"So what do you think?"

If you're an American, you're not going to like what I think.

"Should your church be providing online worship?"

Nope, but it does anyway, however, as I think about it I can see a use for it...but more on that in a moment.

"Can it serve as a bridge or outreach tool..."

No, it can't, but it will only cater to our extreme spiritual laziness.

...,or will it be abused and used to further cultivate a consumerist mindset among Christians?"

Yes, yes it will. Church gatherings will become irrelevant to the individual. Corporate worship will become solitary whisperings of "want, want, want!", and spiritual loneliness will set in. And finally, this plays.right.into.Satan's.grand.plan.

Now, all that said, he does have one valid point as an exception and that is...

"Because the internet reaches billions of people all over the world, some who are not close enough to participate in a vibrant church."

Which I would think that a person in a predominantly Muslim, or Hindu culture, or even a politically disadvantageous culture would be able to connect to a church and find encouragement from a distance. But even this should serve as a temporary substitute till other believers can be found locally.

We must consider politics, the actionable output of the American church. I won't be in fellowship with Christians who think that real Christians must be either Republican or Tea Party, I won't listen to sermons which imply that free market capitalism is God's favored economic system, and I won't subject my daughter to an institution that she can't lead. Why? Because basically those churches don't consider me a Christian.

Since that excludes 99% of the churches around here, why not online? Christ exists on the internet just as He does everywhere else. A gathering of believers is a gathering of believers.

Americans love to pretend they've experienced something because they've viewed a facsimile.

"I've seen the Grand Canyon" (because I watched a National Geographic special).

"I know what Europe is like" (because I went to Epcot).

"I don't need a marriage license" (because I'm sure I know what marriage is because I've had roommates of the opposite sex).

"I don't like opera" (because I've listened to a three-minute audio clip of one).

"I don't need to be a member of a church" (because as an American virtually all my experiences are vicarious, not direct. So I turn church into a vicarious facsimile and assume that's the real thing).

Ahhh, simulation. Is this sort of like thinking we know God because we've seen something made by human hands?

Jarrod
You nailed it. However, online church is only a simulation of pulpit and pew church. Real church, as the Bible states it over and over is far off from both.

I would add, being in a church pew in it's institutionalized form is already a highly corrupted form of what God has asked for. Even that is more a contradiction than a simulation. "Let us consider how we can spur one another on to love and good works.. and encourage one another..." is what is stated as "assembly" or "meeting". This is a loooong ways from platform driven gatherings which are one-way communication rather than two-way communication as in "one another".

What is called "corporate worship" is not even close to what God's Word calls for. Being "filled with the Spirit" is stated as "speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs" is not even close to the platform driven show. What matters if you are in the room or not, if what is in the room is the opposite of what God asked for?

The article appeals to real church. "There is so much in Scripture about the relational aspects of the church—love one another, be devoted to one another, encourage one another, instruct one another, greet one another—and these can’t be done as well in a virtual environment." Everyone knows none of this is on the menu for pulpit and pew routines. At best, only 25% of pew sitters will even attempt these one another functions in a small group. "Our church has 2000 in small groups!". Yes, out of 8,000 members.

With this dynamic considered normal, online church is a small adjustment in further corruption.

The bogus excuses and reasoning by clergy experts who draw their paycheck, title, and sacerdotal behaviors from this system are truly horrendous.

I am in favor of online worship services, if done responsibly. They should not be considered a substitute for physical attendance; but they are needed. These days the lost who are seeking answers for their lives are going straight to internet search engines to find those answers and explore their faith. If they don't find the truth, what will they find? Who will they encounter? No, it would be irresponsible of churches to ignore the relevance that the internet plays in shaping today’s society. On-line Church services and Bible Studies should exist. That being said, on-line church must be done responsibility, with continuous promotion for the individual’s participation in a physical Christian fellowship, for which there is no substitute. Yet, to ignore the web is to enable the proliferation of bad theology and ignorance.

It seems to me there is something of a divide between the traditional Eastern Christian mindset which understands being a member of and worship in the Church as a sacramental and relational experience/encounter with Christ and His people in which all must actively participate and which necessarily involves particular practices, and what seems to me to be the more rational approach to "knowing God" in the West, which is often more focussed around gathering of more accurate information about God, Bible study, preaching from the pulpit, etc. Now, there is a certain usefulness, I believe, to gaining more correct information about God from the Scriptures, etc., and online broadcast of worship services, discussion forums, etc., can serve perhaps in this regard. It has its place. But to understand what NT Christian worship really is, it is instructive to understand that the Greek term from which we get our English transliteration "liturgy" used in the NT literally means "the work of the people." True life in Christ is understood in the Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition as practices ordained by God that bring about a person's total experiential participation in Christ's life and Body, of which the celebration of the Eucharistic Feast is the consummate ritual expression, but of which the actual expression can take virtually limitless forms--from prayer to Bible reading and meditation, to simple acts of self-sacrifice, generosity and kindness that come from the heart and are motivated and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Tim-

I appreciate your thoughts here. They seem spot on. One right criticism from my view, is that far too many churches have become nothing more than Sunday morning platforms, especially as most outsiders and casual attenders view them. If this is your view, then it's a short step to believing that online gatherings are just as good (some would argue better, because you get "more professional content." It's not until you begin to realize that God's work happens in and through His people that you really start to to understand the sacramental value of group gatherings. This is true for church leaders as much as anyone. We all need to share the rhythm of life together as followers together of Jesus the Christ.

All that being said, didn't Jesus see the same? Didn't large crowds show up for the great teaching,, boldness, and miracles? But in the end it was very few who walked to the cross. Far fewer than 20%...

The real question here, it seems to me, is whether "church" attendance has become a substitute for the Church. I believe it has, whether that attendance occurs online or in person. The way I see it, the Scriptures never called people to go to church; rather the Church is called to go to people - the poor, the sick, the lost, the broken-hearted, the widows, the orphans, and her own - with the love of Christ. Is it possible that once the Bride of Christ became identified as a location and an institution, rather than the movement of those who identify with Jesus, the essence of that calling was lost? Not saying that "going to church" is bad; there are wonderful gatherings of believers all over the world. Just wondering whether the all-in sacrifice of movement has been compromised by the ease of attendance whether that occurs online or in-person.

@Karen: you touched on something important - the "sacramental value" of meeting together. The church is sometimes referred to as the "koinonia" ("fellowship" or "communion") of the saints. The same word "koinonia" is used in 1 Cor. 10:16-17 - "The cup of blessing which we bless, isn't it a communion of the Blood of Christ? The bread which we break, isn't it a communion of the Body of Christ? Because we, who are many, are one bread, one Body; for we all partake of the one bread."

The sacrament of the Lord's Supper can only be conducted in a real-world, face-to-face meeting of believers. This is what transforms those in the meeting into the Body of Christ, the Church. In 2 Peter 1:3-4 we read - "...seeing that His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the [experiential] knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and virtue; by which he has granted to us His precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust." The word "partakers" is from the same Greek root as "koinonia," so when we take communion together, we are actually receiving the divine nature of Christ into our bodies.

Thank you, Robert. Very well said. Of course, if one believes observance of the Lord's Supper is only a moment for mental reflection on the historic sacrificial act of Christ and not an occasion for "receiving the divine nature of Christ into our bodies," that could be another reason the importance of the embodied local gathering of the Church around this sacramental act (and others) is lost on some.

For ten years or more, we have hosted an online ministry at mercydrops to shut-ins or home-bound individuals. They meet regularly in the chat area to encourage, study the Word and they have even taken communion or Lord's Supper together. They do it together as one of them leads with verses and acknowledgment of our need for His sacrifice for our sins. They have found ways to play music and fellowship while not able to leave their homes. One is on oxygen, another is paralyzed from a disease, another is a caregiver. They are rarely visited by their home church. No one has ever brought them communion to take at home. God has used this medium to bless their lives and fellowship in Him.