Digital Religious Creatives in Swedish Free Churches: Restrained Digitalization and Organizational Negotiations of Social Media Use

This article explores the position and work of religious digital creatives (RDCs) in local Free Churches in Sweden, and the challenges they encounter in their work with digital communication. Drawing on 24 interviews across three Free Church denominations, the study engages with Campbell’s framework of RDCs and situates the findings within broader discussions of digital religious practices within the Nordic countries. The study shows that RDCs hold various roles operating sometimes alone, but most often within varying forms of collaborations. Their work is marked by four recurring challenges: (1) time pressure and difficulty keeping up with the accelerating logic of social media platforms; (2) a double communication burden; (3) a pattern of restrained digitalization, where legal, theological, and cultural considerations lead to cautious engagement; and (4) a broader digital ambivalence tied to, for example, dependence on commercial platforms and limited engagement from church members. The findings challenge Campbell’s framework of RDCs, suggesting that digital work in local congregations is less about individual creativity and agency than about navigating organizational and contextual conditions that shape how social media is used.