Analog Christian: Cultivating Contentment, Resilience, and Wisdom in the Digital Age, By Jay Y. Kim alt

Analog Christian

Cultivating Contentment, Resilience, and Wisdom in the Digital Age

by Jay Y. Kim
Foreword by Dan Kimball

Analog Christian
Ebook
  • Length: 192 pages
  • Published: July 26, 2022
  • Imprint: IVP
  • ISBN: 9781514003176
Other Formats:

The Gospel Coaltion Award of Distinction—Christian Living

Outreach Resource of the Year

The digital age is in the business of commodifying our attention. The technologies of our day are determined to keep us scrolling and swiping at all costs, plugged into a feedback loop of impatience, comparison, outrage, and contempt. Blind to the dangers, we enjoy its temporary pleasures, unaware of the damage to our souls.

Jay Kim's Analog Church explored the ways the digital age and its values affect the life of the church. In Analog Christian, he asks the same question of Christian discipleship. As the digital age inclines us to discontentment, fragility, and foolishness, how are followers of Jesus to respond? What is the theological basis for living in creative resistance to the forces of our day? How can Christians cultivate the contentment, resilience, and wisdom to not only survive but to thrive as we navigate the specific challenges of our age?

"Jay Y. Kim is an ecclesiastical alchemist who shows us how to turn information into knowledge, knowledge into wisdom, and wisdom into truth. Analog Christian is a book no parent can afford to miss."

Leonard Sweet, professor and author of Contextual Intelligence

"Jay Kim thoughtfully engages one of the most challenging issues of the spiritual life in his book Analog Christian. It's easy for us to find ourselves lost in the immersive digital world. It's as if most of us have grown another physical appendage: our phones. Jay helps us to navigate this with a colorful basket of healthy and spiritual fruit that will change your life!"

Dave Gibbons, author, speaker, and founder of Newsong, Santa Ana, California

"Lulled by convenience, numbed by distraction, and addicted to our devices, we have become diminished versions of ourselves. But the gift of grace is the power to become fully alive, image-bearing human beings. Far from being a polemic against technology, Analog Christian invites us to join in the Spirit's slow and life-giving work of producing fruit in us. Combining cultural analysis, theological insight, and pastoral wisdom, Jay Kim bears witness to a better way of being a human in the digital age, a way that looks like the fully and truly human one, Jesus Christ."

Glenn Packiam, lead pastor at New Life Downtown, Colorado Springs, and author of The Resilient Pastor

"I can't express the inner jubilee I am having that this book is finally here. What a marvelous invitation to the primal Christian movement that is solely and singularly focused on Jesus as Lord of all in our fragmented and distracted moment. Analog Christian gives voice to a part of all of us that longs for a day when Christians are known for their fruit over their fame. This work will set Jay Kim up as an enduring voice for the church for this generation. Highly recommended. A must-read."

A. J. Swoboda, assistant professor of Bible and theology at Bushnell University, author of After Doubt

"Jay Kim provides a fresh approach to connecting Scripture to present-day circumstances. This is a useful guidebook that provides practical ways to integrate the fruit of the Spirit into our current realities. A clear and concise call to get back to what matters most."

Brad Lomenick, former president of Catalyst and author of The Catalyst Leader

"Jay Kim has offered a book full of wisdom and insight, asking necessary questions about our online habits, prodding us to reconsider our activities and assumptions, while humbly pointing us to God's Word and God's people for renewal. Jay reminds us of the beauty and importance of living with the fruit of the Spirit, even in a digital age."

Trevin Wax, vice president for research and resource development at the North American Mission Board and author of Rethink Your Self: The Power of Looking Up Before Looking In

"As we emerge out of this pandemic—when online everything has become mind-numbingly normal—Jay reminds us that the way of Jesus isn't new, flashy, or digital. And that you don't need an app for it, either! The way of Jesus is the way of contentment, resilience, and wisdom."

Daniel Im, lead pastor at Beulah Alliance Church and author of You Are What You Do: And Six Other Lies about Work, Life, and Love

"This book is a balm to the soul, steeped in words, stories, and exhortations that woo the reader toward timeless wisdom, shared humanity, and the Spirit-filled life."

Karen Swallow Prior, author of On Reading Well: Finding the Good Lifethrough Great Books

"Jay Kim's whole book can be summed up in this: 'May we choose, today and every day, the right thing. May we choose to continue gardening, even in the darkest and most difficult places of life.' This timely word is a call for us to return to a different way of thinking about our life and faith. In a world where everything is going fast, Jay's admonition to consider life in the Spirit as a priority is a breath of fresh air. Jay thank you for challenging me to go deeper."

Myron Pierce, pastor of Mission Church, Omaha, and author of Outrageous: Exceeding the Limits of Usual

"The irony of the internet's promises of love, connection, and pleasure is that it is designed to deliver such superficial and false versions of those things. It sinks our roots into a soil that is not capable of bringing the health it touts. Far from disparaging our digital world, Jay Kim offers us a winsome look at a wise way to navigate these forces and presents us with a more compelling alternative. Swiping and scrolling give way to listening and dwelling . . . to a robust path of joy, blessedness, and Jesus."

Nancy Ortberg, CEO of Transforming the Bay with Christ

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Read an Excerpt

CONTENTS

Foreword by Dan Kimball
Introduction: Digital Smoke, Analog Air, and Fruit

Part I: Cultivating Contentment
1. Love Instead of Self-Centric Despair
2. Joy Instead of Comparison
3. Peace Instead of Contempt

Part II: Cultivating Resilience
4. Patience Instead of Impatience
5. Kindness and Goodness Instead of Hostility

Part III: Cultivating Wisdom
6. Faithfulness Instead of Forgetfulness
7. Gentleness Instead of Outrage
8. Self-Control Instead of Reckless Indulgence

Conclusion: Gardening in the NICU
Acknowledgments
Questions for Reflection and Discussion
Notes

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Jay Y. Kim

Jay Y. Kim serves as lead pastor at WestGate, a multicongregational church in Silicon Valley. He is the host of IVP's Digital Examen podcast and the author of several books, including Analog Christian, Analog Church, andListen Listen Speak. Jay serves on the board of Practicing the Way and has spent two decades in local church ministry, all in the San Francisco Bay Area, serving as a teaching pastor and church planter over the years. Jay lives in Silicon Valley with his wife Jenny and their two children.