Dr Bex Lewis @drbexl
Senior Lecturer in Digital Marketing
05 January 2021
Dallas Theological Seminary
Faith in a Digital Age (A UK Perspective)
https://www.slideshare.net/drbexl

My Twitter Bio
Life Explorer author
speaker academic
@ManMetUni
#DigitalCulture #SocMedia
@digitalfprint Christian
#KeepCalm #Tech4Good
#BreastCancer #WIASN
#Pockets #Cheese

https://wearesocial.com/uk/blog/2020/10/social-media-users-pass-the-4-billion-mark-as-global-adoption-soars

Being Visible
If someone can’t find you online,
they’re actually going to think
there’s something very strange
about that and not trust you. In
the digital sense, not having
great profiles online is the same
as not turning up to a meeting.
Natasha Courtenay-Smith (2018)
Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

https://bryonytaylor.com/2020/06/18/setting-up-phone-church-using-whypayhq-telephone-conferencing/

Digital Religion Research
Scholars are identified as having moved from
excitement at this ‘new thing’, to the digital
becoming a part of everyday life to be analysed,
to understanding what the lived ‘reality’ of digital
religion is. The three academic waves that
Campbell identifies here—the descriptive, the
categorical and the theoretical—are echoed
throughout the rest of the book, as we
understand how ‘digital religion’ has matured as a
field of study.
Lewis, B. Book review: Digital Religion: Understanding Religious Practice in New Media Worlds, written by
Heidi Campbell, 2015, 249

https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/7650/8430

Technological determinism is a reductionist
theory that aims to provide a causative link
between technology and a society's nature.
... Technology is viewed as the driving force of
culture in a society and it determines its course of
history.
https://www.communicationtheory.org/technological-determinism/

Digital on its own terms…
Even though in practice, face-to-face
communication can, of course, be angry,
negligent, resistant, deceitful and
inflexible, somehow it remains the ideal
against which mediated communication is
judged as flawed
Livingstone, S. Children and the Internet: Great
Expectations and Challenging Realities, 2009, 26

The [constructivist] philosophy that technology is
not neutral and is shaped by the dominant social,
political and economic values of society. As a
result therefore, changes in values lead to
different technological outcomes, and as a
result, social science considerations can be used
to shape technologies.
https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/social-shaping-semantic-web/35736

https://www.tmz.com/2020/10/05/trump-twitter-roid-rage-vote-dexamethasone-walter-reed-covid/

For many churchgoing is no longer the ‘cultural
norm’. People don’t actively ignore the church: they
don’t even think about it. Matthew 5:13-16 calls us
to be salt and light in the world, and for thousands in
the ‘digital age’, that world includes social networks
such Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest. With
literally billions in the digital spaces, the online social
spaces presented by churches need to be appealing,
welcoming, and not look like they are just an
afterthought: they are now effectively the ‘front
door’ to your church for digital users, and you ignore
those spaces at your peril.
Lewis, B. Growing Churches in a Digital Age, 2013
18
http://bit.ly/ChurchDigAge
Image: Flickr

Online Church?
It may be possible to set up an online mega-church of millions of
people but it is more likely that a long-term online Christian
community will be small and quiet rather than large and exciting,
and may not be understood by the wider Church…the commonest
question I am asked about online church is ‘What do you do?’ and
it is hard to explain that we don’t ‘do’ church – we are church to
each other, despite the lack of sacraments or a building, because
we are committed to each other’s journeys in the faith and in
Christ’s love.
Smith, P. Online Mission and Ministry, 2015, Introduction
19

The ‘face’ of God?
[If we are…] means by which God communicates
and reveals himself through his Spirit, then our
blog posts, status updates, tweets, artistic
images, and online comments should be
products of a life transformed by Christ and
indwelled by his Spirit. As restored image
bearers, our online presence and activity should
image the Triune God.
Byers, A. Theomedia: The Media of God and
the Digital Age, 2013, 196

p47
Vulnerability
@revjoannecox

http://drbexl.co.uk/category/cancer

#WaitingRoomFeet
#BusyLivingWithMets
#IAmThe31

https://www.instagram.com/p/BgG_7-WDwnW/ By: https://www.instagram.com/chrisbambrough/

Celebrate our similarities
“The original disciples gave each other that which
each needed, were honest and true, were
respected by people, and sought to live both the
good and difficult parts of life together. Will
others say that of us? My thought whenever
someone thinks different from me is to think, how
interesting, and to want to have a conversation
about the journey they took to reach that
understanding! We need to celebrate our
similarities, rather than focusing on our
differences.”
Bex Lewis, ‘Church as Family’, 17/02/18, Day by Day with God

http://www.discipleshiptools.org/pages.asp?pageid=65405
https://stockfresh.com/image/118043/fish-sand-symbol
“A Disciple is one who, by following
Jesus, grows in their faith in Christ and
in so doing models and teaches
Christians the precepts of the Bible,
prayer, doctrine, relationship, Christian
living, service, and worship, to name
the main ones.

https://www.wearemakingdisciples.com/

Disability/Accessibility and Church
• https://www.inclusive-
church.org/disability
• https://www.europeanea.org/chu
rch-resources/disability-and-the-
church/
• https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/a
rticles/2020/1-
may/features/features/disabled-
people-say-welcome-to-our-
world

https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2020/26-june/comment/opinion/find-support-through-the-screen

https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/7650/8430

Grenfell Tower
That trust exists because of the care and
compassion they have received for
decades… we actually live here… urge
those who speak about it to avoid the
ambiguous and woolly term “local church”,
but to speak proudly, precisely, and
powerfully of the “parish church”. The
parish church is a living icon of God’s love,
connecting with people in ways that we
hardly begin to understand and so often
underestimate.
Revd Dr Alan Everett, Vicar of St Clement with St Mark, Notting Dale, and St James’s,
Norlands http://bit.ly/churchtimesGrenfall
Image Diocese of Londonhttps://www.slideshare.net/drbexl/ipm-placing-the-christian-church-in-the-digital-age

https://www.facebook.com/cox.joanne/posts/10157318396906780

https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/questions/fruit-of-the-spirit
Galatians 5:22-23

http://bit.ly/SurvSocFaithSocMedia
‘Theological values of “interdependence and openness to others,”
however, encourages sharing which enables users to see some acts
of surveillance “as a good and necessary act of care.” Yngvesson
(Lewis 2017c) notes that where surveillance is used as a bridging
mechanism, this creates a healthy community, whilst when used in
a demanding and exclusive way, it becomes unhealthy.’
Lewis, Bex. 2018. Social Media, Peer Surveillance, Spiritual Formation, and Mission: Practising Christian Faith in a
Surveilled Public Space. Surveillance & Society 16(4): 517-532.

Before you post….
Photo by Michal Czyz on Unsplash
• God
• Parents
• Younger Kids
• Employers
• Newspapers
• Your worst
enemy

Vision & Values
• What is important to
you?
• What do you stand for?
• What do you stand
against?
See: http://bit.ly/CreateValues
Photo by Nathan Lemon on Unsplash

What makes people share?
• Social Currency: We share things that make us look good
• Triggers: Things need to be in our consciousness to want to share
them
“Different locations contain different triggers. Churches are filled with
religious imagery, which might remind people of church doctrine…. And
once these thoughts are triggered, they might change behaviour.”
• Emotion: We want to share the things we care about (exciting and
fun is more shared than sad: see
https://www.facebook.com/groups/220412129012000)
• Public: If something is public, and on show, it's visible to others and
enters their consciousness
• Practical Value: People like to share useful bits of information that
we think will help people
• Stories: Humans tell stories - and useful information can be
embedded in what seems like idle chatter!

Questions?
• What is good practice for being a
Christian online?
• What is a theologically informed
view of digital engagement?
• What does a welcoming church
look like in a digital age?
Photo by Camylla Battani on Unsplash

Connect further:
http://drbexl.co.uk/
@drbexl
https://www.slideshare.net/drbexl