{"id":860808,"date":"2025-12-11T05:00:41","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T11:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/?p=860808"},"modified":"2025-12-10T11:44:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T17:44:42","slug":"the-real-facts-about-online-church-who-watches-who-doesnt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-real-facts-about-online-church-who-watches-who-doesnt\/","title":{"rendered":"The Real Facts About Online Church: Who Watches, Who Doesn\u2019t"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t<div class=\"content-restriction-preview\"><p>Perhaps the most significant innovation in American religion over the past decade is the rapid growth in churches broadcasting their worship services online. In the fall of 2019\u2014just before the COVID-19 pandemic\u2014Lifeway Research found that only 22% of churches surveyed were streaming their entire service. Meanwhile, 41% reported that they weren\u2019t streaming, recording, or broadcasting their services in any way.<\/p> <p>When Lifeway conducted another survey about six months later, in April 2020, the percentage of churches streaming services had increased to 97%. The pandemic lockdowns clearly sped up the adoption of this technology. But does it actually have lasting power? At that time, some observers argued that shifting to a digital-first outreach strategy was crucial and that \u201conline church\u201d would become the standard for future generations of ministry leaders.<\/p> <p>In late 2023 and early 2024, the Pew Research Center surveyed nearly 37,000 Americans as part of their Religious Landscape Study.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"content-restriction-block\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"content-restriction-block-login login-toggle\">Already a member? <a href=\"#\">Log in<\/a><\/div>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"content-restriction-block-content\">\n\t\t\t\t<h2>Unlock premium content!<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Get access to all Church Answers premium content from our expert contributors plus many other membership benefits.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<h3>$9.97 per month<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Unlimited access<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/join\/\" class=\"button\">Join Now<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n\t\t<div class=\"content-restriction-preview\"><p>Perhaps the most significant innovation in American religion over the past decade is the rapid growth in churches broadcasting their worship services online. In the fall of 2019\u2014just before the COVID-19 pandemic\u2014Lifeway Research found that only 22% of churches surveyed were streaming their entire service. Meanwhile, 41% reported that they weren\u2019t streaming, recording, or broadcasting their services in any way.<\/p> <p>When Lifeway conducted another survey about six months later, in April 2020, the percentage of churches streaming services had increased to 97%. The pandemic lockdowns clearly sped up the adoption of this technology. But does it actually have lasting power? At that time, some observers argued that shifting to a digital-first outreach strategy was crucial and that \u201conline church\u201d would become the standard for future generations of ministry leaders.<\/p> <p>In late 2023 and early 2024, the Pew Research Center surveyed nearly 37,000 Americans as part of their Religious Landscape Study.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"content-restriction-block\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"content-restriction-block-login login-toggle\">Already a member? <a href=\"#\">Log in<\/a><\/div>\n\t\t\t<div class=\"content-restriction-block-content\">\n\t\t\t\t<h2>Unlock premium content!<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Get access to all Church Answers premium content from our expert contributors plus many other membership benefits.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<h3>$9.97 per month<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t<p>Unlimited access<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/join\/\" class=\"button\">Join Now<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t","protected":false},"author":17635,"featured_media":860811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"0","publish_post_category":"1","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,183,184,182,179,175,186,192,177,178,14796,180,194,18058,176,187,185],"tags":[20807,21512,21511,21510,21508,21509],"class_list":["post-860808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers","category-communications","category-discipleship","category-facilities","category-first-impressions","category-grow","category-health-and-metrics","category-how-to","category-lead","category-membership-and-assimilation","category-monday-wednesday-featured","category-outreach-and-evangelism","category-preaching","category-premium","category-revitalize","category-smaller-churches-and-communities","category-worship","tag-american-religion","tag-church-attendance-patterns","tag-in-person-church-attendance","tag-online-worship-services","tag-the-real-facts-about-online-church-who-watches","tag-who-doesnt","membership-content","access-restricted"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Real Facts About Online Church: Who Watches, Who Doesn\u2019t | Church Answers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Perhaps the most significant innovation in American religion over the past decade is the rapid growth in churches broadcasting their worship services online. In the fall of 2019\u2014just before the COVID-19 pandemic\u2014Lifeway Research found that only 22% of churches surveyed were streaming their entire service. Meanwhile, 41% reported that they weren\u2019t streaming, recording, or broadcasting their services in any way. When Lifeway conducted another survey about six months later, in April 2020, the percentage of churches streaming services had increased to 97%. The pandemic lockdowns clearly sped up the adoption of this technology. But does it actually have lasting power? At that time, some observers argued that shifting to a digital-first outreach strategy was crucial and that \u201conline church\u201d would become the standard for future generations of ministry leaders. In late 2023 and early 2024, the Pew Research Center surveyed nearly 37,000 Americans as part of their Religious Landscape Study. Respondents were asked to report how often they attend worship services in person\u2014and separately, how often they participate online. Here\u2019s what those results look like across the entire sample.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-real-facts-about-online-church-who-watches-who-doesnt\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Real Facts About Online Church: Who Watches, Who Doesn\u2019t | Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Perhaps the most significant innovation in American religion over the past decade is the rapid growth in churches broadcasting their worship services online. In the fall of 2019\u2014just before the COVID-19 pandemic\u2014Lifeway Research found that only 22% of churches surveyed were streaming their entire service. Meanwhile, 41% reported that they weren\u2019t streaming, recording, or broadcasting their services in any way. When Lifeway conducted another survey about six months later, in April 2020, the percentage of churches streaming services had increased to 97%. The pandemic lockdowns clearly sped up the adoption of this technology. But does it actually have lasting power? At that time, some observers argued that shifting to a digital-first outreach strategy was crucial and that \u201conline church\u201d would become the standard for future generations of ministry leaders. In late 2023 and early 2024, the Pew Research Center surveyed nearly 37,000 Americans as part of their Religious Landscape Study. Respondents were asked to report how often they attend worship services in person\u2014and separately, how often they participate online. Here\u2019s what those results look like across the entire sample.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-real-facts-about-online-church-who-watches-who-doesnt\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Church Answers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-11T11:00:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/In-Person-Worship-At-Church.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ryan Burge\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ryan Burge\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-real-facts-about-online-church-who-watches-who-doesnt\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-real-facts-about-online-church-who-watches-who-doesnt\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Ryan Burge\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d5a336fe7fb2e2336148e844c396558a\"},\"headline\":\"The Real Facts About Online Church: Who Watches, Who Doesn\u2019t\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-11T11:00:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-real-facts-about-online-church-who-watches-who-doesnt\/\"},\"wordCount\":1035,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-real-facts-about-online-church-who-watches-who-doesnt\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/In-Person-Worship-At-Church.png\",\"keywords\":[\"American Religion\",\"Church Attendance Patterns\",\"In-person Church Attendance\",\"Online Worship Services\",\"The Real Facts About Online Church: Who Watches\",\"Who Doesn\u2019t\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Church Answers\",\"Communications\",\"Discipleship\",\"Facilities\",\"First Impressions\",\"Grow\",\"Health &amp; Metrics\",\"How To\",\"Lead\",\"Membership &amp; Assimilation\",\"Monday\/Wednesday Featured\",\"Outreach &amp; Evangelism\",\"Preaching\",\"Premium\",\"Revitalize\",\"Smaller Churches &amp; Communities\",\"Worship\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-real-facts-about-online-church-who-watches-who-doesnt\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-real-facts-about-online-church-who-watches-who-doesnt\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-real-facts-about-online-church-who-watches-who-doesnt\/\",\"name\":\"The Real Facts About Online Church: Who Watches, Who Doesn\u2019t | Church Answers\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-real-facts-about-online-church-who-watches-who-doesnt\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/the-real-facts-about-online-church-who-watches-who-doesnt\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/In-Person-Worship-At-Church.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-11T11:00:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/d5a336fe7fb2e2336148e844c396558a\"},\"description\":\"Perhaps the most significant innovation in American religion over the past decade is the rapid growth in churches broadcasting their worship services online. 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