Church as Network: Christian Life and Connection in Digital Culture

Just as the emergence of print and literacy created conditions for vast religious change at the time of the Reformation, the emergence of a digital culture shaped by computers and the internet has led to radically different assumptions about religious identity, how people connect and maintain transformative relationships, and how people follow and give authority to leaders. The central issues concerning this digital culture are not technological but theological and anthropological. Old models of stable religious identity and community seem irrelevant in a culture in which everyone is in motion. The book identifies three profound changes produced by digital culture which challenge existing understandings of church: 1) a shift to seeing Christian identity as an ongoing constructive project, 2) the development of fluid networked forms of community, and 3) the emergence of less hierarchical more conversational forms of leadership.

About the Author :
Jeffrey H. Mahan holds the Ralph E. and Norma E. Peck Chair in Religion and Public Communication and is Professor of Ministry, Media and Culture at Iliff School of Theology in Denver. He is affiliate faculty at the Center for Media, Religion and Culture at the University of Colorado in Boulder and co-editor with Bruce David Forbes of Religion and Popular Culture in America.

Review :
Mahan does an admirable job of describing the challenges that digital enculturation poses for congregations and why many find it difficult to respond faithfully. He writes as sympathetically about resistance to change as he does about new forms of religious identity and practice. He seriously considers whether traditional congregations are necessary for the spread of the gospel and concludes that christians would do well to focus less on “fixed congregations” and more on “building networks of conversation and formation” everywhere that people gather, whether in-person or online. In Church as Network, Mahan offers clergy and congregations a timely gift: a thoughtful, accessible, and practical guidebook for understanding how digital media cultures shape the practice of Christian faith today—and how the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, may draw on tradition and innovation to answer “God’s invitation… to be faithful in our context.” Get ready to rethink everything you thought you knew about church and religion. In Church as Network, Jeffrey Mahan manages to not just ask the hard questions around the decline in the church…he provides the answers. The religious world for many people looks very different than it did for our grandparents and even our parents. Mahan tackles this head on and is quick to say that’s not a bad thing. Whether it is understanding the connection between our fluid digital culture and what happens in the pews, or the fact that, in some cases, bar stools are replacing the pews, Dr. Mahan offers profound insights. Academic in research and easily accessible to the reader, this book is a must read for anyone interested in not only the history of where the church has been but also the future of where it is going.