In recent decades the digital world has taken over our society at nearly every level, and the church has increasingly followed suit—often in ways we're not fully aware of. But as even the culture at large begins to reckon with the limits of a digital world, it's time for the church to take stock. Are online churches, video venues, and brighter lights truly the future? What about the digital age's effect on discipleship, community, and the Bible?
As a pastor in Silicon Valley, Jay Kim has experienced the digital church in all its splendor. In Analog Church, he grapples with the ramifications of a digital church, from our worship and experience of Christian community to the way we engage Scripture and sacrament. Could it be that in our efforts to stay relevant in our digital age, we've begun to give away the very thing that our age most desperately needs: transcendence? Could it be that the best way to reach new generations is in fact found in a more timeless path? Could it be that at its heart, the church has really been analog all along?
Foreword by Scot McKnight
Introduction. EDM and Grandma's Church: The Relevance of Transcendence
1. Slow and Steady: Why Go Analog?
Part 1: Worship
2. Cameras, Copycats, and Caricatures: Worship in the Digital Age
3. To Engage and to Witness: Analog Worship
Part 2: Community
4. Rebuilding Babel: Community in the Digital Age
5. A Tax Collector and a Zealot Walk into a Crossfit: Analog Community
Part 3: Scripture
6. Jackpot! Scripture in the Digital Age
7. Howtoreadabook: Analog Scripture
8. The Meal at the Center of History: Communion
Conclusion. Blinded by the Light: Where Do We Go from Here?
Acknowledgments
Discussion Questions
Notes
"It's a grave miscalculation for the church today to think relevance depends on the ability to keep up with the pace, gloss, and hype of our technological world. Our frenetic, fidgety age does not need a frenetic, fidgety church. Our Insta-perfect, polished age does not need a photoshopped, inauthentic church. Our tech-weary world does not need a tech-obsessed church. Jay Kim's Analog Church understands this, presenting a compelling case for the church's most radical act in today's world: not to be a trendy, shape-shifting, chameleonic copycat, but to be a transcendent Christ-centered community whose difference from the world is why it makes a difference."
Brett McCracken, senior editor at The Gospel Coalition and author of Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community