People Say
They’re Growing Spiritually During Online Church—Will It Continue?
By Warren Bird, Ph.D.
Have Christians grown in their faith during the recent
“shelter in place” days when church buildings were closed?
The answer is YES, according to a recent
survey of 2,948 Protestant churchgoers.
Pew Research compared two groups: those whose church pivoted
to online services vs. those whose church didn’t offer online services. Those
involved with churches that do offer weekly worship online are 13% more likely
to say they’ve grown in their faith during this time.
Did the online worship cause spiritual growth? Not
necessarily. But it’s fair to conclude that online worship is in some way associated
with spiritual growth.
Online Worship Is Here to Stay – Even After the Pandemic
Most church leaders have decided that their commitment to quality
online worship services must continue even after churches begin to re-gather in
person (let’s avoid the term “re-open,” which wrongly implies that the church
closed during the pandemic). Larry Osborne, pastor of North Coast Church and
popular writer, calls this future a “both-and church.” Tan
Seow How, a megachurch pastor in Singapore, says
in his blog, “Churches now have two storefronts—physical and digital….The
future belongs to churches who can do both online and in-person services
well … [and] who can clearly differentiate the purposes, audiences, content and
elements for both platforms.”
The most compelling reason I’ve heard for continuing
a quality emphasis on internet services is evangelism. It’s not to keep
people online, but to catch people when they are online! It’s an
empowerment tool for followers of Jesus to help their friends check out their
churches—a contemporary version of “show and tell.” Churches are also reporting
that their online services are making geography irrelevant in their outreach: through
online services, they can literally connect with people around the world.
The Next “New Normal” for Online Service Metrics
Now I’d like to push further: online church enables you to measure
(i.e., to “count” and “celebrate”) in ways that in-person church cannot measure
as cleanly. Could these be ways that we can discern where and how the Holy
Spirit is at work in the people we seek to serve? Consider these helps in digital
discipleship:
Action to Take
Remember that relationship always trumps technology, as
Church Anywhere’s Tyler
Sansom says. “If you can have a relationship with 50 people online, you
have more of a shot of ever getting them into your church facility, if they
live close enough, than if you have no relationship with 5,000 people who each watch
online for 3 seconds,” he explains.
If the goal
is spiritual growth continue from online services, then I believe it will
happen only if your online services and metrics “drive engagement” rather than
“feed consumption,” as Carey Nieuwhof describes it here
and here.
Again, please see my list of 10
online church “call to action” engagement points in a previous blog. While
there, see also the conclusion of that blog for how ECFA can help you!
P.S.
Hat Tip: I learn from many scholars of religion. I found the research above in Ryan
Burge’s recent article, Survey Shows that Faith Can Prosper in Online Services.
Take a look at @ryanburge on Twitter. To track Pew Research’s findings on
Twitter see @PewReligion.
