...Religion is playing an increasingly important part in cyberspace as churches and Christian organizations set up along the information superhighway. They are turning to the World Wide Web to evangelize and advertise as church attendance drops and more people look to find "community" via a modem.

According to the Barna Research Group, 25 million people already use the Internet for religious purposes and by 2010 up to 20 percent of Americans could be relying exclusively on the online world for their religious experiences, reported "The Evansville (Ind.) Courier & Press."

The PC seekers are prime candidates for "Z-church," the interactive Internet church created by Stephen Schwambach, pastor of Bethel Temple in Evansville. Three Web cameras broadcast services live to browsers who, at Christmas, could feel part of the candlelight service by "lighting" a candle icon on their home screen. They can also give to the collection online.

Schwambach hopes soon that in addition to hearing the church's choir and congregation sing, "home" congregants will be able to have their singing broadcast within the sanctuary. But although Bethel Temple is on the cutting edge of online churches, Schwambach isn't interested in replacing the real-life experience.

"We don't want to pull somebody out of their existing church and try to entice them to worship over the Internet," he told the "Press." "We're after people who haven't made it that far; the people who have given up on religion or haven't ever stepped into a church building." That is why the name "Z-church"--it stands for "Zebulun," one of the lost tribes of Israel.

Meanwhile, CNN noted how online religious commerce is becoming an increasingly serious business--citing Christian Broadcasting Network's 500,000 monthly visitors to its Web site, and Promise Keepers' 70,000. They are just two of the "high-profile churches and affiliated groups [turning] to the Net not only to extend their ministries but to invoke the power of electronic commerce."

H.L. Champion has founded Baptist.org as an Internet-based clearinghouse for thousands of loosely affiliated Baptist churches. He intends to make it a full-blown virtual mall selling "any product you'd find in a Christian bookstore or that's used by a Baptist church--everything from floor wax to steeples," he told CNN.

Source: http://www.mcjonline.com/news/00/20000117d.htm