Algorithm Church

I was coaching a minister of another church this week, and he made a quip about Algorithm Church. It got me thinking.

Algorithms are everywhere these days, and they control much of our lives. They particularly influence the news feeds we receive.

Software tracks the sites you visit and the posts you read. It then sends you articles and information that aligns with the content that have already engaged with. Political parties are known to have multiple sites with different spins, and they send you information about their party that is designed to align with your predispositions.

What my colleague was suggesting was that people increasingly want to hear a message at church that articulates what they already believe.

At one level this is entirely appropriate. If you believe in the resurrection, that it’s wrong to break God’s law, and that we all will face a day of judgment, you expect your preacher to expand on these themes. And so you should.

My colleague was making a different point. Social media and algorithms are having a detrimental impact on society. Increasingly we are corralled into networks with like-minded people. We block or cancel people who do not say what believe to be socially appropriate things. When we do encounter people with whom we disagree, we often politely disconnect, and say it’s OK for you to believe what is right for you.

This is problematic on at least two fronts. First, we lose the capacity to debate, to respectfully disagree, to push back, and perhaps in the process learn something new.

Second, this looks nothing like the NT church. The NT church is radical in that it cuts across deep social divides. So Paul writes “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal 3:28)”. The result of Jesus’ coming is that “he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility…(Eph 2:14)”.