Youth and Media; Online Churches

If there’s one thing that’s extremely influential with modern youth in today’s society, it’s media. From movies, music, videogames, and social media, technology has opened up numerous ways for people to entertain themselves. While Christianity has been able to utilize media to help further the Gospel, there are plenty of other things in competition for the attention of today’s youths.

Places like Elevation Church, a North Carolina-based mega church that has taken to creating online streams of their church services, is one of the many churches that has started using modern media to promote the Gospel in an interesting way. While they’re far from perfect, they’ve been able to make church feel more important to those who have trouble finding a physical church to attend.

While I don’t believe an online church should replace physical ones, there’s no denying their importance to the youths of today. This allows a church to reach people through their mobile phones or computers, and do so in a way that allows them to listen to sermons on demand instead of just on Sundays. Elevation has also taken to creating a sort of social ground for their online church, allowing people to talk to and interact with one another during a service, allowing for a community of sorts. This is something I believe should be used by more churches, as it would allow people to interact with their church and its community more easily.