Date of Award

2-2022

Document Type

Project Portfolio

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

Department

Seminary

First Advisor

Aaron Friesen, PhD

Second Advisor

H. Colleen Butcher, DMin

Third Advisor

Leonard I. Sweet, PhD

Abstract

The Inevitable Church is a YouTube channel about the semiotics of digital technological forces and how they are shaping the future of church and culture. Its aim is to be a repository of resources and videos that models and teaches the unique principles and strategies required to navigate our modern mediums of communication and connection.

The NPO statement for this project is: The modern network revolution is shifting our primary medium for social interdependence from print to digital, which is reforming our social and cultural structures and creating a critical need for innovation in ministry strategies, recontextualization of orthodox Biblical principles, and the integration of digital-based skill sets in church design and practices.

Three key insights emerged from my overall research: First, the sociological effects of our modern network revolution driven by digital technological forces is shifting our society out of a “print orientation” and into a “virtual-augmented orientation” that is affecting how societies communicate, learn, work, and create communities. Second, these sociological shifts are outdating contemporary ministry principles and strategies to evangelize, disciple, and build communities in an increasingly digital world, and the church has resisted change, in large part, due to historical and theological bases (grounded in a print world). Third, for this generation of churches to fulfill the Great Commission in their time, she requires humbly adopting new paradigms in cultural engagement, a new aptitude for digital technologies and social networks, and a recontextualization of Biblical and theological principles that guide the proclamation of the gospel in our time.

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