The Double-Edged Sword of Online Worship
Virtual church, more people praying than ever before … it’s a good thing, right?
A recent survey showed that one in four people in the UK have followed online worship during the COVID-19 crisis and that one in twenty are praying for the first time in their lives. Many of these are millenials and Generation Z. Some may never have been inside a church building before.
Church congregations have been falling and new communications technology is enabling the Church to reach out to a whole new cohort of people and to engage with them in prayer. Prayer hotlines and streamed eucharists are the new frontier for the church and the faith she seeks to share. This should be really good news.
But is it?
Some provocation
If you’ve never been to a church before and you’re now engaged in some kind of online worship or prayer experience, are you going to attend a physical church after this lockdown nightmare is over? Right now, I’m sure you think that you might. It may even have “unlocked” some real intention to discover more about what this whole prayer thing is about.
Sadly, I suspect you won’t go.