The Church in a Digital Society: An Effort to Transform Church Ministry in Indonesia

Abstract

The development of technology has had a very significant impact on many aspects of human life, including the religious one. Regarding the effects, how should the Church carry out its tasks and calling in the middle of the rapidly advancing technology in Indonesia? This research applied the descriptive-qualitative method, emphasizing inductive reasoning, in which the researcher tried to develop a hypothesis from observations. The data collection was done with a bibliographical study by taking references from relevant books, academic journals, and online articles. The research suggests the Church should avoid viewing the world’s reality and digital society with a binary opposition lens. The Church must realize her mission to the world (in which digital culture is included), that is, to disciple the people for Christ. As ‘The Word’ has become ‘The Flesh’, the Church must also incarnate itself digitally. With her presence in the middle of the digital society, the Church must digitally carry out her tasks/calling-marturia (witnessing), koinonia (community), and diakonia (service). A digital Church must solidify itself within the digital society in the struggle to wade through the strong current of information and communication technology development for a more effective service to humanity.

Keywords

• church ministry
• digital society
• indonesia