Barna says cybersurfing kids may jilt the church

Group, Jul/Aug 1998

In a much-publicized warning to Christian leaders, pollster George Barna says teenagers may soon spurn traditional churches for Internet "cyberchurches." Though the revered surveyor of all things Christian says his prediction is based on facts-16% of teenagers expect to use the Internet as a church substitute in the next five years-it's likely he's way off base. Here's why:

Currently, only four out of 100 teenagers use the Internet for religious purposes. This is a factoid from Bama's own survey (and with a 4% margin of error, it's statistically insignificant). Most kids (93%) use the Internet simply to find information, not to replace their youth groups.

Only 60% of all teenagers have ever surfed the Net.

While one in 10 adults are already using the Internet for religious purposes, there's no indication they're substituting online religious conversations for in-the-flesh experiences.

Barna predicts that by 2010, "we will probably have 10% to 20% of the population relying primarily or exclusively upon the Internet for its religious input. Those people will never set foot on a church campus..." It's hard to see how Barna can make such a claim when his own research indicates "religion is currently one of the least common uses of the Internet by teenagers."

Advances in technology have led to more social isolation in our culture, and that isolation has fueled a "high touch" hunger in kids for rich human contact. That's one reason why youth ministry cell groups are so hot with kids right now. They crave organic connections with peers and adults.