Disruptive Witness, by Alan Noble

Modern life is distracting and shallow.  That goes without saying.  But how should a Christian respond in the modern environment of social media?  How can a connected life reflect Christian discipleship?  Alan Noble has a few things to say about these issues in Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age. 

A few things stand out as I reflect on the book.  First and foremost, Noble argues against a trivialization of faith.  This hit home to me as I think about my Facebook feed and the posts of my friends, both believers and non-believers.  It's easy for faith, as expressed through social media, to be seen as merely on choice among many, a lifestyle category.  You follow a particular style of music, sci-fi comics, political activism.  Well, I follow Jesus, as you can see from this meme I just posted. . . . Talk about robbing the gospel of its distinctiveness and immediacy.  But in many cases, that's exactly what happens.  Our connection to Jesus seems superficial, like our connection to a sports team.

Noble writes about the "double movement," which he describes as "the practice of first acknowledging goodness, beauty, and blessing wherever we encounter them in life, and then turning that goodness outward to glorify God and loving our neighbor."  A life online can only hint at this double movement.  While we can express our identity in Christ online to a limited extent, to glorify God and love our neighbor, we must log off Facebook and put down our smart phones.

Noble is not anti-technology or anti-social media, but he wants Christians to be reflective regarding how technologies impact the practice of our faith.  The more distracted we are, and the more the world around us becomes secular, it's worth taking some time to reflect on our own practices and connection to God and each other.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!