Discussion Guide: Our Tech

PRAYER

Our goal today is to grow in relationship and learn how to walk with one another in all God has called us to be and do. Let’s begin by praying for each other.

Does anyone have prayer requests or stories of how God has been moving in your life that we can celebrate together?

WE HAVE A PART TO PLAY TOPICS

OUR BODIES :: OUR SOULS :: OUR PEOPLE :: OUR WORK :: OUR TECH :: OUR MISSION

THIS WEEK

We’re in a series called We Have a Part to Play, where we’re learning how God shapes the world within us for the sake of the world around us.
So far, we’ve talked about our bodies, our souls, our relationships, and our work.

This week, in When Tech Reaches Rather Than Replaces, Pastor Alvin walks through Genesis 11 and invites us to consider how our devices, apps, and feeds can become bridges to people rather than barriers between us.

To start our time together, let’s begin with these questions:

If your tech could tell your spiritual temperature, what might it reveal about you right now?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

SCRIPTURE

Have someone read Genesis 11:1-9 aloud. As you listen, notice any words or phrases that stand out, and ask the Holy Spirit to highlight something for you.

Genesis 11:1-9

1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 

2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 

3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 

4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 

5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 

6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 

7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.” 

8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 

9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

Jesus used tools to reach people, not replace relationships.

How can what we create serve the Creator instead of competing with Him?

Technology lets us make

Innovation is a mirror that reveals what’s inside the human heart.

In Genesis 11, we see the story of Babel: a united people using one of humanity’s first major innovations, bricks, to build a city and give themselves a name. 

What began as a good gift from God became a tool for self-glorification. The problem wasn’t the bricks but the heart behind them.

Similarly, today, our “bricks” are digital devices, apps, and platforms that can either connect us or consume us. 

But thanks be to God that, when faced with a similar situation in His own day, Jesus modeled a better way in Luke 5, stepping into Peter’s boat—His day’s technology—to reach people, not replace relationships.

When we create with God, technology becomes worship. When we create for ourselves, it becomes idolatry.  So, let’s discuss what that means for us today.

What do you think motivated the people at Babel to build the tower, and how do you see that same desire show up in our world today?

In what ways can technology today be both a gift from God and a temptation to make life “all about us”?


When do you notice tech helping you connect with God or others, and when does it start to get in the way?


Jesus used Peter’s boat to reach people, not avoid them. What might it look like for us to use our “boats” (devices, platforms, tools) the same way?

What’s one practical way this week you can use technology as a bridge to people rather than a barrier between you and them?

Technology lets us build

Technology becomes redemptive when it points not to our name in pride, but to the name of Jesus in humility.

After the people learned to use technological innovation to make bricks, they turned their focus to building something that would make their name great.

In Genesis 11:4–6, the issue wasn’t their creativity to innovate as much as it was their pride. They used technology to build a tower for self-glory rather than as a testimony to God’s greatness.

We face the same choice today. Our tech can either build towers that draw attention to ourselves or testimonies that point people to Jesus. So, the question isn’t just what we’re building, but who we’re building for. Let’s discuss how that tension shows up in our own lives.

What drives people, then and now, to want to “make a name” for themselves?

What might a “tower of Babel” look like in our world today? In what ways do we try to build platforms that spotlight us more than God?

How can you tell when something good, like technology, success, or creativity, starts shifting from worship to self-promotion?

What would it look like to use the tools in your life to make God’s name known instead of your own?

This week, what’s one practical way you can turn something you’re building—a project, post, or platform—into a testimony that honors God?

Technology lets us go

In Genesis 11:7–9, God scattered the people of Babel—not to punish them, but to redirect them back to His mission. They wanted to gather and make their own name great, but God had called them to go and fill the earth with His goodness. So, what seemed like confusion was really correction.

That same mission continues today, where we live, work, and play. When Jesus gave the Great Commission in Matthew 28, He called us first to be disciples who reflect who He is, and then to make disciples of all nations.

When used with Jesus at the center, technology can help us do both, carrying the gospel farther and faster than ever before. Let’s consider and discuss how we can use technology to serve God’s mission rather than our own or the world’s.

What does God’s scattering at Babel reveal about His heart for humanity and His purpose for us?

Why do you think people tend to gather and stay where it feels safe instead of going where God sends them?

Where do you see technology helping the Church “go and make disciples,” and where do you see it holding us back?

How might God be calling you to use the tools in your hands—devices, influence, creativity, etc.—to reach people rather than just connect with them?

What’s one practical way this week you can use technology to help someone take one step closer to Jesus?

CLOSING THOUGHT

As we close, Genesis 11:1–9 reminds us that technology isn’t the problem: our hearts are. From Babel’s bricks to today’s screens, the question remains: are we building to make our name great or to make His known?

God scattered the people not to shame them, but to send them. To show that when technology and innovation are centered in and surrendered to Him, our tech can serve His mission in every culture and nation.

Jesus shows us the better way to “tech”: to use what’s in our hands to reach people, not replace them. So this week, let’s build testimonies and not towers, inviting the Spirit to guide how we create, communicate, and connect with God and others.

And may everything we make, online and off, point to the One who reached down to us, putting the real “T” in tech through the cross, so the world sees not only what we made, but the One who made us, and how deeply He loves.

Let’s close in prayer: Father, thank You for giving us the creativity to build and the tools to connect. Help us use what’s in our hands to honor You, not ourselves. Keep our hearts humble and our eyes fixed on Jesus. Teach us to use technology to reach people, not replace them, and to build testimonies that point to Your love where we live, work, and play. In Jesus’ name, amen.