Symmetry, Not Scale

Should churches be fast or slow to embrace technology?

(Adapted from a brief talk I gave at a TGC Good Faith Debate in 2023)

Today, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy urged Congress to add warning labels on social media platforms, akin to what we see on tobacco and alcohol products. For several years now, I and others have noted the striking correlation between shifts in public perception around cigarettes a half century ago and an increasing awareness of the dangers of digital technologies today. It seems hard to believe but we are (hopefully) inching our way toward the day when TikTok, Instagram, X, Facebook, and other platforms will include a “Surgeon General’s Warning,” which may in turn be a step toward the more comprehensive age-limit reforms recommended by Jonathan Haidt and others.

Photograph by Eamonn Fitzmaurice

I see all of this as significant and long-awaited movement in the right direction. To be clear, I am not necessarily against digital technologies, in the same way that I am not against cars. With enough intentionality, care, and society-wide limitations, most technologies can become for the most part what we make of them. But for the same reasons I would not allow my nine year old to drive a car right now, careful, thoughtful consideration with the longview in mind is necessary when it comes to our engagement with technologies.

This is especially true of new digital technologies because they pose a fascinating complexity. Unlike cars, these new technologies hold a unique formative power because of their ubiquity and pervasiveness. The average iPhone user unlocks their phone 80x a day. The average social media user will spend five entire years of their life scrolling, sharing, and liking. These new technologies have become the air we breathe.

In light of this, as a pastor, I’ve spent several years pondering and writing about this question:

Should churches be fast or slow to embrace new technology? 

There is an inherent fear baked into the idea of being “too slow” on anything. In a culture as fast-moving and progress-oriented as ours, falling behind is akin to falling off a cliff, a descent into irrelevance. As such, there are some who worry that if the church does not lean into and leverage new technologies assertively and aggressively, with immediacy and urgency, the church will be rendered ineffective in her mission, mired in irrelevance. Conversely, the assumption is that if the church can embrace new technologies and innovate online, our effectiveness will naturally increase. 

But we have evidence to the contrary. 

The church has already embraced many of the new technologies of the digital age en masse. When the Covid pandemic sheltered us in place in the early spring of 2020, churches pivoted quickly and by April, 97% of churches in America had online services up and running. But by that summer, just a few months into the pandemic, half of all Millennials who regularly attended church in person before Covid had stopped attending online completely. 

As the church rushed headlong into the new technologies at our disposal, the results were mixed at best and disastrous at worst. Overall church engagement declined. Congregational fracturing over online content increased. And the public witness of the church suffered. 

Some suggested that this was because the church was not innovating enough. This line of thinking proposes that mere presence and engagement fall short. Instead, the church must go first, lead the way, initiate, and subvert these new technologies in order to be effective. I admit there is some redemptive potential in this line of thinking but it comes with a significant, inherent problem in that it does not adequately take into account the powerful, non-neutral design and intention of these technologies. 

As one example, social media is designed for scale. And scale is about reach. This is why so many of us are addicted to pulling that slot-machine-lever on our smartphones called “refresh,” over and over again. It’s because we want to see the possibility and promise of scale and reach fulfilled. 

“How many likes?” “How many retweets?” “How many shares?”

Scale and reach are about being noticed by as many as possible, as near and far as possible. This is a wonderful approach when it comes to content. And Christ-centered, Gospel-saturated content is necessary and vitally important today. But while content can inspire and inform, content alone cannot transform. 

Of course, it is God alone, in his goodness and grace, who can truly transform a life, through the regenerative work of his Spirit. But most often, God chooses to do this work through the medium of real human beings in real places leaning into real relationships. 

I’ve come to believe that the most effective way to reach an unbelieving and hurting world is not scale but symmetry—individual Christians and collective church communities aligning their energies toward a handful of those within the ripple effect of our lives (family, friends, coworkers, our local towns, neighborhoods, workplaces, schools, etc.), leaning into the lives of others as personally and intimately as possible. 

Symmetry is not about reach. It’s about rapport and relationship.

Symmetry doesn’t focus on being noticed by as many as possible, as far as possible.

Symmetry helps us do the work of noticing as many as possible within our proximity.

To be sure, this is slow work. Much slower than the immediate potential for scale and reach offered by the new technologies of our day. But when the church grabs hold too quickly of such new technologies, thinking only of potential possibilities and missed opportunities, the church leaves herself susceptible in two key ways.

First, embracing new technology too fast leaves the church susceptible to being subsumed by the overwhelming power and design of the technology itself, sabotaging even our best efforts toward redemptive subversion. We’ve seen this in recent years as churches rushed to social media in the wake of a series of cultural moments, making statements, taking sides, all in good faith attempts to “represent Jesus” but often failing miserably, unnecessarily alienating entire segments of their congregations because of a lack of nuance, and faltering back to square one. 

Two, and maybe most importantly, embracing new technology too fast leaves the church susceptible to losing sight of the very real thing in our midst—not potential or possibilities out there, but the seemingly mundane and ordinary gift of proximity right here. Yes, we are to take the Gospel to ends of the earth. But the journey there always begins in Jerusalem. Or, for me, the Silicon Valley. And for you, wherever you are. But the new technologies of the digital age shift our gaze always toward the distant horizons under the guise of creating a “global village,” where individuals are far away enough to look like a conveniently reachable mass, giving us the illusion that we can effectively reach many without doing the arduous work of building rapport and relationship. 

Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. - John 15:4

This is gardening language. And gardening is a slow and steady, often boring and unspectacular labor. It certainly is not about going first nor is it about going fast. In fact, it is in many ways the antithesis of speed. Gardening requires patience. It’s mostly watching and waiting. But there is no other way to bear healthy fruit. You cannot microwave an orange. 

And so it is with the church. In recent years, I have found immense solace and confidence in contemplating the long arch of God’s history. In his sovereignty and faithfulness, he has led his church through wars and famines and pandemics time and time again. He has gently and effectively led his church through countless cultural shifts and technological advancements. That has not and will never change. Under his care, even when we go slow, we are never behind.