I recently gave a talk to our men at Mosaic Church on having a Christian worldview of technology in the 21st century. How do we view it? How should we view it? I jotted down some notes here with two primary points: Technology can (and should) be used for good, and the way we use technology can be worship. Here they are.
• One of the primary conversations culturally as well as in the life of Mosaic — based on our recent survey data — is on distraction. We are distracted from everything and self-admittedly not as present as we should be. That reality forms the impetus for this discussion around how to have a better Christian worldview of technology.
• Point No. 1 — Do we primarily view our devices and the platforms we are on as a way to, as Galatians 6:10 says, “do good to everyone”? Or do we primarily view them as ways to consume more for ourselves? If technology is neutral, then what an important tool it is to do good in the world!
• We underrate how powerful technology is and how much good can be leveraged from it. The answer to some of the questions that are being asked about technology in Christian circles is not, “It’s evil, never use it” but rather that we must shift our fundamental understanding of its primary purpose. If the Christian mandate is to love God and love others, then everything we have should be leveraged to those ends, including (especially!) the devices and technology that massive companies say are actually specifically for us to consume.
• Point No. 2 — When it comes to our technology diets (what we consume), we are often consuming too much and also a lot of the wrong stuff. When it comes to food, we have a governor on how much we eat and what we put in our bodies, the same is not always true of technology.
• Romans 8:6 says “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” In this instance, setting our minds on the flesh means “to think just the way the unbelieving world thinks, emphasizing what it thinks important, pursuing what it pursues.” Are we doing that when it comes to content consumption on our devices and on social media?
• Good rules of life as it relates to technology …
> Leave your devices in a different room when you sleep.
> Leave your devices in a different room when you read and pray.
> Leave your devices in a different room at dinners and lunches.
> Use a timer on your watch when you get online.
• None of us has enough willpower to stave off the allure of our phones, tablets and computers so we must implement these rules of life to help us obtain a freedom that only our presence can provide.
• The last question is whether we are digital wanderers or whether we have a plan. There are so many ways to worship the Lord through our hobbies and our free time, and certainly recreational media and devices can be a part of that. You can worship through poetry on YouTube or by writing code or through a website that teaches you how to roast coffee at home. These are reflective of a creative God. But how rarely do we view this technology as a means for worship instead of just a means for consumption?
• Technology can primarily be viewed as a way to do good and secondarily viewed as a way to worship — as a way to stir our affections for the Lord, both by not using it too much and by using what we use with great discretion. What we do with our time says everything about what we believe is important, and so often our worship also goes to whatever gets our time. Let’s be wise about how we do that as technology becomes more and more ubiquitous.