Introduction: Studying Digital Ecclesiology: How Churches are Being Informed by Digital Media and Cultures

Abstract

Digital ecclesiology has become a popular term over the last decade, surfacing around discussions about churches and their use of technology. It is typically used in broad, undefined ways, either to advocate for church use of digital media, or to debate the social and ethical problems that arise when churches integrate internet technologies into their work. This was seen when Elizabeth Dresher used the term in a 2012 interview about her book Tweet If You ♥ Jesus: Practicing Church in the Digital Reformation. The book focused on best social media practices and the need for churches to engage the internet in their ministries. She argued, ‘this book is kind of a digital ecclesiology,’ suggesting churches that use digital media for ministry function in tune with society’s growing digital environment (NA, 2012).1 More recently, the Aqueduct Project from Moody Bible Institute hosted a roundtable podcast on digital ecclesiology. Here, interviewer Jonathan Armstrong used the term digital ecclesiology to get respondents to either offer a rationale for, or critique of, practices related to the virtual church and the theological issues online Christian community may raise (Armstrong, 2019).2 As these examples suggest, the phrase ‘digital