In three previous posts, we have explored what discipleship in the digital age looks like and how technology has affected our culture. So far, we’ve looked at instant gratification, the need for speed, and connections. In this post, we’ll look at the entertainment culture and how this translates to discipleship.
I grew up with a black and white TV where you had to manually change the channels. Later on we acquired a color TV of course, with a remote. My parents didn’t want cable though, because of all the ‘sinful’ channels it would bring to our home—like MTV. I remember when MTV Europa launched (I grew up in The Netherlands) and I watched it at a friends’ house. Those video clips were the highlight of our experiences, since the choices were so limited.
Over the years, our choices in entertainment have become too vast to even consider. Yet at the core is our never-ending desire to be entertained, to experience something, anything. We wanted to be wowed.
The advancements in technology have brought experiences the ultimate goal to strive for. ‘Here we are now, entertain us’ Nirvana put it so eloquently.
The Church and Entertainment Culture
Again, how does this impact discipleship? Looking at how the church has developed in the last, say, twenty years, I’d say the impact has been huge. Church for a big part has transformed from a ‘being’ time to an ‘experiential’ time. We’ve introduced screens and backgrounds and lights and sound effects and animations and videos and live drama and what else. No element of the church service has been unaffected, but worship especially has changed.
Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily, as long as we realize it for what it is: a human attempt to create an experience with the Almighty sovereign God, who cannot be coerced or manipulated into showing up. And as long as we realize that experiences are only a fragment of our walk with God. God shows up when and where He wants, but the rest of the time we’re called to live by faith and not by sight.
This, then, should be at the core of our discipleship as well. Not the experience, but faith, the hope of things unseen. Discipling others and ourselves means building our faith by spiritual habits that have little to do with experiences. It’s about finding God in Scripture, learning to recognize His voice in prayer, realizing God’s care for us through the joy of the Sabbath, etc.
But this ‘entertain me’ culture has deep theological ramifications as well. Not only does it clash with the reality of a sovereign God as I described above, but it also runs completely counter to the ultimate goal of a life with Christ. Being a Christian has nothing to do with feeling good and everything with obedience and submission—two words that are foreign to our culture.
In a process that’s been long in the making, our culture has elevated us to the captains of our soul and the masters of our fate. But we’re not. God is. And God’s goal for us is not to be entertained, but to be transformed into Christ’s likeness, a process that may include deep suffering. We’re not called to be entertaining or to be entertained. We’re called to follow, to obey, to suffer for Christ’s name and His glory.
Big difference.
Conclusion
In this short series, we’ve looked at four aspects of our culture that were inspired or reinforced by technology: instant gratification, the need for speed, connections, and the entertain me culture. Discipleship, as we have seen, clashes with each and every one of these. That is nothing new. Christianity has almost always been counter-culture.
But God isn’t. What we must never forget is that God is as relevant today as he has been from the beginning of time. Our culture has not made God superfluous, on the contrary I would argue. God will keep calling people to Him. He has not changed and neither has His love. We may change our methods and make them fit our culture, we can and should use technology to our advantage for instance, but we must hold on to the core of discipleship: Christ crucified, calling us to follow Him despite the cost.
Which of these four aspects do you see as the biggest obstacle in discipleship?
How do these impact you and your relationship with Christ?
[Photo via Pexels, cc]
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