Study results show a huge gap between large and small churches in the use of technology

Research results released for the first time in the January/February edition of Facts & Trends magazine show nine out of 10 Protestant clergy have Internet access they can use for church business, but only about half of all Protestant churches maintain a Web site.

The study, conducted by Ellison Research among a representative sample of 700 Protestant church ministers nationwide, queried pastors about their current use of technology, as well as how technology fits into the near-term future of their church’s ministry. The study shows some very large gaps in technology reliance according to the size of churches.

Ninety-one percent of Protestant clergy have Internet access they can use for church business (either at the church or personally). The vast majority of all types of pastors (e.g. different ages, different church sizes, different denominations) have Internet access.

However, only 52% say their church maintains a Web site of any kind. This varies dramatically by church size: 88% of larger churches (those with 200 or more people attending worship services during a typical weekend) have a Web site, compared to 60% of mid-size churches (100 to 199 people in worship each weekend), and just 28% of small churches.

The presence of a church Web site also varies by the pastor’s age. Among ministers under 60 years old, 56% are at a church with a Web site; among pastors 60 or older, just 35% are leading a church with a Web site.

While nine out of 10 ministers are online, only a third of those online have a content filter at the church. (A content filter makes it difficult or impossible to access objectionable sites on the Internet.) Baptist and Pentecostal churches are most likely to have a content filter of some type, while Methodist churches are least likely to employ a content filter.

The study also asked ministers to rate the importance of a number of different uses of technology in their church’s ministry over the next five years, using a scale of 1 (not at all important) to 5 (extremely important). The importance of these various types of technology varies some by denomination, but much more so by the size of the church. To read the complete report follow this link.