What Do Other Religions Believe?

[nina2]

What Do Other Religions Believe? A New Website With Answers
Time.com

By JENINNE LEE-ST. JOHN Jeninne Lee-st. John – Tue May 5, 7:05 am ET

Full article:

news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090505/us_time/08599189573500

... " The launch of this comparative religion site (www.patheos.com/) comes on the heels of a study released last week that found people in the U.S. switch their religious affiliations more than previously thought. Half of Americans have changed religions at some time in their lives, according to the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life, and the large majority did so by the age of 26 - the perfect audience for online programming. (Read more about the American phenomenon of church-shopping.)

What this indicates is that there are a lot of people jonesing for spiritual information. Steve Waldman, the founder of Beliefnet - the world's largest spiritual website, with as many as 3 million unique visitors per month, and the closest thing to a Patheos competitor - says there's space for another spiritual site. "Religion until recently has been something major media companies have been scared of," says Waldman, whose company was acquired by News Corp. in late 2007. And the recession could deepen interest in spiritual sites. "People are seeking religious support or guidance to help them get through financial crises, which become emotional crises and relationship crises," he says." ....

What do you think about the emergence of this type of sites?

Do they really fulfill a need for the people at large?

Do you think that the church should increase its presence on the Internet or maybe change it's image online?

[krazeeboi]

In response to your last question, I say "YES!!!"

A lot of people don't feel comfortable stepping inside a church they are unfamiliar with, but if there is some sort of online presence, particularly if there is live streaming for services, they just may take that step and actually visit in person and who knows, that could be a soul won for the Lord. I strongly believe that the church should be at the forefront of taking advantage of media outlets to propagate the Gospel. For instance, I just found out last night while watching Bishop Eddie Long's broadcast that you can actually download sermons in MP3 format for just $3.99. That' what I'M talking about.

[kitty]

Nina,
Yes... I think we as Christians need to be at a point where we can reach out more... I too was on the web site mentioned called belief.net almost over some ten years ago. The site may seem "unbiased" but it is a trap in some ways because it combines a lot of new age themes with Christian terms and can be a place where new believers can get misled.

I do think it is good that a lot of Christian site have come along since then because belief.net was all that was around for quite some time way before most churches even thought to have church web site...

Whether or not we as Christians will be able to catch the masses tht are trying to seek God privately online will be based on one thing in my opinion... Whether or not we seek to spread to word of if we think there ought to be a price?

Krazeboi... you make a good point by showing that a person would have to pay to get a sermon.... That may be fine and dandy for a saved Christian that wants to support his ministry but what about the folks that need to listn to a sermon but either don't have a church home or money?

An unsaved individual is not going to pay $3.99 to listen to a sermon.... Heck we were all on the JBM board and had the good sense not to pay to get back on it when the format changed... And it was a place that many of us enjoyed and fellowshiped.

I do happen to go to web sites and listen to sermons that are free... I'm a big fan of Charles Stanley, Derek Prince, and a local Calvary church in my area that all have free sermons to listen to organized by topic. So a person can go an listen to a sermon about why God is real and why we should follow His word.

I do see that many places are now desiring to charge a fee.... If they really get into this then the goal of spreading the word will be lost... I hope that is just not another way that the church body will be pulled into greed.

I just hope that they notice that the stuff of the devil is always free....

Kitty

[krazeeboi]

Kitty,

I was really talking about the utilization of the newest technology in order to reach this contemporary generation with the MP3 example. As far as paying for MP3 downloads, usually these ministries also have free live streaming services and may even possibly have free archived sermons. Bishop Long's church website, for example, has free video on demand messages on his website that can be accessed via streamingfaith.com. Many church websites also have free articles and Bible studies as well, or at least have links to sites that do. But it's standard practice to support a ministry when it comes to ministry products which carry a cost in terms of production. But I don't agree with paying to access a church website and I've not seen any examples of this.

[giantsdodie]

A couple of things I would like to address...

1) The devils stuff is not always free.

2) Churches may have to charge to download a sermon simply to cover their costs. Many internet server providers give you a certain amount of bandwith per months you are allowed to use and when you go over that there are sizeable fees attached. If you had a significant number of downloads per month you could be charged for that service by the internet provider.

3) To me downloading an MP3 isnt much different than paying for a tape or CD of the message you watch on TV. Those tapes and CD's cost money to produce. Our church charged 5.00 per tape and I ran the tape ministry and we didnt get rich off those tapes. That simply covered the operating expenses of the ministry. New tapes, labels, new tape recorder and tape dubber when needed.