About this item
Highlights
- The emergence of a digital culture has radically challenged assumptions about religious identity, how people connect and maintain relationships, and how people follow and give authority to leaders.
- About the Author: Jeffrey H. Mahan holds the Ralph E. and Norma E. Peck Chair in Religion and Public Communication and is Professor of Ministry, Media and Culture at Iliff School of Theology in Denver.
- 174 Pages
- Religion + Beliefs, Christian Ministry
Description
About the Book
The emergence of a digital culture has radically challenged assumptions about religious identity, how people connect and maintain relationships, and how people follow and give authority to leaders. This book explores the lessons digital culture offers as new types of congregat...Book Synopsis
The emergence of a digital culture has radically challenged assumptions about religious identity, how people connect and maintain relationships, and how people follow and give authority to leaders. This book explores the lessons digital culture offers as new types of congregational networks become popular and effective avenues for ministry.
Review Quotes
Get ready to rethink everything you thought you knew about church and religion. In Church as Network, Jeffrey Mahan manages to not just ask the hard questions around the decline in the church...he provides the answers. The religious world for many people looks very different than it did for our grandparents and even our parents. Mahan tackles this head on and is quick to say that's not a bad thing. Whether it is understanding the connection between our fluid digital culture and what happens in the pews, or the fact that, in some cases, bar stools are replacing the pews, Dr. Mahan offers profound insights. Academic in research and easily accessible to the reader, this book is a must read for anyone interested in not only the history of where the church has been but also the future of where it is going.
In Church as Network, Mahan offers clergy and congregations a timely gift: a thoughtful, accessible, and practical guidebook for understanding how digital media cultures shape the practice of Christian faith today--and how the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, may draw on tradition and innovation to answer "God's invitation... to be faithful in our context."
Mahan does an admirable job of describing the challenges that digital enculturation poses for congregations and why many find it difficult to respond faithfully. He writes as sympathetically about resistance to change as he does about new forms of religious identity and practice. He seriously considers whether traditional congregations are necessary for the spread of the gospel and concludes that christians would do well to focus less on "fixed congregations" and more on "building networks of conversation and formation" everywhere that people gather, whether in-person or online.
About the Author
Jeffrey H. Mahan holds the Ralph E. and Norma E. Peck Chair in Religion and Public Communication and is Professor of Ministry, Media and Culture at Iliff School of Theology in Denver. He is affiliate faculty at the Center for Media, Religion and Culture at the University of Colorado in Boulder and co-editor with Bruce David Forbes of Religion and Popular Culture in America.
