Page 9 - Digital Church in a Lonely World

As we will discuss, digital church is about more than personal preference or convenience. It provides an
opportunity for certain people who cannot attend in-person gatherings—for example, the elderly, single
parents juggling multiple roles and people with vocations that force them to work weekends. For these
people, digital church has enhanced their ability to grow in their faith and develop community.

Having said that, I want to speak to some of the very real issues that local church pastors are facing,
specifically around trying to build both spiritual depth and relational depth in a world that is driven by
convenience and preference. In some cases, digital church has exacerbated this.

Sometimes, when we talk about technology and innovation, we get caught up in grandiose concepts and
sophisticated terms. But pastors at a grassroots level have seen another side of online church play out.
On the one hand, it has helped us to reach beyond the four walls of our church. On the other hand, for
some Christians already within the Church, it has only amplified the sense of convenience, that church
is an event or a transaction. Our digital strategies account for the dad watering his front lawn while the
Sunday live stream plays inside or the twenty-something who enjoys a late breakfast and catches up
with a few minutes of the recorded service during the week.

We pastors have a nagging concern that there is an aspect to online church that is fodder to a culture
that is already strongly driven by convenience and personal preference. When we chart this over a long
enough timeline, it poses the question, where will this take us?

U.S. ADULTS SHARE POST-PANDEMIC SERVICE PREFERENCES
After the COVID-19 pandemic, what kind of church service gathering will fit
your expectations best? Base: Ever attended a church

All U.S. adults All Christians Practicing Christians Non-Christians

44%
Primarily physical 48%
gatherings 54%
43%
12%
Primarily digital 11%
gatherings 8%
14%

32%
33%
Both
38%
29%
12%
Neither 8%
1%
13%

n=1,303 U.S. adults who have ever attended a church; April 23–May 5, 2021.

DIGITAL CHURCH IN A LONELY WORLD 9