Religion Online

I was somewhat surprised to see that the general consensus of two reports published by the Pew Internet & American Life Project (here & here), illustrate that the majority of internet users seeking religious and spiritual information are in fact tied to traditional faith organizations. In particular, I was struck by this conclusion in the second article:




“Rather than providing a safe haven for religious experimentation for those disaffected from religious traditions, therefore, the Internet seems to be fostering the development of religious and spiritual practices that are nonetheless at some distance from the traditions of organized religion. These practices are more personally expressive and more individually oriented and, consistent with contemporary research on trends in American religion, they are more likely to take place among those who have a commitment to traditional religious organizations than among those outside of those traditions.” p. 20




As we have discussed ways to define a new vision for and grow the church of the 21st Century, greater expansion of the use of the internet to appeal to broader numbers, including the unchurched, seemed a logical choice. Especially when looking at current forms of online community and communication tools. Given the research presented, it now would seem that one is better off leveraging the internet to develop enrichment programs that compliment the traditional methods of worship and enhance community development within the established religious or sprititual community, rather than looking to draw in net new membership. This is not necessarliy a bad thing as it is easier to define your desired target audience within the context of a traditional religious setting.



I do wonder whether the researchers took the time to better understand the reasons behind some of the data. For instance, in the second report, the primary demographics of online faithful was defined as follows:



“The online faithful are somewhat more likely than the overall Internet population to be women, to be white, to be between ages 50 and 64, to be college educated (49% have college or graduate degrees), to be married, to live in households earning $75,000 or more, and to live in the South and Midwest. The online faithful are less likely than the overall Internet population to be between the ages of 18 and 29, to be minorities, to live in households earning less than $30,000, or to live in the Northeast.” P. 5


What is behind the numbers? Why is this group more white, more female, more educated, and more resourced than that of the traditional internet users? Are access to resources or time available to be on line contributing factors? Is it a matter that traditional black denominations did not have resources available on line at the time of this study? Are these numbers heavily skewed by the Evangelicals who participated in the surveys? According to these numbers, even I have a few more years to go before I hit this demographic (I'll leave it to you to guess which factor(s)I have yet to hit :-)).



I'm a stickler for trying to include both quantitative and qualitative datapoints in research that I conduct in order to present a broader picture of what's happening in a given situation. I think the 2004 study did a much better job of that than the 2001 study. However, it is from the 2004 study that my questions come from. I was also dissapointed that there was not enough common data between the two studies to be able to draw correlations or investigate trends over a period of time. Nor could I find anything on the Pew internet website to suggest that a followup study had been completed. I think a trend analysis would be exceptionally helpful to understand changing behaviors of the "online faithful." I think that it would also be valuable to expand upon page 20 of this article and actually commit to a best practice report of what resources are being available on line and how people are responding to them. It goes without saying that the open sharing of information, successess, and failures is of tremendous value.



At the end of the day the question remains, how do we draw folks back into the church, or perhaps better stated, how do we expand our church communities? My take away on this is that our best recruitment tools are still ourselves. Our future growth will remain dependant on how we as Christians continue to interact with others. Are we the best example of the Gospels that we can be in our everyday interactions? Are we continuing grow in our own faith so that we can continue to grow with others? Are we able to have FUN in our Christian communities and want others to spend time with us? Are we providing the opportunity for theological and spiritual growth to our congregants? Even though the studies presented are obsolete as is almost anything on line anymore, it is very realistic to enhance people's experience of God through the use of online tools.