I lead a church of gamers and nerds. At Lux, we love Stranger Things.
My wife and I are currently watching seasons 1-4 in preparation for the first episodes of season 5, which drop about nine hours from when I’m writing this. In season one, you’re introduced to the cast of characters and to the town of 1980s Hawkins, Indiana. Soon, one of the main characters, Will, is taken into a place called the Upside Down.
The Upside Down is a dark reflection of our world – scary, cold, and full of monsters. At the end of season one, Will is rescued. But in season two he is repeatedly pulled back into the Upside Down, where he encounters a massive creature of shadow later named the Mindflayer. The Mindflayer stretches across the sky like a living storm cloud – more feeling than form, hard to explain and harder to escape.
If the church world is Hawkins, the internet feels like the Upside Down. Dark. Cold. Strange. Full of things we don’t understand. And hovering above it all is that same undefined fear – the sense that we should be there, but also that something there might consume us.
For the past five years, I’ve been living in the Upside Down. This is my attempt to pass along what I’ve learned.
The Pressure All of Us Feel
Over the past 12 months, I’ve served as the Director of Content for digital church planting at Exponential NEXT. My final article is part reflection, part conviction, and part freedom. It’s everything I’ve learned after a year of conversations with church leaders around the world – leaders wrestling with what they’re supposed to do with this strange digital landscape.
I’ve talked with church planters dreaming of their first steps, pastors faithfully shepherding rural congregations, and innovative leaders of large influential churches. They couldn’t be more different. And yet they all share one thing: Pressure.
Pressure to “do something online.”
Pressure to keep up.
Pressure to be relevant.
Pressure to livestream, post, optimize, update, and strategize.
Pressure that whispers, “If you don’t do this, you’re falling behind.”
This ambiguous, shapeless, pulsing Mindflayer seems to live inside the head of every church leader. Where did it come from? The pandemic? A podcast? A celebrity pastor with a viral moment? Or simply the reality that our kids and grandkids walk between our world and the Upside Down every single day?
Wherever it came from, the result is the same: a heavy, guilty weight sitting on the shoulders of pastors everywhere.
As someone who has lived here in the Upside Down, I want to help us fear the Mindflayer a bit less – and relieve some of that pressure.
Permission to Say ‘No’
If you’re a church leader being told you need to do something online but you feel lost, here’s your permission: You can say no.
Your church does not need the internet to reach young people.
You do not need social media to be relevant.
You are not unfaithful if you don’t have a website or Instagram account.
It might actually be unwise to pour your limited time, energy, and emotional bandwidth into building an online presence you aren’t called to sustain. Online ministry requires persistence, empathy, creativity, and sacrifice. And all of us have a finite amount of soul-capacity.
If what your people need is your presence, your prayers, and your discipleship, then as someone who lives in the Upside Down – please hear me – you have my blessing to stay in Hawkins. Not every church is supposed to be online. Not every pastor is called to the internet.
By the end of my time leading workshops at Exponential conferences this year, I realized that one of the most important things I was doing was simply helping pastors lay down the false guilt they were carrying. Scripture calls every church to reach people and make disciples, but nowhere does it command you to build a digital ministry.
So if you’re not called to the Upside Down, that’s okay. Hawkins needs great churches too.
And no, this doesn’t mean you should haul your streaming system into the woods and set it on fire. It simply means the pressure you feel – the pressure that says you’re being unfaithful if you’re not online – is made up. It’s not from God. You can be perfectly faithful right where you are.
Let’s Stop Calling Livestreams ‘Church’
If you are a lead pastor who has a livestream and you’re calling it an “online campus” or “online church,” I’m asking you – as lovingly as I can – to stop.
One day we will answer to Jesus for what we called a church.
Many online “campuses” don’t even remotely resemble what the Bible describes as a church. Scripture is flexible on structure, but clear on essence. In Acts 2, a church is a community devoted to:
- the apostles’ teaching
- prayer
- fellowship
- the sacraments
- worship
- generosity
If someone watching your livestream cannot meaningfully participate in these devotions, you’re not offering them a church – you’re offering content. And content isn’t bad. But calling it a church is misleading.
A good livestream is a blessing. But equating it with belonging is deception.
The bride of Christ is more sacred than that.
And if your online reach is primarily seen as a way to generate financial support – without conviction to disciple those people – you’re siphoning resources away from the local churches they should be part of.
Your livestream is fine. Keep it.
It helps your people when they can’t physically attend.
It serves your congregation in a world that no longer treats Sunday mornings as sacred time.
But livestream ≠ church.
And when you press “Go Live,” you open the doors of your church to anyone, anywhere. If they can only spectate but not participate, help them find a place they can belong. Help them be the church, not just watch it.
For Those Called to Make the Upside Down Home
Finally, to my fellow adventurers – the ones who see the digital world not as a threat but as a frontier – this part is for you.
For the pastors who want more than a livestream…
For the innovators dreaming about the future of church…
For the missionaries who feel called to this strange, shadowy space…
Don’t chase viral. Chase faithfulness.
We live with the Mindflayer.
So learn the terrain.
Get creative.
Become the church in the Upside Down – not a ghostly projection from Hawkins.
Meet people where they are.
Learn their stories.
Love them sacrificially.
Invite them from spectating to participating.
Build real community.
Take communion together.
Pray together.
Read Scripture together.
Worship together.
Carry one another’s burdens.
Make disciples.
We carry something no one in Stranger Things has – the very power and presence of the Holy Spirit. Wherever we go, He goes with us.
So keep going.
Keep creating.
Keep discipling.
Keep showing up in the places no one else wants to go.
I know it’s hard.
But you are not alone.
A Final Confession
This is the most unconventional and honest article I’ve written and, fittingly, it’s my last one for 2025. Consider it a small survival guide, a warning, and a confession from a pastor who has spent the last five years living in the Upside Down.
