Pastoral Accompaniment for Congregants Experiencing Relational Crisis Due to Digital Communication
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61132/ipcep.v1i3.556Keywords:
Digital Communication, Digital Religion, Pastoral Accompaniment, Pastoral Care, PhubbingAbstract
Digital communication has become part of the everyday fabric of congregational life. While it enables connection and pastoral accessibility, it also introduces relational tensions through divided attention, interpretive ambiguity, social comparison, online jealousy, concealed messaging, and the weakening of face-to-face reconciliation. This conceptual research article examines pastoral accompaniment for Christian congregants who experience relational crises caused or intensified by digital communication. The study aims to construct a pastoral framework that is theologically grounded, psychologically informed, ethically responsible, and usable in church ministry. Using an integrative literature review, the article synthesizes scholarship on digital religion, computer-mediated communication, relational conflict, phubbing, technoference, online counseling ethics, and practical theology. The synthesis indicates that digital relational crisis should not be reduced to excessive screen use. It is more accurately understood as a crisis of presence, attention, trust, boundaries, and interpretive charity. The article proposes pastoral accompaniment as a hybrid care that combines attentive presence, relational discernment, digital boundary formation, covenantal communication practices, and ethically bounded use of online media. It concludes that churches need to move beyond reactive counseling toward preventive digital discipleship that forms congregants in truthful speech, faithful presence, confidentiality, and relational accountability.
References
American Counseling Association. (2014). ACA code of ethics. American Counseling Association. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119221548.ch6
American Psychological Association. (2013). Guidelines for the practice of telepsychology. American Psychologist, 68(9), 791–800. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035001
Baym, N. K. (2015). Personal connections in the digital age (2nd ed.). Polity Press.
Billedo, C. J., Kerkhof, P., & Finkenauer, C. (2015). The use of social networking sites for relationship maintenance in long-distance and geographically close romantic relationships. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 18(3), 152–157. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2014.0469
Bingaman, K. A. (2018). Pastoral and spiritual care in a digital age: The future is now. Lexington Books. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781978725331
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Bryson, J. R., Andres, L., & Davies, A. (2020). COVID-19, virtual church services, and a new temporary geography of home. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 111(3), 360–372. https://doi.org/10.1111/tesg.12436
Campbell, H. A. (2012). Understanding the relationship between religion online and offline in a networked society. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 80(1), 64–93. https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfr074
Campbell, H. A., & Evolvi, G. (2020). Contextualizing current digital religion research on emerging technologies. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, 2(1), 5–17. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.149
Chotpitayasunondh, V., & Douglas, K. M. (2018). The effects of “phubbing” on social interaction. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 48(6), 304–316. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12506
Chow, A., & Kurlberg, J. (2020). Two or three gathered online: Asian and European responses to COVID-19 and the digital church. Studies in World Christianity, 26(3), 298–318. https://doi.org/10.3366/swc.2020.0311
Daft, R. L., & Lengel, R. H. (1986). Organizational information requirements, media richness, and structural design. Management Science, 32(5), 554–571. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.32.5.554
Doehring, C. (2015). The practice of pastoral care: A postmodern approach (Rev. ed.). Westminster John Knox Press.
Elphinston, R. A., & Noller, P. (2011). Time to face it! Facebook intrusion and the implications for romantic jealousy and relationship satisfaction. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 14(11), 631–635. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2010.0318
Fox, J., & Moreland, J. J. (2015). The dark side of social networking sites: An exploration of the relational and psychological stressors as-sociated with Facebook use and affordances. Computers in Human Behavior, 45, 168–176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.11.083
Lartey, E. Y. (2003). In living color: An intercultural approach to pastoral care and counseling (2nd ed.). Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
McDaniel, B. T., & Coyne, S. M. (2016). “Technoference”: The interference of technology in couple relationships and implications for women's personal and relational well-being. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 5(1), 85–98. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000065
Miller-McLemore, B. J. (Ed.). (2012). The Wiley-Blackwell companion to practical theology. Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444345742
Nittari, G., Khuman, R., Baldoni, S., Pallotta, G., Battineni, G., Sirignano, A., Amenta, F., & Ricci, G. (2020). Telemedicine practice: Review of the current ethical and legal challenges. Telemedicine and e-Health, 26(12), 1427–1437. https://doi.org/10.1089/tmj.2019.0158
Odgers, C. L., & Jensen, M. R. (2020). Annual research review: Adolescent mental health in the digital age: Facts, fears, and future directions. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 61(3), 336–348. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13190
Orben, A., & Przybylski, A. K. (2019). The association between adolescent well-being and digital technology use. Nature Human Behavior, 3(2), 173–182. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-018-0506-1
Osmer, R. R. (2008). Practical theology: An introduction. Eerdmans.
Phillips, P., Schiefelbein-Guerrero, K., & Kurlberg, J. (2019). Defining digital theology: Digital humanities, digital religion and the particular work of the CODEC Research Center and Network. Open Theology, 5(1), 29–43. https://doi.org/10.1515/opth-2019-0003
Przybylski, A. K., & Weinstein, N. (2013). Can you connect with me now? How the presence of mobile communication technology influences the quality of face-to-face conversation. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 30(3), 237–246. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407512453827
Roberts, J. A., & David, M. E. (2016). My life has become a major distraction from my cell phone: Partner phubbing and relationship sat-isfaction among romantic partners. Computers in Human Behavior, 54, 134–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.07.058
Sbarra, D. A., Briskin, J. L., & Slatcher, R. B. (2019). Smartphones and close relationships: The case for an evolutionary mismatch. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 14(4), 596–618. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619826535
Snyder, H. (2019). Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines. Journal of Business Research, 104, 333–339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.07.039
Stoll, J., Müller, J. A., & Trachsel, M. (2020). Ethical issues in online psychotherapy: A narrative review. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 10, Article 993. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00993
Tandon, A., Dhir, A., & Mäntymäki, M. (2021). Jealousy due to social media? A systematic literature review and framework of social me-dia-induced jealousy. Internet Research, 31(5), 1541–1582. https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-02-2020-0103
Torraco, R. J. (2016). Writing integrative literature reviews: Using the past and present to explore the future. Human Resource Development Review, 15(4), 404–428. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484316671606
Valkenburg, P. M. (2022). Social media use and well-being: What we know and what we need to know. Current Opinion in Psychology, 45, Article 101294. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.12.006
Vanden Abeele, M. M. P., Antheunis, M. L., & Schouten, A. P. (2016). The effect of mobile messaging during a conversation on impression formation and interaction quality. Computers in Human Behavior, 62, 562–569. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.04.005
Verduyn, P., Ybarra, O., Résibois, M., Jonides, J., & Kross, E. (2017). Do social network sites enhance or undermine subjective well-being? A critical review. Social Issues and Policy Review, 11(1), 274–302. https://doi.org/10.1111/sipr.12033
Walther, J. B. (1996). Computer-mediated communication: Impersonal, interpersonal, and hyperpersonal interaction. Communication Research, 23(1), 3–43. https://doi.org/10.1177/009365096023001001
Whittemore, R., & Knafl, K. (2005). The integrative review: Updated methodology. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 52(5), 546–553. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2005.03621.x
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 International Perspectives in Christian Education and Philosophy
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
