Will the marriage of church and Internet click?

With 82 out of the 128 million Internet users in the country conducting spiritual or religious matters online combined with the declining number of young people going to church have inspired some evangelists and Internet entrepreneurs to spread the “Word” online.

GodTube.com, CrossRoadMinistries.com, and RentAPriest.com are some of the startup sites addressing this matter. The big question now is: will it click?

According to an interesting article from Pittsburgh Tribune–Review, some local parishioners and church authorities say it won’t. After all, the church is its people.

“The Muslim, the Jew, the Christian – all believe that God has revealed himself to the community. To believe in God or worship apart from the community is a deficient approach to faith. Me sitting behind a computer trying to appeal to my desire to know God can be – at least – dangerous,” said Rev. James Wehner, director of the St. Paul Seminary, in the news article.

On the other hand, some so-called non-traditional church authorities believe it is OK to use the Internet as the medium for they claim that “methods change but the message does not”.

Originally posted on September 10, 2007 @ 9:37 am