EDITORIAL
Raise the Future | Rob Hoskins
Imagine participating in a fully immersive worship service wherever you are in the world, a 360-degree experience as if you were sitting on a pew in the sanctuary.
For many, that seems too far-fetched, while others are simply not interested. However, similar attitudes prevailed during the early days of “church online.” New technologies often seem wildly irrelevant … until they’re not.
Let’s face it, the church often lags in its adoption of new tech. As we enter Web 3.0, the third phase of digital transformation, we can’t afford not to fully lean into the amazing possibilities these tools provide for effective, dynamic and relevant ministry.
However, to comprehend what Web 3.0 is, we need to know how we got here.
Web 1.0 was largely about access to knowledge. Think about the first time you used Google. You were probably blown away by the opportunity to access the entire library of human thought and resources with only one click.
Web 2.0 was about interaction with knowledge. This is where anybody could share content and socially engage with others around it. This brought in all the social media apps such as Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, etc.
This brings us to Web 3.0, which is integration and immersion into real and virtual realms, emphasizing digital relationships that can be as impactful as physical ones. Terms like metaverse, AI (artificial intelligence), blockchain and DAO (decentralized autonomous organizations) redefine our digital vocabulary. The church needs to be praying, debating and analyzing this kairos moment that will soon envelop the whole world.
So, what does it mean for the church to live faithfully and fruitfully present in the midst of Web 3.0?
The great theologian Hans Küng wrote in his book Church: “The historical Church cannot do without [the] constant renewal of its form. Renewal of form implies change of form by means of human decision and responsibility.”
We must be a prophetic voice. This means going into every cultural context and figuring out what is God-given or what the church needs to redeem, like Israel’s relationship with Babylon when they were exiled.
Similar to today, they were in a place where three things came together: technology, knowledge and globalization. The church often ignores disruption, hoping that if they isolate and wait long enough, the disruption will blow over. However, when Daniel, Ezekiel and other Hebrew elites were forcibly taken to Babylon, their view of the world was utterly changed. In order to remain faithful to their call as the people of God, they had to adjust to a new reality.
In Jeremiah 29, God tells his people not to separate and isolate but to integrate and redeem. We need to move into the city of Web 3.0 and train our children to “know the ways of the Babylonians better than the Babylonians” but also to know when “not to eat the king’s meat.” The church must bring the salt and light of the gospel into its midst.
I’ve been privileged to help lead a new digital ministry consortium of individuals and ministries in partnership with the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center. We’ve recently commissioned a research initiative to provide a road map to navigate the envisioned future.
You can download the latest report here.
Can you imagine that fully immersive worship experience now? I hope you can see it, not as a far-fetched or threatening idea, but as an opportunity to build relationships in digital spaces that would be difficult or impossible in physical spaces.
As theologian Carl Trueman said in The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self, “Every age has its darkness and its dangers. The task of the Christian is not to whine about the moment in which he or she lives but to understand its problems and respond appropriately to them.”