technology to invite people to events instead of inviting them to conversations.”

—@aussiedave on Twitter

I recently attended a webinar by Barna Group (a Christian research firm) where they talked about embracing technology to better reach upcoming generations. According to their research,

• 73% of Gen Z (born 1997–2012) use either YouTube or TikTok throughout the day

• 83% of Gen Z admits that their generation spends too much time online

After presenting the research, Barna’s Associate Vice President of Research concluded that “screens disciple.” People spend way more time on screens than they do absorbing spiritual content—and whatever content we absorb ends up forming the way we think.

We’re discipled by what’s in front of us.

As someone who uses a website to introduce Jesus to Google searchers, I really love the concept of using online content to disciple people.

The internet is influencing millions, so to neglect it would be a huge missed opportunity for the church. The internet can be used to reach millions of people who would never step foot in a church.

As one of the webinar’s guest speakers Grant Diamond agrees. He worked as pastor for 12 years then left his job to become a full-time video game streamer. He now calls himself a “digital missionary” who uses his video game stream to expose people to Jesus’s ideologies.

Another of the webinar’s guest speakers was Grant Skeldon, who founded THINQ Media to help Christians start the kinds of conversations that lead people into wisdom.

I love THINQ’s strategy of using conversations to lead people to discovering truth. I hope to do that more, both IRL (in real life) and online.

As Grant Skeldon says,

“If we’re not gonna disciple them, the world would love to.”