A recent survey of American teenagers by the Barna Research Group of Ventura, California, underscores the increasing use of the Internet for religious purposes among young people. Currently, 4% use the Internet for religious or spiritual experiences. Although that represents a modest gain from a year earlier, the most revealing insight concerned their expectations for the future. One out of six teens (16%) said that within the next five years they expect to use the Internet as a substitute for their current church-based religious experience. Significantly, this notion was most common among teenagers who currently attend church regularly. African-American teens were four times more likely than white teens to expect to rely on the Internet for their future religious experience (31% vs. 8%, respectively).

If that seems outrageous, consider the fact that a recent survey by Barna Research among adults shows that 12% of the adult population is already using the Internet for religious purposes. The most common of those purposes is to interact with others via chat rooms or e-mail about religious ideas, beliefs or experiences. That represents about 25 million adults who rely upon the Internet for religious expression each month.

Not surprisingly, there is a clear generational bias in cyberfaith. Younger adults are more likely to turn to the Net for religion. Overall, 17% of Baby Busters (ages 18 to 32) use the Net this way, compared to 11% of Boomers (ages 33 to 51), 8% of Builders (ages 52 to 70) and 4% of Seniors (71 or older). An unexpected outcome was finding non-white adults being 60% more likely to use the Internet for faith matters than white adults (16% versus 10%, respectively). Also, non-Christians are nearly as likely as Christians to seek spiritual input through the Net (10% versus 14%).

How Kids Use the Internet

The survey of teens showed that 60 use the Internet, although that usage is somewhat irregular. Only 9% of American teens use the Internet every day; just one-third use it every week. The teenage segments most likely to use the Internet are boys; the youngest teens (13 and 14 years old); whites; "A" students; those who are perceived by their peers to be a leader; and born again Christians.

Religion is currently one of the least common uses of the Internet by teenagers. The most common uses include finding information (93% use the Internet for this purpose); checking out new music or video releases (56%); participating in a chat room or other on-line discussion (51%); making new friends (34%); playing video games (33%); and keeping up existing relationships (28%). Comparatively few teens use the Net to buy products (7%).

George Barna, president of the company conducting the surveys, explained some of the findings. "Our research indicates 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 because their religious and spiritual needs will be met through other means - including the Internet. Whether or not the cyberchurch is a "true" church may not be pressing an issue as what current church leaders will do about the inevitable gravitation of tens of millions of people away from the existing church and how they can help to shape this emerging church form.

"The discomfort of today's church leaders with the cyberchurch is not surprising. When Willow Creek Community Church popularized the "seeker church" format in the late 70s and early 80s, the mainstream of the church community rejected the approach as an invalid and non-viable form of church, an inauthentic expression of biblical faith. The cyberchurch will receive the same treatment from today's church leaders."

Barna also pointed out that the proportion of young people currently using the Internet for faith purposes is underestimated. "A large proportion of teenagers use the Net for conversation with others. A substantial number of cyberchatters engage in dialogue related to faith, spirituality, religion, meaning and truth - the very types of conversations that are often initiated or fostered by churches. Teens do not think of those conversations as religious expression, but the sense of community and the spiritual beliefs fostered by such dialogue on spiritual matters is identical to what the traditional church seeks to create within its congregation."

Segmenting the Net

The survey shows that teenage groups use the Internet for various purposes.

• The teenagers least likely to use the Internet to get information are students with the lowest grades.
• Those most likely to participate in chat rooms include 13 and 14-year olds; teens in the Northeast; students with a "C" or "D" grade average; political liberals; non-Christians; those perceived by their peers to be leaders; and kids involved in at-risk behaviors (e.g. getting drunk, using drugs, sexual intercourse, stealing).
• Using the Internet to make new friends is most common among girls; non-whites; teens in the Northeast; those who do not describe themselves as "religious"; those who say they are "physically attractive"; and those perceived to be leaders.
• Maintaining existing relationships through cyberspace is the forte of "A" students; liberals; non-religious teenagers; and those who say they are "stressed out".
• Religious experiences are sought on-line most often by teenagers in the Northeast; blacks; and born again Christians.
• The teenagers most likely to evaluate new music and videos on-line were students with the lowest grades and those with liberal political leanings.
• Video games are most often explored on-line by boys and non-whites.

The Future Church

In Barna's newly-released book ( The Second Coming of the Church , Word Publishing) various structures and models of the future church are described. "This new research supports our contention that the structure of the American church is already undergoing radical change. If you add up the proportion of people who will call the cyberchurch their "church home", those who will align with an independent house church and individuals who will be steadfastly unchurched, within the next 15 years a majority of Americans will be completely isolated from the traditional church format.

"Some of the new forms of the church allow for greater diversity of audience and faith expression" he noted. "However, because of their independence from any forms of spiritual accountability, they also open the door for rampant theological heresy. The biggest question facing current Christian leaders is not how to stop the development of the new forms of the church; such efforts would not succeed and could merely ignite the growth of those forms. Rather, the challenge is to determine how to ensure that those forms are tuned in to the foundational theology and principles that reflect the basis of the existing church."

Survey Methodology

This information is based on two national telephone surveys. The teenage data are based on 620 interviews among people 13 to 18 years old conducted in September. The information for adults is from 1006 interviews conducted in January 1998 among a national random sample of people 18 or older. All of the interviews were conducted from the Barna Research Group telephone interviewing facility in Ventura, CA. The maximum sampling error associated with the teen survey is +4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The maximum sampling error is +3 percentage points for the adult survey. Both surveys were independently developed and funded by the Barna Research Group as part of an on-going tracking process of attitudes, values and behavior.