Churches recently seem to be really engaging with the online community of people, whether it is through their website, social media, or other mediums. They may be late to the party, but this is better than nothing. A new study on the religiousity of people online is something that people need to look into as it will impact their online, social media, and blogging strategies to target the best audiences they can reach.
Below is an infographic of the detailed data, but we have pulled out the highlights of the content below:
- 57% of people that do not attend a place of worship have visited a church’s website.
- 17% of people read religious orientated blogs one a month or more.
- Nearly as many people who do not attend church as well as do attend a place of worship have visited a website.
What does this mean for our church? We need to not only be gearing our content online to people who worship with us, but also to those that are seeking a church. Our content has to be more than times and dates, but a deep theological basis and content as people are constantly searching online for material. And we need to have a large amount of material because people are eating this stuff up. Want attendance to grow? Stop ignoring this huge mission field!
[HT Churchmag]
Chuck McKnight says
Interesting differentiation between “protestants” and “evangelicals.” What exactly do you mean by these terms? Are not most evangelicals also protestant? Or by protestant do you mean those who are neither Roman Catholic nor evangelical, such as the “orthodox” denominations?