A growing number of Americans are seeking religious experiences through the Internet, according to a new study released by the Barna Research Group. The study found that evangelical Christians are every bit as likely as non-Christians to use the digital superhighway. Catholics and mainline Protestants are slightly more likely to use the Internet than are Baptists and Protestants who attend non-mainline churches. Adults who are affiliated with a religion other than Christianity have one of the highest concentrations of Net usage (85 percent).

Presently, 8 percent of adults and 12 percent of teenagers use the Internet for religious or spiritual experiences. But fewer than 1 percent of all adults and just 2 percent of teens currently use the Internet as a substitute for a physical church. Most people indicated that they do not expect to replace their involvement in a bricks-and-mortar faith experience with a Net-based faith experience. The Net-based religious endeavors deemed most appealing were listening to archived religious teaching, reading online devotionals, and buying religious products and resources online. Projections suggest that by the end of the decade some 30-35 million adults may be participating in online worship, while more than 100 million may be listening to religious teaching online. The study found that teens have very different online interests than adults. Activities such as reading devotional passages online and submitting prayer requests were of much greater interest to younger people. While few clergy consider themselves to be computer experts, more than 9 out of 10 senior pastors use a computer at home or at the church. They tend to use computers mainly for communications and study, with word processing clearly the dominant application. Four-fifths of all Protestant senior pastors have access to the Internet, and about half of pastors use the Internet daily.

Pastors use the Internet differently than those they serve. While most pastors and laity utilize the Internet for research and information, pastors are more likely than others to maintain friendships, buy products, and have religious experiences on the Internet. Pastors are less likely to use it to explore new media products, play online video games, or participate in chat rooms. One out of every three Protestant churches has a web site, for a total of about 110,000 Protestant congregations that have a digital presence. Expansion is expected to proceed at a moderately brisk pace. Among the two thirds of churches that do not presently have a web site, 19 percent say they definitely will have one within the next 12 months, representing another 40,000 or so congregations preparing to go online in the coming year. The research showed that the content of church websites varies tremendously. The most common content includes scheduled activities at the church, background information about the church, and current church news.

George Barna, who directed the study for The Barna Institute, believes that virtually every dimension of the faith community will be influenced by online faith developments. “We will have an explosion of self-produced and self-marketed worship music as an outgrowth of sophisticated and affordable digital technology that turns an artist into a full fledged recording company, including the ability to directly and inexpensively market those products to the millions of consumers on the Internet. Within churches we will see email broadcasting, theological chats, online meetings, broadcasts to congregants who are immobile, live webcasting of mission trips via webcams, and 24/7 ministry training from the best trainers and educators in the world.” The data in this study are based upon three national surveys conducted by Barna research group during the last half of 2000.