Who needs an actual church when there's the internet?

The fact that the churches are built in the World Wide Web became wide-spread. A growing number of congregations are creating Internet offshoots that go far beyond streaming weekly services. The sites are fully interactive, it is possible to see a dedicated Internet pastor, use a live chat in an online "lobby," Bible study, one-on-one prayer through IM and communion. The viewers on one site can accept Christ as their savior clicking on the tab during worship. Flamingo Road Church, based in Cooper City, Fla., twice conducted long-distance baptisms using the Internet.

When the religion became interactive, the Christians were forced to re-examine their idea of church. This is a many-sided matter involving theology, tradition and cultural expectations of Christianity. Even developers of Internet church sites have the various opinions. The critics affirm that true Christian community requires in-person interaction. They ridicule the sites and call them religious fast food or Christianity lite. But advocates regard the Internet just another neighborhood where real relationships also the religious ones can be built. Granger Community Church of Indiana is one of the churches which are going to launch its Internet campus soon, considering the Internet the church's "front porch." Pastors who back the sites say they feel a religious duty to harness this new way for reaching the spiritually lost. Central Christian Church started a new church service this fall on Facebook creating for people the ability to go to church online as they bank online, date online and so on.

Rock-style worship music and a sermon recorded at the in-person weekend service that is mixed with live or recorded greetings expressly for online viewers – this is the same basics such sites share. Volunteers on live chat emphasize that day's Bible teaching and block inappropriate posts.

Each site also has its individual features. For example, at Seacoast Church, based in Mount Pleasant, S.C., online viewers can repent by posting a private record of their sins on a cross. On the Granger site, visitors will be able to choose "seats" in an auditorium, and then click on surrounding seats to exchange Facebook and Twitter addresses.

There is no an exact count of interactive online campuses for the present day. The Leadership Network, which studies and supports innovative churches, has found at least 40 and this number permanently grows.

Everything started from Oklahoma megachurch named LifeChurch.tv in a nod to its use of technology. The congregation had already expanded to physical sites in several cities when in 2006, pastors launched what they now call Church Online. LifeChurch.tv now broadcasts more than 25 online services each week and plans more. The services collectively draw up to 60,000 unique viewers from 140 countries weekly, although the number of new computers that log on for several minutes is about 5,000. There is also an uncommon way to attract people who are far from pious invented by LifeChurch.tv. The congregation buys Google ad words so that a person searching for them sees an ad inviting them to a live worship service instead. The goal is to move people into some in-person Christian experience, in church, a small Bible group or even a group that watches online services together, as explained Bobby Gruenewald, a pastor.