A review of Mark Sayers’ “Platforms to Pillars”

Imagine you’re a Hebrew living in slavery three thousand years ago. The rulers of Egypt, claiming to be gods, create the pyramids and massive temples while living in mind-boggling luxury. It takes a hundred steps to ascend to their palace, which looms over the city. 

It becomes extremely difficult to deny their power. Why? Because the Pharaohs are platformed. How can you not cower before and worship such raw majesty? The temptation to glorify Pharaoh as a kind of other-worldly divinity would have been strong. 

In the modern world, we all want to be Pharaohs, platformed in our own brands, social media influence, and luxury. We eat all the delicious food we want. We use social media filters to distort reality in our favor. We promote our tastes, desires, opinions, and even our own “truth.” 

While ancient Egyptians worshiped a false god, Pharaoh, we worship false gods too—ourselves. 

And it’s causing cultural chaos. 

What are platforms and pillars? 

Mark Sayers is the lead pastor of Red Church in Melbourne, Australia. Three years ago, he joined The Denison Forum podcast to discuss his book, A Non-Anxious Presence, which brilliantly unpacks why the past two decades have been so transitional, chaotic, and anxious for the West.

In Platforms to Pillars: Trading the Burden of Performance for the Freedom of God’s Presence, Sayers brings similarly piercing and clear insights into the times and how the church can respond.

Platforms elevate. For thousands of years, humans have elevated royalty, both literally and metaphorically. From Ancient Egypt to the British monarchy, societies usually assign power, influence, and luxury to a select few people and platform them above the rest.

Nowadays, cultural individualism, capitalist exorbitance, and social media convince us all to platform ourselves. Everyone expects to be treated like Pharaohs. 

On the other hand, pillars support. Christians are called to be steadfast, faithful, and humble. For decades, the West has forgotten the importance of elders. Elders pass on important knowledge from generation to generation and keep the community strong through their steadfastness. 

The church must reclaim the role of pillars and move away from celebrity, consumerist, digital platforming.

An incisive cultural critique 

Platforms to Pillars pulls from countless works of political theory, sociology, economics, and history to uncover the unique circumstances of the 21st century. Sayers argues that, much like Ancient Egypt, Western culture platforms its values. Yet, instead of focusing such platforming on an elite group, we try to platform everyone. 

Massive companies vie for every second of our attention, pulling us into navel-gazing and time-wasting like never before. He critiques the consumerism, digital obsession, and expressive individualism of the modern world (similar to that explained by Carl Trueman’s The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self). While the biblical application is sound, clear, encouraging, and helpful, his analysis of the times alone is worth a high recommendation. 

The culture claims to value authenticity, but social media turns our lives into an act. The culture claims individualism, but people are more polarized and tribal, not less. His cultural critiques are clear and decisive. 

How to be free from modern bondage

Of course, he doesn’t stop there. Alongside his comparison of modern culture to Ancient Egypt, Sayers compares the Exodus story to how Christians can escape the burden and self-enslavement of modern society. Throughout, he employs sound biblical exegesis and clear, practical application in how to be free in God’s presence from digital oppression. 

He encourages Christians to be pillars in their community, focusing on social cohesion and real relationships. Consistency, not virality; embodied service, not digital pride; self-sacrifice, not selfies; responsibility, not boasting.

Instead of longing for a large platform, we should take steps to live faithfully with the influence we’re given, becoming a pillar in our lived communities and churches. 

Platforms to Pillars is well-researched but readable, profound but accessible. It’s even short—perfect for lay leaders, pastors, and concerned Christians to fit into a busy schedule. (Hopefully, it will encourage you to live less busy!) We strongly recommend Platforms to Pillars.

It’s time for Christians to have our own “Exodus” from this age, delivered by Jesus to be non-anxious in an anxious time and free from modern bondage—trading performance for God’s presence. 

Notable quotes

“Beneath social media’s warm, fuzzy marketing images, a predatory and exploitative economic engine purrs. Our desire for connection is mined for data and sold on a profit. Our behaviors are manipulated for the financial benefit of multinational companies.” (102)

“A revolution in our financial system has reshaped societal values, encouraging individuals to embrace debt-driven consumption and driving a culture of instant gratification and individualism.” (109)

“There is a growing sense and accompanying evidence that the contradictions at the heart of the platform society may be creating a backlash that could lead back to faith.” (205)

“These divergent ideologies [conservative free markets and progressive ideas of freedom] converged in Silicon Valley, forming a hybrid ideology enabled by a shared foundational belief in radical individualism—liberated from institutions, restrictions, traditions, and bureaucratic establishments. . . . The self would be encompassed within a society constructed around digital platforms, designed to eliminate inefficiencies and bureaucratic red tape while continuing individual freedom and connectivity.” (12)

“A new kind of individual has emerged—an individual who is more self-centered but also in more pain. . . . the platform self, as it is emerging, is more herd-like and obsessed with what others think—lacking in autonomy. . . . As we will discover, the platform society is eating individualism itself.” (25)

“Platforms promise to elevate us, yet they hide us in the crowd. They promise us a voice yet drown us out in a cacophony of chaotic voices with whom we must compete for attention.” (47)

“The institution no longer forms the individual; the performative individual deforms the institution.” (61)

“The social pyramid that the platform society creates for us promises a pharaoh-like lifestyle of comfort and convenience, the chance to ‘make a name for ourselves.’ Yet, in practice, it condemns us to labor at the bottom of the social pyramid as our attention is hijacked for profit.” (73)