Can online church replace the real thing?

#1114 for broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 16 August 2015.

Next Sunday, Crossway Church, a large Baptist church in Melbourne, will launch what it says is Australia’s first interactive church online.

Applying new communications technology for religious purposes is nothing new. There was a time when one third of all the books ever printed were by Martin Luther, and 2CH itself has an impressive history of religious broadcasting.

But an interactive online church product has real benefits, as Crossway senior pastor Dale Stephenson points out:

for all kinds of reasons people can’t actually attend church in person on a Sunday. For some they are housebound due to illness or disability. For others, it’s their stage of life … Some may live in an area where there’s no church.

Many people already find ways to meet their spiritual and emotional needs through televised religious services, home Bible studies, or solitary spiritual disciplines. But come next Sunday, wherever you are, you’re just a click away from church online.

I’m Rod Benson for the NSW Council of Churches.