At ClearPurpose, I most often write at the intersection of business strategy, technology, and entrepreneurship, but I appreciate the opportunities to factor in a fourth important vector — a Christian worldview. Recently I’ve had some discussions with a well-known Bible college about their digital strategy and it caused me to reflect on how the four major waves of the Digital Christian Revolution have impacted ministries.
I’ve written at length in the past about the four sub-revolutions within the Digital Revolution, but as a quick reminder, they are:
4 Waves of the Digital Revolution
- the microprocessor or PC revolution, when everything started to be digitized,
- the Internet revolution, when everything started to be connected,
- the mobile and social revolution when everyone and everything became connected everywhere and all the time, and
- the Connected Intelligence revolution, when data and algorithms change the way we understand our world and how we make decisions.
I often talk about the power and the danger of new technologies. Winning organizations will capture the power while managing the danger. To me, this seems like a much more important challenge for Christian ministries than for most for-profit corporations.
The Digital Christian Revolution
Jesus summarized God’s commands as “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” and “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37–39). While technology has tremendous potential to be used for good, too often it is used in ways that dishonor God and that harm people. As we’ve especially seen in recent weeks, sometimes the real damage isn’t even seen until years after the technology is introduced.
So to me, this is an essential issue. Are there ministries that have done a good job of capturing that power of the digital Christian revolution while managing the danger? If so, how have they managed to pull it off?
