Technology & Ministry: Benefits, Drawbacks, and Dangers

Read the series.

In our previous installment, we saw that human culture and technology are a necessary part of the creation mandate and as such should not be viewed as necessary or intrinsic evils. Moreover, we argued that religion is part of human culture, and it will, therefore, employ some of the tools of culture. But before we suggest some ways in which we can use modern technologies to advance the Great Commission, I’d like briefly to highlight the tension that exists between the benefits, tradeoffs, and dangers of technology. We’ve noted that human technology brings with it certain benefits or, to use a biblical term, “blessings.” Nevertheless, over and against those benefits and blessings, we need to be aware of the resultant tradeoffs as well as the potential dangers that new technologies introduce.

Lessons from the Industrial Revolution

The industrial revolution brought with it many benefits. Various kinds of manufactured goods become more available and affordable. Many of the things produced by factories facilitated the services of other vocations and even occasioned the need for new vocations. As a result, many new jobs were created and people employed.

But there was a downside to the industrial revolution. With the benefits came tradeoffs or losses. For example, before the industrial revolution skilled craftsmen created most manufactured goods. If you wanted a quality-made shoe, you didn’t go to your local Footlocker store and choose from among several name brands like Nike, Adidas, Asics, and so on. Instead, you went to the local shoemaker, and he’d measure your foot and design a shoe to your liking. This was true with respect to other types of clothing, kitchenware, farming equipment and so on. However, the industrial revolution took work from many of these people. The industries didn’t need highly skilled labor to run the machines. And they could mass-produce products at a much lower cost to the consumer. Of course, that often meant lower pay and poor working conditions for the employees. But, as you can guess, the industrial owners especially infuriated the craftsmen, whose work was being taken from them. In some places, the craftsmen banded together, wrote threatening letters, and even set some of the factories on fire.¹

So there was both an upside and also a downside to the industrial revolution. With the benefits came certain drawbacks and losses.

Lessons from the Technological Revolution

What was true of the industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries has also been true of the advances in modern technology that have characterized the 20th and early 21st centuries. Think, for instance, of the benefits of modernized forms of travel technologies. Cars, trains, and planes have made our world smaller. Now we can travel greater distances in shorter periods of time. It’s easier to visit faraway places as well as to relocate to new places. But with the upside of modern travel there are downsides and even dangers. Think of all the auto accident related deaths. On a more subtle level, think of how people are less rooted to their “places of origin” or hometowns and how, as a result, family and community bonds are weaker.²

Moving forward a few decades, think of the technological revolution of the Internet and the cell phone. These technologies have served to make information and people much more accessible. Ten years ago, only some people owned a cell phone. Today, nearly everyone, even the youngest and poorest are getting cell phones. And the great benefit is that we can contact nearly anyone via phone call or text virtually any time and any place.

The “worldwide web” provides dump truck loads of information from all over the world, and Google makes that information available within seconds. No longer do we rely on newspapers or even the six o’clock news on our local TV news station. We can get it all over the Internet. Moreover, Facebook and Twitter keep us up-to-date with minute-by-minute reports of what all our family, friends, and “friends” are doing and even thinking. And best of all, our computers, smart-phones, and tablets come with automatic notification features to ensure that we don’t miss anything.

However, despite the great benefit of increasing the breadth and speed of our access to people and information, many of us have also come to realize that there are downsides or drawbacks to this kind of technology. The Internet, for example, not only provides us quick access to lots of helpful information, but it also makes lots of harmful content available at the click of a mouse. What’s more, greater accessibility to people and information also means that people and information have greater accessibility to you and me. Think of all the “junk email” we receive. And think of the many times the ringtone of our cell phone or the flashing light of our iPad notification center has interrupted our train of thought or family time! Such interruptions not only affect our productivity and compete with other priorities, but they can be downright annoying. At times I’ve been tempted to set up my phone or email account with an automated reply from Proverbs 25:17-

Don’t set foot too frequently in your neighbor’s house,
Lest he become weary of you and hate you (NET).³

My point is simply to highlight the fact that new technologies not only bring benefits and blessings, but they also come with downsides and dangers. They have the potential to impact our lives and vocations both positively and also negatively.

Know Thyself and Be Watchful!

This reality of the positive and negative effects modern technology has upon people and societies has occasioned a new field of study called “Media Ecology.” Just as the biological ecologist studies the impact a new species has upon a biological ecosystem when introduced, so the media ecologist studies the impact new technologies have upon the personal and social environments into which they’re introduced. And some of them like John Culkin have concluded, “We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.”⁴ Or, as Christian media ecologist John Dyer explains,

Technology, then, is the means by which we transform the world as it is into the world we desire. What we often fail to notice is that it is not only the world that gets transformed by technology. We, too, are transformed.⁵

Of course, we need to be careful not to demonize technology itself. To use a current topic of national debate, it’s not guns that kill people; it’s people who kill people with guns or sometimes with other technologies like knives or baseball bats. In other words, the tools themselves are not morally evil. And they don’t necessarily force people to sin.⁶

More precisely, human technologies may tempt us to sin or provide the occasion through which we express our sinfulness. Tim Challies is spot on when he notes that humans can treat technologies as idols or use them to facilitate their sinful idolatries.⁷ In a similar vein, John Dyer remarks, “We use our idols fundamentally as a way of meeting our needs apart from God, and this is our greatest temptation with technology—to use it as a substitute for God.”⁸

In Sum

Whether ancient or modern, technology can affect us and our vocation in good ways and in bad ways. Just as there are real and potential benefits, so there are real and potential dangers. This fact is important to remember as we transition in our next installment to consider practical ways in which we can employ technology for the service of church ministry.