Digital Evangelism Issues

Flickering Pixels
How Technology Shapes Your Faith
Shane Hipps
Zondervan ISBN 978-0-310-29321-7

“The color of the world is changing day by day” – Les Miserables

This is a very significant and strategic book because it explains the way that electronic media, especially computers and the Web, are changing our culture. As we use them, they are in fact using us, in ways we may not realize.

For 500 years, Western culture has been a ‘left-brain’ print-based communication culture, where we could express everything in 26 alphabetic characters. The way we preached the gospel, structured our Christian activities and systematized our theology – all have been completely shaped by print. But now technology is rapidly changing this print culture. When the medium changes, the message is changed too. Effective evangelism must take account of these changes.

Hipps also looks at the changing nature of relationships: online versus face-to-face, with some surprising illustrations.

This is a short and very readable book, but the concepts and conceptual adjustments we need to make are strategic and profound.
Read more.

Other reviews: In A Mirror Dimly| Don’t Eat The Fruit

Watch Hipps explain his insights in two video clips. The first is a brief 5-minute interview, the second is a 30-minute interview with Dave Bourgeois.

Internvewi with Dave Bourgeois.

Check too Shane’s blog and podcast.