Digital Discipleship Is Already Happening

Rachel Gilmore

Churches often talk about digital ministry as if formation in online spaces is optional.

As if formation happens in sanctuaries, classrooms, and retreats while online spaces exist somewhere off to the side as distractions to manage. But digital formation is already happening. Every day people are being shaped by podcasts, algorithms, influencers, YouTube channels, TikTok feeds, group chats, political content, and online communities. The digital world is already forming how people think, react, belong, fear, and imagine.

The church is not deciding whether digital discipleship exists. The church is deciding whether it will participate in it intentionally. Churches have spent too much time treating digital spaces primarily as places to broadcast content rather than spaces where real formation and transformation can happen.

But also, digital discipleship should be radically different than simply consuming content. The problem with society is that we’re just so obsessed with our phones and just consuming things. And discipleship is different. Jesus walked into the disciples’ everyday lives and said what you’re doing doesn’t make sense. There’s another way. A better way.

That distinction matters.

Christian content is not automatically discipleship. A livestream is not necessarily formation. A podcast is not the same thing as community. Churches can upload endless material online without ever actually helping people practice the way of Jesus together. You’re not really a disciple if you know more. You’re a disciple if you’re applying it, if you’re reflecting it in conversation and community, if you’re trying it out.

That shift from consumption to participation changes everything.

Digital content is a part of discipleship. I know of one church plant that asked participants to listen to a podcast during the week and then gather together for coffee to discuss it. What resonated? What challenged them? What did they disagree with? How might they live differently because of it? That’s digital discipleship because it is more than consuming content.

Digital discipleship requires the same things healthy discipleship has always required: reflection, accountability, community, and practice. And surprisingly, some of the practices that make digital discipleship meaningful are actually very old.

Ritual matters online too.

At my former church plant, participants created covenant practices together. During a Wesley Covenant Service, members placed thumbprints onto a shared image as a sign of commitment to one another and to the community they were building together. In another online discipleship group, participants lit candles together over Zoom. Leadership rotated weekly, so no single person controlled the space. The group established shared expectations about how they would show up for one another while utilizing digital content for conversation.

What’s our covenant to each other and to God? What does respect look like in our digital space? Those questions are not technological questions. They are discipleship questions. And they matter deeply in a digital culture increasingly shaped by disconnection and disengagement. So, how do we create brave spaces where people can show up and know what to expect of others and themselves? Not just that we’re keeping our promises, but that some part of your life is transformed.

In the end, we are an embodied faith. Even digitally, we’re real people behind screens. This may be one of the central discipleship challenges facing the church in this moment. We cannot abandon the digital world because people are already living there. But we also cannot allow digital life to flatten people into passive consumers disconnected from relationship, accountability, and presence.

Christian faith has always been incarnational. God did not remain distant. God entered human life fully and relationally. Digital formation is already happening. The question now is whether the church will enter those spaces faithfully enough to help people become fuller disciples in it.