(RNS) — As houses of worship remain closed due to shelter-in-place orders across most of the United States, and significant numbers of them stream their worship services online, clergy and others are no doubt asking how well virtual delivery is feeding the faith of their members.
Some answers can be had from a Pew Research Center (via the Roper Center) survey conducted April 20-26, in which Americans were asked about their religious faith and how their houses of worship have reacted to the changes brought about by COVID-19.
The first bit of good news is how many people said their houses of worship were able to go online. Of those affiliated with a religious tradition, 81.2% indicated that their house of worship had shifted to broadcasting services over the internet.
Even better from the clergy’s point of view is that their members who have gone online report a larger growth in faith than those whose services have not moved to online streaming. Of those who had moved online, 42.4% said that their faith had grown stronger. For those without an online service to watch, the share of those who said that their faith had grown was a more modest 30.9%. Only very small shares of either group said that their faith had gotten weaker because of COVID-19.
It’s perhaps little surprise that the beneficial effect of online worship is especially true for those who attended services most frequently before the…
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