Barna Group: Families Want Churches to Address Technology

Many adults and teens would like to receive guidance from their churches on media and technology, a Barna Group study revealed. The problem is, most of them aren’t getting any.

The study shows that most parents and tweens/teens (children ages 11 to 17) expect churches to address technology, but “most families are not getting any coaching or assistance when it comes to integrating technology into their family life.”

“Technology is shaping family interactions in unprecedented ways, but we seem to lack a strategic commitment to the stewardship of technology,” Barna Group President David Kinnaman says in a report explaining the results.

“The Christian community needs a better, more holistic understanding of how to manage existing and coming technological advances,” Kinnaman explains. “Parents, tweens and teens need more coaching and input in order to face the countless choices they make regarding how technology affects their attention, interests, talents and resources.”

Forty-two percent of parents and 33 percent of tweens and teens showed interest in “a Christian or faith-based perspective about how to be a good user of entertainment and technology without letting things negatively impact your family relationships,” according to the Barna Group’s report on Monday.

Kinnaman says the Christian community needs to increase its concept of managing the area of media and technology. “Perhaps technology should be added to discussions about stewardship,” Kinnaman explains. “Technology is as old as craftman’s tools. But today’s digital and emerging technologies are in a different class than hundreds of other hobbies or interests because they have come to significantly define the use of time, the development of talent and the allocation of money.”

Click here for the full Barna Group report.

What do you think? Is your church offering any training on technology? If not, would you be interested in it if they did?