Stay Connected for Spiritual Growth: Pros and Cons of Church Community Online

Now more than ever, our churches use modern tools and technology to reach their congregations so that they can come together and share the word. In this time of the Coronavirus pandemic, more churches or places of worship have adapted with the times. This church community that holds worship online is nothing new, but due to the social distancing prerogatives of our country, more religion practice this online revolution.

Staying connected is important, especially right now, but more than ever, enriching your faith is essential. Can we use this time to expand the reach of our faith to others? Let us count the advantages and disadvantages of online worship.

Advantages

1. New people can easily check out your church if it is available online. Finding a church to go to after a while of not going is hard. These people prefer to check out the churches without necessarily going there – to see if they like their music, way of praising and prayer, or service in general. Watching their service online can help with a lot of their questions and concerns.

2. A church community online broadens their reach – especially if it is a local church. If you live in a certain state and go to church there, once you move, staying connected is important. Some church-goers even invite their friends and family all over the world to their church community online as their spiritual outreach.

3. Differences among the church-goers are inevitable – but missing church because of it does. With a church community online, people who avoid going to their church can still attend services. It keeps them connected to their church and their community.

Disadvantages

1. A church community online is not ideal for kids. They can easily treat their church services as something they can push for later – and this is something not great for their faith. More than with adults, kids need interaction with their peers, and this impossible with the online church. Kids need to know and see the value of church from adults like their parents for their spiritual life to prosper and flourish.

2.  If attending church is just about getting information or educating church-goers, there’s be no need for a physical church or place of worship at all. However, a church is a community of people who have the same beliefs. These people come together to share that belief and their lives altogether. Church-goers are told to love each other or help one another – how do you do that online?

3. You know that there is a different feeling when you do worship service or attend a mass – you don’t and won’t get that same feeling doing it online. Doing a mass or a service online will get you distracted more than at church or a place of worship. Try singing or praying in front of a computer – it feels so different.

We can come up with more reasons than what we have on this list. The offering of worship service can have its positive and negative effects on the people and the church itself. Knowing that it exists brings comfort to more people who can’t attend mass and services right now. All we can do is take advantage of it and be on guard for the disadvantages.