Instead of banning phones and blaming screens, Andy Robertson urges families and churches to listen, innovate, and disciple young people in both digital and physical spaces
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We’ve all seen it: teenagers distracted by their phones rather than engaging with the world around them. When this is a Sunday service, or, a youth event, it’s frustrating and saddening when youngsters can’t put their phones away.
These devices are designed to be distracting, and newspaper headlines suggest they are addictive and harmful. Some churches are considering a similar approach to schools that require youth to lock away their phones upon entering the building.
we want to understand what’s happening in the heart and spirit of our teenagers rather than just what’s happening in their hands
However, we want to understand what’s happening in the heart and spirit of our teenagers rather than just what’s happening in their hands. We have a chance to avoid rushing with the wider culture to blame smartphones for childhood ills and instead think creatively about what social and societal harms are really happening here. Rather than blaming smartphones for the state of childhood, as Christians, we have an opportunity to bring light, honesty and clarity to the technology debate.
Despite headlines and books like The Anxious Generation that suggest children are tricked into smartphone addiction, this idea has been clearly debunked by academics like Professor Peter Gray and Professor Candice Odgers who work directly with this research. Based on current studies, it’s not true that smartphones are a primary cause of teenagers’ poor mental health.
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Grasping this reality enables us to approach the topic of smartphones more even-handedly and sets us up to think counter-culturally and creatively about how smartphones do, and don’t, fit into our services.
Firstly, the reality of the modern world is that, for teenagers, the digital and non-digital are inescapably interwoven. For them, what’s happening in the room is not separate from what’s happening on their screens, which is why they move back and forth between the two.
Secondly, a teenager on their phone in the service is a sign that they are showing up along with their world. We want our services to be spaces where young people can first belong, before worrying about how they behave or what they believe. Counter-intuitively it’s a good sign to have this problem.
Thirdly, teenagers’ behaviour is often the strongest way they communicate. If they are disengaged in a service by being on their phone, this is a strong signal of how they feel about it. Before addressing behaviour, it’s important we hear what they are communicating, particularly if it’s in a youth gathering that we think is designed for them.
Finally, smartphones are God’s smartphones. I’m not saying everything on a smartphone is good, but I am saying it’s not outside of God’s jurisdiction. He can just as easily reach them with Jesus through the device in their hands as he can a worship song or a sermon.
if a young person is distracted on a smartphone in a youth service, they are subconsciously telling us that the service isn’t engaging them as much as we hoped
This thinking equips us to hear the Holy Spirit on how we should handle technology in church. Rather than assuming we have the answer, like technology bans in the wider culture, we can hear both God and our children on what is really happening and how we can creatively move forward together.
This should start with the humility of admitting that if a young person is distracted on a smartphone in a youth service, they are subconsciously telling us that the service isn’t engaging them as much as we hoped. Starting a conversation with our young people, where we see their phone use as a symptom rather than a cause of disengagement, enables us to work with them creatively on what would actually engage them.
This might lead to considering how a service could learn from digital media. More likely, though, it creates space to consider the hopes, fears, and challenges our children face in their lives. Connect those things to biblical wisdom that grants them insight and agency, and the smartphone can’t compete.
Rather than a blanket rule of “no smartphones”, having specific periods of the service where phones are handled differently can build healthy habits
Perhaps the most powerful approach to smartphone use is to connect what happens in Sunday services to what happens on their phones during the week. Rather than keeping those two things separate, we can learn from the truth that God is just as present in their short-form video feed as he is in church. Our human instinct to reach out for meaning, truth and community is something we express on Sunday, but also something young people are doing in their digital world. Helping them be sensitive to hearing the Holy Spirit’s voice on their smartphone is not only a powerful discipleship tool but a way to value how God is working in their lives, in ways that might not be obvious to us.
This perspective clears the ground for us to work as a community to agree on and establish how we want smartphones in the service. Getting it this way around not only gains buy-in from teenagers but makes it more likely we will find creative ways to make the most of this new God-given technology.
Read more:
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Why this Christian dad welcomes the social media ban for under 16s
Distraction etiquette
Establishing what the smartphone norms are for your church is a good place to start. But rather than seeing this as something for young people, it should apply to everyone. This might be an expectation that the congregation won’t have their phones out unless it’s for something specifically related to the service. Or it might be agreeing to silence notifications and not sending messages.
Symbolic relinquishing
Rather than a blanket rule of “no smartphones”, having specific periods of the service where phones are handled differently can build healthy habits. For example, we could develop a rhythm where everyone puts their smartphones in a box at the front before worship. It would be challenging and best not to be compulsory, but as a confessional act of our overuse of technology, it’s a powerful and practical statement. Or perhaps, the habit of placing the phone face down on your seat when you stand for worship could work as a communal statement of focusing.
As churches we have an opportunity not to rush to moral panic or knee jerk reactions about technology but intentionally craft the kind of digital-physical world where young people can thrive spiritually
Imaginative engagement
Another powerful way to build the norms of our community’s smartphone use is to put it to work for us rather than letting it work against us. In the service itself, this could mean asking the congregation to look things up related to the sermon or voting on opinions via a live poll. Perhaps more fruitful is finding creative ways to engage with the technology throughout the week.
Having a playlist of wholesome, spiritually engaging and outwardly ambitious videos that you share as a church is a great idea. Running this as a community resource where the youth can contribute suggestions is another way to support their wider world rather than restrict it.
Hearing God on smartphones
Judging the right approach to smartphones in church is specific to your community. Prayerfully listening to each other, knowing your context and being careful to honestly include younger voices in the debate ensures you find a way forward together. As churches we have an opportunity not to rush to moral panic or knee jerk reactions about technology but intentionally craft the kind of digital-physical world where young people can thrive spiritually.
P.S. If you need inspiration about digital play and faith I’ve put together this page of videos and faith-adjacent games. The BBC visited one of the technology-embracing services I’ve been involved in to create a documentary on how it went.
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