Cyber-spirituality, more popular than eBay?

The study makes for fascinating reading. It notes, for example, that some 21 percent of Internet users -- between 19 million to 20 million people -- have logged on in quest of spiritual material, making cyber-spirituality more popular than online banking (which attracts 18 percent of Netizens) or even online auctions (which attracts 15 percent). Such statistics confirm what theologian Leonard Sweet says in the introduction to my forthcoming book eMinistry: Connecting with the Net Generation: That “the social and religious revolution created by the Internet is the great untold story of our day,” a story that is “even greater ... than the beginning-to-be-told story of the Internet’s technological revolution.” 

But for those of us interested in using the Internet as a tool to reach the unchurched, the Pew report confirms what many of us suspected: that few church Web sites see the Internet as a force for evangelism. Most wired churches surveyed for the report use their Web sites to post homilies and sermons, meeting times, directions and maps to the physical church, and pictures of the church staff, building and interior. Little is said about actual online evangelistic enterprises via their Web sites. (There are good reasons for that. For one, many people who need to turn their lives over to Jesus aren’t often surfing church Web sites, and churches realize that most visitors to their sites will be Christians looking for a new church home or for specific, church-related information. Still, four out of five churches surveyed said they use their sites to encourage visitors to attend their church services, and that seems to be working.) 

In addition, the majority of surveyed churches’ planned activities tended to exclude any specific discussion of evangelism. “Most of the congregations responding to our survey said they might add more features to their Web sites,” the report says. “In many cases, the new features would make the Web site more dynamic and allow it to serve more purposes.” Among the most likely additions: adding photographs of congregation events to their sites (29 percent of those surveyed); posting material for teens and their youth group (27 percent); providing space for prayer requests (22 percent); including a sign-up feature for classes and programs (2 percent); providing links to scripture studies and devotional material (18 percent); and providing links to community sites such as the local media, the government, and festivals (16 percent). It seems we still have a long way to go in getting the church involved in online evangelism. 

Let it be our prayer as we enter 2001 that we reach out beyond our congregations to connect with the spiritual seekers in cyberspace. In the meantime, churches truly interested in using the Internet to reach the lost might want to consider some of the Web outreach ideas included in Tony Whittaker’s Web Evangelism Guide ( http://www.web-outreach.com/ ). I would suggest first reading the article “Communicating the Gospel in a secular postmodern culture,” by Andrew Halloway of Christian Publicity Organisation in the UK, and then examining Tony’s idea of creating community portals. 

Andrew Careaga is the author of E-vangelism: Sharing the Gospel in Cyberspace and editor of the Good News Bulletin, a weekly newsletter on the topic of Internet evangelism, available online at http://www.e-vangelism.com/. His next book, eMinistry: Connecting with the Net Generation, will be published in February by Kregel Publications.