Developing and Implementing a Contextualized Techno-Theology For the Digital Post-COVID-19 Immigrant Churches

This dissertation studies the global Church’s challenges in the pandemic year. What unique experiences characterized the Church’s ministry, and how did various leaders, pastors, and stakeholders respond to the ravaging effects of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)? Does the Church have adequate theology to accommodate technological innovations paramount for ministry in the changing world?

Techno-theology seeks to develop a contextualized theology of the digital Church for a decentralized interface for the immigrant churches in the United States of America. Digital theology invites the Church to review its theology of the ‘scattered Church’ (Acts 8:1b -3) to reposition itself innovatively through implementing the theology for the digital Church. This study projects techno-theology as a fundamental biblical basis for including technological developments in the Church ministry. The educational piece of this research focuses on developing and implementing a contextualized techno-theology for the post-COVID-19 immigrant church community in the United States of America. An exegesis of Acts 8:1b-3 provides a biblical understanding of the theology of the ‘scattered Church’ as it highlights the importance of diversified, creative, and innovative methods.

I used qualitative research and interviews to study the participants’ phenomenological responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using Foster’s S-Curve theory and Tarde’s S-Sharped diffusion of innovation theory, attention focuses on developing contextualized Techno-theology of the digital Church for the immigrant post-COVID-19 Church in the United States. The Church’s quest to sustainability and scalability requires
reassessing its pattern of engagement in a technologically savvy world.