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Internet Usage and Faith |
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Click and Ye Shall Find |
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More people have gotten religious or spiritual
information online than gambled online, traded stocks online, used web-based auction sites
or used online dating services. As of December 2001, 25%* of all internet users had sought religious
or spiritual information online at one point or another. What are the two main
activities of "Religion Surfers"? Sixty-seven percent of them look for
information about their own faith and 50% of them look for information about another
faith. Tied in third place at 38% is emailing a prayer request and downloading religious
music. Looking for a soul mate is the least favored activity among Religion
Surfersonly 3% of them think they'll find their mate in Cyber Space. |
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* In December, 2001 U.S. Internet growth had swelled to 58 percent of
the population. This percentage is up from 39% in July of 1999 and from only 22 percent in
1998! |
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Fast Fact - The September 11 terror attacks compelled millions
of Internet users to turn to religious issues online. Forty-one percent of Internet users,
many of whom had never considered themselves spiritual seekers, said they sent or received
email prayer requests. -JK |
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Ministry Ideas |
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What kind of Cyber presence does your church have? Consider
having a Cyber outreach ministry that combines answers to life's difficult questions with
a place to post requests and receive prayer. |
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Something to consider: Right after 9/11, were Internet
user's deeper questions on the meaning of life answered? Not according to Pew Internet
& American Life, which in the Summary of Findings from their latest report dated Sept. 5, 2002,
concluded this: "Questions that, for many, had been mere theological discussions,
such as why does God permit evil, became pained cries. Such questions were not addressed
substantively by the denominations on their Web sites."
Click
here to see an archive of post 9/11 web pages |
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If a person seeking answers to the meaning of life keys in the phrase
"life after death" who or what will they find? What about the word
"prayer"? Will they find you, or the First Church of Wicca? (It's surprising how
few Christian church websites are linked via relevant keyword searches! Make sure you know
where your Web site comes up via the different search engines and have your webmaster work
the problem). |
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Gen-Xers and younger tend to submit prayer requests more often than adults.
Knowing this, think of how you can make your Web site more appealing to that demographic.
Read this article for more insight and links to Gen-X church websites:
http://www.next-wave.org/dec99/new_wave_of_gen_x_churches.htm |
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© COPYRIGHT 2008 PERCEPT GROUP, INC. |
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