Some WWJT Podcast Reflections
Three thoughts
For those who aren’t aware, I’m the cohost of What Would Jesus Tech.
1.
For a time I was posting each episode here on my Substack. I’m going to stop doing that. Readers are not necessarily podcast listeners, and those of you who are interested in listening can subscribe on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or visit our new website every two weeks to listen there.
We’ve been blessed to have some great guests on the show recently, including Dr. Jess Joustra, John Dyer, and TGC’s Sarah Zylstra. Chris Martin is coming on next week’s episode for a deep dive on social media. We’ve covered topics like video games, ChatGPT, Bible apps, AI, dating apps, and whether it’s right to even ask what would Jesus do in the first place.
It’s been a joy.
2.
When Joel and I started the podcast, I was thinking primarily about our friendship and my desire to grow as a thinker and communicator. As expected, the tech books have been formative, but so too is the humbling process of listening back to my every “um…” and “you know…” whilst doing the editing.
Something has shifted since the beginning. As more people speak to me about things they have taken away from an episode, I now see the podcast primarily as an outlet for making and maturing disciples.
A large part of that effort is imparting knowledge; helping listeners navigate the pushes and pulls of tech with Scripture. But I want to impart a particular type of knowledge. As John Calvin says, “For knowledge does not deserve to be called true unless it leads believers to conform themselves to their Head.”
Said another way, I desire “to equip His people for works of service, so that the whole body of Christ may be built up,” (Eph. 4:12).
(Such equipping would optimally be in-person, but it is still worth sharing through digital tech just as Paul shared written text, as long as I’m careful not to neglect my embodied service to the church.)
Jake Meader, editor-in-chief of Mere Orthodoxy, recently wrote on the discipleship gap in North America and what he thinks Christians should do about it.
The whole article is worth reading. But I'd like to highlight something in particular. Meador says:
[We need] institutions to help provide a disruptive witness to the truth within digital and media spaces and to offer alternative accounts of our life together that push back against the radicalizing and secularizing tendencies of digital technology.
We need what might be thought of as digital outreach organizations which help churches and other Christian institutions understand how digital technology actually functions as a formative presence in a person’s life and how media actually reaches people, how media entities build audiences, and so on. These organizations should not simply mimic the most recent marketing hacks favored by America’s large businesses, but should rather see their work as existing to aid churches in preaching the Gospel and discipling their congregants. The need is, in this sense, less about marketing expertise and more about technological competence.
Everything here could be something of a manifesto for WWJT. The last line, on the importance of technological competence, is similar to what Joel said to me months before we finally decided to start the podcast. He was convinced, and remains so, that Christians must do a better job at leveraging technology well.
And so we will continue to produce episodes to that end. We will continue to help Christians use technology according to the example of Jesus. But I won’t post about it much here anymore.
3.
One more thought, for those of you still reading, concerning my online brand.
A deep desire of every human heart is to be fully loved and truly known. Chris Martin notes how social media gives us a taste of being loved without ever being truly known.1
Becoming more of a Twitter user, writer, and podcaster in the last few years has given me more opportunities to receive likes and praise. But there’s a weirdness about this because of the way people do not really know me. Part of me wants to “open up” more, giving a window to more of my successes, sins, and sufferings — but if my motive is to be truly known, the medium of the internet will leave me unsatisfied.
Only God can truly know me. Only God can fully love me. And even if I build an online brand or platform, I must first process my identity through the gospel and God’s favor towards me because of the finished work of Christ.
For now, I’ve accepted this tension of not being truly known and have accepted the way in which I can be selectively transparent with my online identity. Always honest. But selectively transparent.
I believe some aspects of life are never meant to be shared online, or in written form — it’s why 2 John is such a short letter.
In 2024, I plan to think more deeply about whether I should fully restrict my online brand to a Christian reflection on technology. For now, this Substack will continue to think about whatever Phil. 4:8-9 is referring to. It’s a text worth reading, contemplating, and wondering on. Here it is in the NIV:
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Thanks for reading.
See Martin’s latest book on social media, The Wolf in their Pockets. He attributes the “truly known and fully loved” phrase to Tim Keller.