Evangelicalism is in a sprint of significant growth online. This increase is happening primarily through churches seeing the benefits of building online communities. There is an immediate and positive reaction for churches that leverage technologies like the web and apps for mobile devices. 

Churches on the leading edge are enabling people to experience their message in unique ways. Video streaming allows churches to broadcast their services through a website or mobile app, and some churches encourage live interaction through the use of chat technology to connect online participants.

Explosion is perhaps the best way to describe the growth and innovation that is blossoming around mobile devices and the apps that drive them. Evangelicalism is also thriving in this space. One example is LifeChurch.tv in Edmond, Okla. This church has produced a free mobile app, called YouVersion, that makes it easy to access the Bible in multiple versions and several languages. To date, the Bible app has been downloaded over 75 million times and is consistently rated among the most popular apps on online stores, like iTunes and Google Play.

Evangelicalism is alive and well online — and as more churches and faith organizations discover the opportunity to leverage these tools, the future is even brighter.

This article originally appeared in the NAE Insight.

David Russell

David Russell serves as online campus pastor and technologies director for Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama. In these roles, he provides community and spiritual care for the online campus, and daily manages the web needs of the church. He holds a bachelor’s degree in communication studies from the University of Montevallo.