The digital age has spawned an amazing spread of knowledge* and the younger generations in particular are drinking it up. Lots of people have written about this from a secular perspective and will continue to do so. But a question which seems largely unexplored is “What impact is this having on the local Church.” As we might expect, there are both opportunities and threats and this post takes a stab at some of these issues, particularly as it pertains to the younger generations.
The New Landscape
Firstly we have to be clear on the lay of the land that we are dealing with here. Older generations are not slow to concede that they are generally out of touch with the digital age whilst the younger generations lack the necessary perspective to even know that anything is going on around them. For sure, something is going on and if you grew up in the ’80s, you have a pretty good vantage point. You have seen the rise of the digital age and can therefore provide some context on its transformative affect. There is nothing short of a deluge of information that is now accessible to each one of us. The term for this is the ‘democratisation of knowledge.’ What was locked up in the minds of experts is now freely available to the average man of the street. You can spin this as something empowering or dangerous. For instance in this new world, if you feel ill, in many cases your first thought will be to try and self-diagnose and this offers you the chance of remedy within the convenience of your own home provided you assess and apply the information correctly. This would have been far less likely a scenario just 30 years ago, unless you were an expert in that field. To an ever lesser extent we only consult a doctor now for a ‘second’ opinion. This will seem outrageously overstated to many but it is definitely the developing trend. The problem is, assess and apply the information incorrectly and you may be far worse off. What’s more, the underlying dynamics here hint at a simultaneous demise of the authority figure and a rise of self-importance, particularly of the up and coming generation – young people have always been smug but this is a totally new smugness.
So we are starting to see an emerging picture of what this new world looks like.
Something for everyone, from anyone, any which way
One facet of the increased access to knowledge has to do with the range of different mediums open to us. The Internet is a key driver here of course, facilitating new mediums but also accelerating even the proliferation of physical media such as books which have been around for ever but now have come into a whole new world of their own. The internet is awash with digital content in the form of websites, audio and video and other multimedia all of which can be authored by anyone, anywhere. The knowledge economy is now truly global.
Yet another facet is the ease of which one can share knowledge. Everyone is encouraged to share everything even if it is not appropriate or the means of sharing is not an ideal means. All the normal care taken to share knowledge is discarded in the more laid-back, free and spur-of-the-moment world we live in.
Which brings us (for our purposes here anyway), to a further and final but pivotal aspect of this discussion, that of policing or control.
The internet is not policed which has deep implications for the knowledge sharing process, but that is unlikely to change so we have to unpick this subject in light of that.
The Renaissance outside the Pulpit
So much for the lay of the land. What impact is all this having on the local Church? God has gifted the local church with teachers who can expound the truth of Scripture and a plurality of elders who’s several and joint responsibilities include oversight of sound doctrine. Outside of corporate gatherings however the believer has access to a range of bible teaching and helps which amount to the same variety and enormity available in the secular world. The explosion of available content is being met by an equally high demand of thirsty believers who in some cases sense a vacuum of bible teaching in their local context. What we are seeing could arguably be termed a ‘renaissance’ because the underlying significance of this explosion of knowledge coupled with a generation hungry for it is really quite huge. On the one hand it is very refreshing and the long-term effects could transform local churches for the better. But if the doctor is only consulted now for a ‘second’ opinion are our local elders and bible teachers regarded with the same level of preference? Are there similar dangers involved if I incorrectly assess and apply the information available to me? Is the autonomy of the local church in demise whilst individual believers, especially young ones become ever more self-directing? These are the provocative questions which we must be prepared to answer in order to ensure that the local church is protected and that any negative implications of the ‘renaissance’ are regulated leaving us only with what is helpful, renewal and even, perhaps in God’s grace, revival.
Trying the Spirits
It is now possible to access bible teaching from bible teachers who have a completely different hermeneutic to the one held by our local church. Remember that this new world is not policed. This offers us with the opportunity to verse ourselves with a endless list of different ideas about biblical history, doctrine and principle which can both empower us to defend our beliefs and/or challenge our understanding. Of course a challenge to our understanding may be a profitable thing if our own hermeneutic is skew in some way, and whose isn’t at some point? This being the case, it is essential for those choosing to tap into bible teachers outside of the local church that they properly assess and apply the teaching and this in turn requires the informed development of a sound hermeneutic. But this is exactly what most younger people do not have. They are the ones with the thirst, they are the ones with the access to this new world, but they are the very ones who do not in general have a developed sense of how to interpret scripture. Some are still child-like in their faith and will readily assimilate anything. How it behoves the local church to meet this thirst as much as possible with sound bible teaching and to raise awareness of how to effectively study God’s Word for oneself.
Hook-line-and-sinker
Even if young people are empowered with an ability to filter false doctrine, there is such a plethora of voices out there, that it is very easy to find one voice that you particularly get along with, his hermeneutic, his style, his gift even, that you may hardly ever consult or listen to anyone else. It is not that this is a new problem, just that it is made more prevalent. Your local church may not suffer from a ‘one man ministry’, made almost inevitable if you have a pastor, but it’s possible that some of the flock are near enough experiencing ‘one mans ministry’ through his commentaries, books, audio ministry, goodness even a daily devotional. This is more of a problem in a local context because other gifted believers are refused the opportunity to use their gift. But as we have already reminded ourselves, one of the hallmarks of the local church, a plurality of elders, is in part a safeguard against false doctrine. Listening and reading to one man ‘hook-line-and-sinker’ is unwise, in this new world just as much as it ever has been.
Re-instating Bible Teaching
Finally, opinion and discussion about biblical truth is going on outside of the local church in every form possible and as with every other facet of this subject, on the surface this should only be a good thing. But Scripture shows that bible teaching is ideally done, even if not corporately at least in a formal context, which allows those that are so gifted and called to be able to expound scripture. What is at stake then here is quite simply the deference given to the gift of bible teaching itself. This is somewhat ironic because the cause of the problem in some cases is the lack of bible teaching and the solution young people have found is to find that teaching elsewhere. But history is littered with examples like this where a solution has a semblance of hope and promise only to be acknowledged later that it just ended up compounding the problem. We must once again, give bible teaching, sound bible teaching its proper place in the local church. Not to fill heads, but to allow the sound exposition of the quick and powerful Word of God to transform believers and revive their communities.
Conclusion
Leaders and shepherds must recognise the growing thirst which is in the heart of their younger members and determine how they will support the sound development of biblical truth. Failure to do so will leave open a vacuum which will be filled with things as described here that will not necessarily meet the needs of individual believers or serve to benefit the local church as a whole in the long term.
But we must also enable believers to understand the importance of and the mechanisms by which bible teaching can be validated. With this in-hand the local church will be well placed to maintain its standing as ‘the pillar and the ground of truth’ amidst what we should pray will be a time of renewal and even, perhaps in God’s grace, revival.
* technically it is ‘information’ which is spreading but the emphasis in this article is on the assimilation of the information which results in knowledge
