About 90.4 percent of congregations are using email to reach out to their members and 69.2 percent have a website. In addition, congregations increasingly have a Facebook page (41.3 percent), blog (12.7 percent) and podcasts (11.6 percent).
More congregations across the U.S. are turning to modern technology, some even encouraging attendees to use iPads and phones during services.
A new report from the Hartford Seminary — which studied the health of congregations varying in faith and their changes over the past 10 years — found that one-third of U.S. congregations increased their use of modern technology by more than 10 percent in the last decade. The study also noted that the more a congregation uses technology, the more it is typically open to change.
The study was conducted among more than 28,000 congregations of 32 faith traditions ranging from Catholic and Protestant to Muslim and Jewish in the United States, and represents results from surveys taken in 2000, 2005, 2008 and 2010.
The report found that evangelical Christians were the most tech-savvy worshippers, regardless of age. [Read: God on the Go: How iPhones Are Changing Religion]
For example, The Church at Chapel Hill in Douglasville, Ga. – an evangelical Christian church – allows members, through apps such as “Bible” by LifeChurch.tv with YouVersion Live software, to take notes, respond to polls, answer questions and even tweet about the event.
“So go ahead, pull out your phone – it’s okay,” a spokesman from the Church at Chapel Hill said in a YouTube video. “Just make sure it’s on silent or vibrate.”
The Church at Chapel Hill also has an Internet campus where it broadcasts its services live.
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[Editor’s note: Some of the original URLs (links) referenced in this article are no longer valid, so the links have been removed.]
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