OrlandoSentinel.com
Finding the divine online
THEIR HOUSES OF WWW.WORSHIP

Jay Hamburg
Sentinel Staff Writer
September 6, 2008

On any given Sunday, Laurie and Tim Klaus of Salisbury, N.C., attend church with Laurie’s parents in Longwood.

And when their daughter traveled to Texas for an internship, she, too, worshipped with her family.
“It binds us together,” Laurie Klaus said. “There is a closeness despite physical distance.”
How do they do it?

The Klaus family are among the 2,000 members of Northland, A Church Distributed who log on to the Internet to link up to the Lord. And those virtual pews are filling fast.

Seeking the divine online may not be entirely new, but Northland calls its innovative twist on churchgoing the world’s only fully interactive, Web-streaming worship service.

“They’re probably right that no one else is doing that right now,” said Quentin Schultze, a professor of communication at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., who has written widely on technological advances in religion.

Spokespersons for the Catholic and Episcopal dioceses in Central Florida said they are reviewing Internet ideas but knew of nothing similar among their congregations.

Orlando’s Discovery Church, however, plans to start a comparable service next year.

“Half of our culture is living life online, and the church better figure out a way to respond,” Discovery pastor David Loveless said. “Can I meet God online? Can I grow in a virtual community? The answer is yes.”

At Northland, members of its new online flock can stay home, fire up their laptops and watch their pastor preaching live from the pulpit.

Once logged on, they can share their faith with other Web-based believers through instant messaging and “favorite worshipper” buddy lists that feature photos and bios.

No one at Northland claims religious grace is a mouse click away, but they don’t believe it’s sacrilegious to offer real-time social networking usually found on secular sites.

“As long as you’re open to the idea that God is everywhere and the Holy Spirit connects us, then the technology is just a tool to do that,” said the Rev. Dan Lacich, who tends to Northland’s electronic flock.

The faithful are signing on from homes, airports and coffee shops throughout the world, making online worship the fastest-growing part of the 12,000-member church.

“I love going to the big church, but it’s 45 minutes away,” said Michael Dusseau of Kissimmee.

So instead, Dusseau invites other families to sit in front of his home theater and pray with the congregation in Longwood. “If they stand up, then we stand up. When they sing, we sing.”

Dusseau said his wife and kids also enjoy the interactive features because they can send prayer requests and questions to the online pastor. “When you’re in church, you can’t stop the pastor and say, ‘Hey, wait, I’ve got a question.’ ”

Several churches, including Flamingo Road Church in Fort Lauderdale and LifeChurch.TV in Edmond, Okla., are experimenting with Internet campuses, and many churches let members download past sermons or watch services on the Web.

Flamingo Road has even conducted communions and baptisms online.

But for the time being, Northland may be the only house of worship that lets parishioners interact privately during the live sermon, post messages for all the logged-on faithful to respond, show bios and photos of online worshippers, and give their general locations on a map.

Schultze said the new application that Northland rolled out a few months ago could strengthen religious communities, but it’s too early to pass judgment.

“It might be a fad, a trend or just a cute idea,” he said.

He said similar models used for long-distance learning at colleges sometimes provoke more electronic note-passing than active listening among students.

For those who worry laptops put barriers between worshippers and their God, Northland’s online pastor points out that believers can overcome any distance — technological or temporal.

“It has been 2,000 years since we’ve been face-to-face with God,” Lacich said. “And yet we still have a pretty good relationship.”

Jay Hamburg can be reached at jhamburg@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5673.

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