Digital Day

Some quick reflections from Christian Vision (CV)'s Digital Day…

In Digital Spaces

One of the session titles was ‘Expanding missional dimensions’ which was focused on emerging technologies; such as augmented reality (with a focus on gaming), the impact that haptic suits might have on metaverse interactions, and broaded web3 technologies.

Andres Eberles spoke about how the definition of media has grown and changed over time– whether that is through letter writing, art, the printing press, radio and TV, web to social media, and now looking ahead to extended realities and web3 tech, these new medias and technologies have added a new platform, rather than replacing them. In the era of digitial communications we are still reading from analogue books.

“The new platforms create a new place for Christians to stand– as little bit of yeast. Christians can be unusual messengers in these spaces.”"

The point was a reminder that the church needs to continue to now just be aware of these different technologies but engage with them, and the communities that are built up around them.

It reminds me of a project that Intervasity USA explored for a few years called Ministry in Digital Spaces. Sadly I don’t think that the project is still active, but it was an exploration to do student ministry within the world of gaming. There have been projects that have come before about bringing a Christian voice into SecondLife, and projects more recently such as VR Church to be a Christian voice in the metaverse.

There are huge things to think through both practically and theologically regarding how the church engages with these emerging technologies… and folk are going to disagree on the details of the how (as we have always done)… But one of the clear threads that was picked up while thinking about these things was that as people gather in these digital spaces we can go into them with the gospel.

In Analog Spaces

Earlier in the ‘Expanding missional dimensions’, George Campbell a former Meta/Facebook employee was talking about world mission and unreached people groups.

“Facebook as a company is one of the most unreached people groups; it’s hard to be a Christian in these big companies. We need people to go into these companies.”"

At the end of last year there were 65,000 members of staff working for Meta (source). While it wasn’t the main point of his talk, it was a really helpful reminder that being a missionary isn’t about quitting your job and going to work for the church, and that the technologist has missions work to do in their secular job.

This was a theme that was touched on in passing by John Lennox when talking about the design and build of technology (whether that is emerging or ‘traditional’ technology). One of the concerns he was exploring was around how these new technologies were being created with values and ethics systems baked in. His reminder was that;

“Christians should go into these fields, sit at the table where the programming happens, where the ethical decisions are being made. Shape them. … Gaining a credibility at the same time as being prepared to stand for truth is one of the most important things. Speak for truth, speak the truth, but do it in love– show people that you value and love them.”"

It’s not just about going into the digital spaces with the gospel, but also being part of being part of the gospel shaping how the technology that is built, and that involved being at the table shaping it.

Other areas

Make it open.

Christine Abernathy of FaithTech closed the day with an encouragement to open sourcing the work that we do. She openned with the questions “Are we being good stewards of our resources?” and “What blessings are we willing to share?”. This part of the day reminded me strongly of the GDS design principle ‘make it open’ – if Christians in the tech space start sharing more openly (and communicating the openness of it), we going to stop reinventing the wheel together! Christine has started a list of open source Christian projects, which you can add to via Github to aid this.

Build the tech for where God puts the need on your heart.

Nick Rotola opened the day with a talk about the project he is working on called Up which has the mission of combatting the anxious generation who doom scroll for 5–8 hours/day on social media. Nick spoke passionately about the need to have a social media platform that young people didn’t feel trapped in;

Youth are trapped in this world where 1 billion tried to quit social media last year, and 47% wished that TikTok never existed.

The whole session was a reminder about letting Christian faith shape the why, the what, and the how building technology.

Next year…

The date for your diary… CV Digital Day 25 will be Thursday 6th November 2025.