In a world where we can stream a video chat across continents but hesitate to make eye contact with someone handing us coffee, it’s clear we’re facing a deep and growing disconnection. We scroll endlessly, send laughing emojis instead of laughing with people, and curate polished digital selves—all while loneliness reaches epidemic levels. According to the U.S. Surgeon General’s 2023 report, chronic social isolation poses health risks equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) also poses that social isolation may negatively impact the immune system, making individuals more susceptible to illness.
Despite constant connectivity, something vital is missing.
Johan Hari, in his book Lost Connections, argues that the epidemic of loneliness isn’t just about the absence of social contact, but the absence of meaningful connection. He says, “You’re not a machine with broken parts. You’re a human being with unmet needs.” Hari identifies several forms of disconnection plaguing modern life: from meaningful work, from other people, from nature, from a secure future. He makes the case that depression and anxiety are not merely chemical imbalances but symptoms of a society that’s forgotten how to connect—to people, to purpose, to belonging.
This is exactly where the Church has an opportunity to speak into the crisis. While institutional religion has its flaws and critiques, the original design of the Church was centered around real, messy, transformative relationships—ones that cannot be replaced by comment threads or livestreams.
We were promised that technology would bridge distances, but it often leaves us more alone than ever. We know what a stranger had for brunch but have no idea what burdens our closest friends are carrying. Studies, including one from Cigna, confirm that younger generations—those most online—are also the loneliest.
And yet, Jesus showed us a better way.
Jesus didn’t run His ministry through a platform. He walked with people. He ate with them. He touched the sick, cried with mourners, and made time for outcasts. Acts 2:46 describes the early Church gathering daily, sharing meals and life with glad hearts. Their community wasn’t a Sunday event—it was a shared existence.
Levi Lusko echoes this idea. “Loneliness isn’t a Gen Z problem—it’s a human problem,” he told RELEVANT. The tools of modern convenience, he explains, have quietly made us more isolated. “You have Instacart that allows you to say, leave the groceries at the door… We shut the garage doors before we get out of our cars. We shifted from being a front yard people to being a backyard people.”
He’s not wrong. We’ve engineered our lives for efficiency, not intimacy—and we’re paying the emotional cost.
Some churches have embraced digital tools to stay relevant, but connection isn’t something that can be streamed. What people are really longing for is to walk into a room and be known. To be asked how they’re doing—and to have someone who cares enough to wait for the answer.
This is the unique power of the Church—not in programs or production, but in presence.
Lusko puts it plainly: “The church is one of the best places in the world to meet lots of different people from lots of different backgrounds… It’s a place where it’s actually encouraged to say you’re broken, to ask for prayer, to come forward with your pain.”
Imagine if our churches embraced this fully—if small groups became safe spaces for vulnerability, not just structured studies. If Sunday mornings weren’t just polished events but spaces for honest community. If mentorship, shared meals, and showing up for each other were prioritized over flashy social events and trendy sermon series.
So how can the Church reclaim its role in healing disconnection?
- Prioritize Presence Over Performance: Create spaces where people can show up as they are—no masks, no filters, no pressure to “have it all together.”
- Foster Intergenerational Relationships: The Church should reflect the diversity of the Body—young and old, rich and poor, new believers and seasoned saints walking together in shared life.
- Redefine What “Church” Means: Church isn’t an hour-long event. It’s a rhythm of shared meals, mutual care, and collaborative service. It’s life lived together, not just worshipped beside each other.
- Teach a Theology of Togetherness: Hebrews 10:24–25 calls us to “spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together.” Christian community isn’t optional—it’s essential.
- Stay When It Gets Hard: Real connection requires commitment. Relationships deepen when we choose to stay through discomfort, conflict, and inconvenience.
Lusko points to a 2020 Harvard study that found weekly church attendance dramatically reduces the likelihood of death from despair-related causes—suicide, overdose, alcoholism. Why? Because at its best, the Church offers what no algorithm or influencer can: a real, healing connection to God and others.
He speaks from experience. When Lusko and his wife lost their daughter in 2012, it was their church family that showed up. “We had people who could be there within minutes,” he said. “I might not be sitting here had it not been for the church.”
Johan Hari reminds us that our crisis isn’t just one of chemistry—it’s one of disconnection. Levi Lusko reminds us that the Church, when it lives out its calling, offers a radically different way forward.
We don’t need another post about “authenticity.” We need people who will actually show up and stay. The world says you don’t need anyone. The Church should be the loudest voice saying: yes, you do—and we’re here.
Jesus wasn’t building a fanbase.
He was building a family.
It’s time the Church did the same.
