Although that represents a modest gain from a year earlier, the most revealing insight concerned their expectations for the future. Significantly, this notion was most common among teenagers who currently attend church regularly. 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.
George Barna, president of the company conducting the surveys, explained some of the findings. 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 points out that the proportion of young people currently using the Internet for faith purposes is underestimated.