Discipleship in a Digital Age: Rethinking Church in the Era of Electronics
Every year, the numbers get harder to ignore. According to the latest research, the average American now spends nearly twelve hours a day interacting with a digital device.
At first, that sounds absurd—some stat pulled out of thin air by a professor trying to make headlines. But the more you think about it, the more it checks out.
Picture a typical high school student. The alarm goes off, and the first thing they do—before they even sit up—is grab their phone from the bedside table. They scroll through Instagram or TikTok to catch up on whatever happened while they were asleep. Then, while brushing their teeth or getting dressed, they queue up their favorite vloggers or YouTube influencers—who conveniently package world events, pop culture, and product endorsements into short bursts of high-energy content.
At the bus stop? More scrolling. On the bus? Snapchat, FaceTime, or a mobile game. And we haven’t even gotten to school yet.
Once in the classroom, they don’t put devices away—they’re told to pull them out. Assignments, tests, textbooks, collaboration—almost everything is digital. During lunch, they’re back on social, gaming, or streaming. After school, they snack while watching YouTube or Netflix, switch to a laptop for homework, and message friends nonstop throughout the evening.
Eventually, they fall asleep… with the phone still glowing in hand.
Always Connected
It’s not just teenagers. Most of us are living variations of the same script. Phones, tablets, laptops, watches—we are inextricably tethered to our screens. Digital devices have become our source for news, work, entertainment, relationships, and (increasingly) identity.
And it’s not without consequence.
We’re only beginning to understand the impact this is having—not just on culture, but on the human brain.
Dopamine: Digital Candy for the Brain
Take dopamine, for example. You’ve probably heard of it as the “pleasure chemical,” but it does much more than trigger warm feelings. Dopamine plays a key role in sleep, mood, motivation, learning, and attention.
And here’s where things get interesting: many social media platforms and mobile games are designed to trigger dopamine releases—often through actions like swiping or refreshing your feed. Research shows that these platforms typically require interaction about every 13 seconds. A swipe, a like, a message, a video preview—it all keeps the dopamine flowing.
Now multiply that by twelve hours a day, and you’re looking at more than 3,000 dopamine hits every single day.
No wonder we’re seeing skyrocketing rates of anxiety, depression, aggression, and suicide—especially among young people. While the science is still developing, the early research points to strong correlations between electronic usage and these troubling trends.
This isn’t about demonizing devices. As with any tool, there are pros and cons. Technology isn’t going away—and neither should it. But we need to start asking a crucial question:
What does evangelism and discipleship look like in a digital age?
The Church Can’t Compete—And Shouldn’t Try To
Here’s the reality: the church cannot compete with 3,000 dopamine hits a day—and we’re not supposed to. The goal of discipleship is not to out-entertain the culture, but to help people follow Jesus in the culture they’re already immersed in.
Still, we can’t afford to ignore what’s happening.
The next generation doesn’t just use electronics—they’ve been shaped by them. Their minds are wired differently. Their habits, attention spans, and social patterns are foreign to many of us who grew up pre-smartphone. And this isn’t just a “young people” issue. It’s a societal issue.
Whatever your age, if you’re swiping a screen, you’re riding the dopamine wave too.
This is where the church has a choice: we can pretend nothing has changed, or we can adapt with wisdom and intentionality.
Adapting Without Compromising
Maybe this is what happened to Joshua’s generation.
Remember the tragic line from Judges 2?
“Another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what He had done for Israel.”
What if it wasn’t that their parents failed to tell them the stories? What if the stories just didn’t land—because they weren’t told in a way that made sense to a new kind of world?
Let’s not make that mistake again.
We’re not calling for compromise, but for contextualization. For meeting people where they are—just like Paul did in Acts 17 when he addressed the philosophers in Athens using their own language and cultural references.
Practical Implications for the Church
If we’re serious about reaching people in a digital age, here are a few ideas to consider:
- Shorter, faster-paced programming may help accommodate shorter attention spans.
- Digital delivery of content—through blogs, vlogs, apps, and podcasts—can meet people where they already are.
- Use mobile apps during services and classes to encourage live feedback, foster discussion, or guide prayer.
- Ditch the printed bulletin in favor of an app or digital handout—bonus: it’s environmentally friendly.
- Offer spiritual content on demand—midweek devotionals, Scripture reflections, and faith conversations that can be accessed anywhere, anytime.
- Equip parents to disciple their kids using tools that make sense in a tech-heavy household.
And that’s just the beginning. You likely have even more ideas from your own context.
From Swipe to Stillness
It’s tempting to look at all this and just say, “People need to put their phones down.”
But that’s not going to cut it. The world doesn’t work that way anymore. Instead, what if we helped people use their phones to move toward Christ?
What if we helped them carve out space in a noisy world?
What if we taught them not to run from technology—but to redeem it?
Final Thought
We are living in a moment of massive cultural transition. Our habits, brains, and relationships are being rewired. The church has always faced cultural change—but it’s always had a choice.
We can fear the shift and retreat into nostalgia.
Or we can engage the moment with discernment, creativity, and boldness.
Twelve hours a day on devices isn’t going away. But we believe the Gospel is powerful enough to speak into that reality, not apart from it.
And who knows? Maybe one day, a digital disciple will put down their phone—not because we told them to, but because they encountered something deeper than the next swipe.
Something still.
Something sacred.
Something eternal.
