By Chris Witherall2025-01-17T13:44:00
Amid Mark Zuckerberg’s reforms to free speech on the internet, Chris Witherall explores what the Church’s own strategy to transform the digital landscape should look like.
I’ve been caught in two minds recently. It’s about the internet. I think I’m getting off it.
I’m trying to make sense of this, because I see the good in it. The internet allows me to see friends in Australia; watch Frasier reruns; research virtually any subject; buy obscure Finnish candy, and obsess over shih tzus. When I’m lost in London (a now boring inevitability), Google Maps saves the day. When I’m fed up, YouTube is an endless source of high and low brow entertainment. Should I ever stumble upon a major disaster involving a camel, a hosepipe and six watermelons; even then I feel confident in the power of the internet to provide an adequate solution.
It’s hard to deny its life altering impact - even for those who can’t access it. It’s a modern miracle which has revolutionised the world. But there are downsides. The internet has opened new avenues for bullying, stalking, and other criminal activity; and misinformation runs rife. It’s addictive - often intentionally - with social media companies employing numerous tricks to keep us scrolling. The thing that I’m finding hardest right now, is how divisive it can be (ironic for an invention called ‘the world wide web’). I’d like to take a closer look at this, and consider what the Church might do to help.
2024-07-25T13:54:00Z By Joe Gallant
As accusations emerge that large churches are using geofencing in an attempt to poach Christians from smaller congregations, Joe Gallant says we should be reaching the lost, not preaching to the converted
2024-05-07T09:42:00Z By Mark J. Cartledge, London School of Theology
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2025-03-28T12:04:00Z By Emma Fowle
Having followed Lindsay Hamon and his giant twelve-foot wooden cross around Cornwall, Emma Fowle reflects on the powerful lessons on evangelism she’s learned from his unusual act of public witness
2025-03-28T11:51:00Z By Christopher Gasson
Can faith be strengthened by its fiercest critics? Christopher Gasson thinks so. He once invited Christian teenagers to study four of the most influential atheist books. Now, as a new survey presents both welcome and challenging news for the future of the Church, he wants all Christians to take a closer look at Neitzsche, Dawkins and co
2025-03-27T17:26:00Z By AJ Gomez
Forget stained-glass windows and high ceilings. From barges to nightclubs, here are four unusual churches bringing faith to unexpected places
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