Why Talk About Technology?

Why Talk About Technology? If you are working in children’s ministry (Generation Alpha) or youth ministry (Generation Z), you are working with “Digital Natives.” Young people have never experienced a world without the internet, cell phones, and digital devices.

We live in an advancing digital, technological age. The future is now, and it will just keep coming daily! Technological advances have never been made so quickly or often in the planet’s history.   Many consider the advances progressing faster than we humans can handle or even keep up with.

This all seems overwhelming when it comes to your church and your ministry. Many churches and older generations feel like retreating into the safety of their stone buildings, behind their stained glass windows, to enjoy a good old-fashioned sermon and special music the organist provides. They would rather pretend that the world is not changing every day.

We must be willing to use and do our best to step out of our comfort zones and keep informed about technology. We must also be willing to talk about it and teach Godly technology discernment to our students, families, and church.   Here are just three reasons why:

Time

We know the verse and truth, “…make the most of the time for the days are evil…”. It is not a mystery that we live in bad times, but I will not go off on a tirade about the evil of technology. My concern and your concern should be about the time. We need to talk about technology because it is a time vacuum.   Indirectly our students are in the presence of a screen almost the whole time they are awake.   The average child between the ages of 8-18 is directly engaging in “screen time” 7 hours daily. 

We as ministry leaders need to teach, talk to,g and discipline our churches in how they spend their time. Using the older version of the above verse, we need to help them “redeem the time.” If we are not giving our families Godly wisdom and practical tools to manage screen time in their students’ lives, our clock of ministry effectiveness is almost out of time.

Temptation

Jesus told His disciples to be alert, so they could “watch and pray, so they would not fall into temptation…”. We need to do the same thing when it comes to those we have been given the privilege to lead. We must be talking about technology temptations and not just the most common one of pornography. Yes, we know that at least 50% of tweens and 75% of teens have been exposed to inappropriate content. Kids as young as eight nationally have their first exposure to adult content. This is a massive part of the conversation we need to have with our students and families, ensuring we keep young minds and hearts safe and help when temptation comes.

Technology temptation also takes on other forms, at its core, coming from the same place as the “lust of the eye and the pride of life.” Along with sexual temptation, we must talk about pride, jealousy, and lying in our selfie-obsessed, photo-shopped digital culture. Our digital culture also calls us to stand up again the temptation to spend and become unwise stewards of God’s money through online gambling, shopping, and even overspending on things like video games.

One the main door where temptation is crouched waiting for our students and families is technology. Satan is waiting and knocking at that door, waiting to pounce; we need to be standing at that door with the warning.

Truth

God’s truth and Godly thinking are true freedom. If our students and families can know the truth, they can be set free. The truth, however, is being taken captive by technology. People are no longer turning to good resources and the Bible for the answers; they are simple “Googling It” and, even worse, checking on Wikipedia.   Our students are adding on a new source of ultimate truth, YouTube. Over the last couple of years, YouTube has become the preferred location for teens’ advice, truth, and even spiritual thought. The technology-age gurus of truth are mixed in with crazy dance videos and funny clips.

If we are to save the minds of the future generation of the church, we need to talk about technology that influences our thinking and our understanding of the ultimate truth. The keyword for this generation is “influence.” Experts or even celebrities are not leading our young people; they are now being guided by “influencers.”   Everything down to this generation of socks and underwear is being influenced by online content, coming to them through the flood of technology all around them.

We must speak up and claim our voice, using God’s truth and the influence of the Holy Spirit in the lives of our families. As leaders, we must be willing to discuss technology’s uncomfortable and unpopular truths. We are reclaiming what is good, restoring what has been tainted, and rejecting what does not belong in Christ-followers’ lives, walking into the technological future daily.