More Churches Using Internet to Reach Out

When the Rev. Paul Swartz came to St. Matthew Lutheran Church seven years ago, the church bulletin was produced with typewriters and mimeograph machines.

Now his congregation’s happenings are available around the globe on the World Wide Web, the booming portion of the Internet that lets users see pictures, read text and hear recordings.

“We’ve got to be able to reach people where they are, not where we think they ought to be,” Swartz said. “I see the church recapturing an earlier sense of what we’re here for, a larger sense of community.”

For St. Matthew Lutheran and a growing number of churches, community outreach now includes missions to cyberspace. The church’s presence on the Internet is not only a way to bring in technology-savvy members, but also to allow congregation members easy access to a church community without leaving home.

The trend is particularly visible in the Midwest, in the twin cities of Urbana and Champaign, home to the University of Illinois, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, a community computer network called Prairienet and thousands of on-line computerphiles. More than a dozen churches or religious organizations in the community of about 100,000 have Web pages, and more are jumping on the Internet.

“This is never going to replace all the other things churches will do, but as long as it’s around, we can use it as another tool to reach out,” said Ryan Neavill, who administers the Web site for the First United Methodist Church in Champaign.

Neavill approached church leaders about starting a Web site when he joined the church last fall, and has operated the site since it went on-line in December, he said. His next project is an e-mail directory of church membership.

Swartz also lets congregation members handle the technical aspects of his church’s Web site. “I’ve not had to do anything with it except read my e-mail,” Swartz said.

St. Matthew Lutheran’s site, like most other church pages, includes weekly church bulletin information, an e-mail link to the pastor, the congregation’s mission statement, information about church groups and links to other Lutheran churches.

Web sites aren’t just for large congregations like St. Matthew Lutheran, which has more than 1,000 members. The Apostolic Life Church in Champaign, a Pentecostal congregation with less than 100 members, uses its site to “get our name out there,” said Richard Masoner, the computer programmer who administers the site.

“We’re not in any competition to be some megachurch, but that’s something we do advertise. We’re a very small congregation, very cozy, almost family-like,” Masoner said.

Having a Web page also helps members of his small denomination keep in touch with other members worldwide, Masoner said.

“I get e-mail from people in our congregation from Australia, South Korea, even Russia,” Masoner said.