Are Internet Services as Good as Church?

Hank Unplugged: Essential Christian Conversations

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Bible Answer Man broadcast, comments on a recent Wall Street Journal opinion article, “Are Internet Services as Good as Church?” by Paul Glader and John Semakula. The authors write about how digital worship has overtaken the Christian church, particularly among Evangelicals. Almost half of people who responded to a survey now believe that online services are as good as in-person services. Many don’t want to return to in-person worship, enjoying the opportunity to multi-task during the service or shop around for other worship experiences—dabbling in Christianity without commitment and accountability. But this constitutes a complete misunderstanding of what the Church actually is. Followers of Christ are baptized into a body—incorporated into the Body of Christ. Church is not just about holding to a corpus of intellectual precepts or listening to good TED Talks with a spiritual slant. Church, by its very nature, is a corporate, embodied experience—a sacramental experience within the Eucharistic assembly wherein we together partake of the “medicine of immortality” that transforms us. Sacraments are dispensed within—not apart from—the Body of Christ, and Christianity knows nothing of Lone Ranger experiences. (https://www.wsj.com/articles/internet-services-as-good-as-church-livestream-in-person-11634848177)