Good ol' AOL will even provide anyone who wants it with a free instant chat service. Members of your church who sign up for the Instant Messenger Service and include other members on their contact lists will be notified when both are online at the same time. They can then chat or hold a Bible study. You don't have to subscribe to AOL for this service. Research by Christianity Today has revealed that while two years ago only about six percent of all churches had a web page, that number has jumped to 24 percent.
Larger congregations are three times as likely to have an online presence as small churches.
Perhaps many church leaders aren't aware of how intertwined American life will soon become with the Internet. Billions of dollars are being spent on making the Web and Net household items within the next few years. Everything from cell phones, to gas pumps, to ice boxes, may soon be connected sharing information and providing communication for most Americans. Take the television, post office, and telephone, bundle them all together, and the Internet will be used more often, and become more necessary to Americans, than these three present day mainstays. This future could be here as soon as the next two or three years.