Since 2020, what the church is and should be doing online has been a topic of intense debate. While some churches have gone all in with digital campuses and tools, others have removed their live streams and chosen a different direction.

According to a 2024 study by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) and the Ministry Solutions Group, 85% of the fastest-growing churches in the United States have embraced the “new normal” and integrated digital strategies. Only 8% report that their digital offerings have negatively impacted in-person attendance. However, just 36% believe they have the right staffing structures in place for the digital future.¹Warren Bird, “Digital Discipleship: Can Churches Grow People Who May Never Attend In Person?” Outreach Magazine. Published October 15th, 2024. Accessed via https://outreachmagazine.com/features/82118-digital-discipleship.html

When it comes to the church’s digital efforts, there’s a lot of confusion. While our best strategies and programs hang in the balance, so does some of our theology and ecclesiology. Most spiritual leaders recognize the importance of digital ministry, but we’re unsure how significant it really is, what the numbers mean, or how to measure our impact. While I can’t answer all these questions, I did plant a fully digital church four years ago that is now reaching people worldwide and is financially self-sustaining. Along the way, I’ve learned a few things that I believe are critical for the church if we want to reach the coming generations.

Most spiritual leaders recognize the importance of digital ministry, but we’re unsure how significant it really is, what the numbers mean, or how to measure our impact. Share on X

Why Plant a Digital Church?

Planting a Digital Church started with my desire to reach people like me — I wanted to connect with people who speak my language. I came to faith at a young age and grew up in the church. I’m also a nerd and a gamer. While I’ve gained many titles over the years — husband, father, pastor — Christian and gamer have been two of the longest-standing.

In 2019, I watched a live streamer broadcast their unfiltered worldview to hundreds of thousands of people for more than forty hours a week, earning hundreds of thousands of dollars playing Fortnite. At the time, twitch.tv had over 100 million unique viewers every month and 3.5 million broadcasters. At any given time – 24/7 – there were over 200,000 people watching a “Just Chatting” livestream. These viewers were not looking for video games. They were looking for connection and truth. I realized then that culture had shifted, and the church hadn’t caught up yet.

Nerd and gaming culture has moved from the lunch table full of “weirdos” to the main stage of our culture. The gaming industry has grown to over three billion active gamers worldwide. By the end of 2024, global revenue from video games exceeded an estimated $475 billion — eight times larger than both the music industry ($28.6 billion gross revenue in 2024) and the cinema industry ($30 billion global box office revenue) combined. Seven of the top twenty highest-grossing movies of all time are directly related to comics and gaming culture, and the Olympics is adding an esports games in 2025. In October 2024, the Vatican even debuted their anime-style mascot, Luce, at the Lucca Comics & Games convention, the largest comics and gaming festival in Europe.

A growing percentage of people in this world are digitally native, using numerous tools to connect, geek out, and build community online. Several months before the Covid-19 pandemic began, I felt a burden in my heart: These people need a church. But most digital natives would rather go to hell than walk through the doors of a traditional brick and mortar church. So how could I bring the church to them? Digital space was the only choice. I struggled with the theology and ecclesiology of it for several months, until God revealed to me that my understanding of what a church was had more to do with my own comfort than what was actually in the Bible.

Planting a Digital Church started with my desire to reach people like me — I wanted to connect with people who speak my language. I came to faith at a young age and grew up in the church. I’m also a nerd and a gamer. (1/2) Share on X

Nerd and gaming culture has moved from the lunch table full of 'weirdos' to the main stage of our culture. A growing percentage of people in this world are digitally native, preferring to geek out and build community online. (2/2) Share on X

Your Perspective on Online Church Matters

You likely started reading this article with an established opinion about online church, digital services, or ministries that have thriving virtual connection spaces. If you disagreed with me before reading this, I don’t think I’ll change your mind. But I hope what I share next will help you think differently about online space and tools.

When I was a kid in middle school, we were taken to the library in sixth grade and taught how to use a set of encyclopedias. We had an old set at home, and with a card catalog, I could navigate the library and our volumes of encyclopedias with ease. In seventh grade, we went to the computer lab, where we learned how to refine an internet search. By eighth grade, we had stopped using encyclopedias altogether.

If you are a millennial or come from an older generation, you likely have a similar experience. The internet is one of the best tools we have. Over time, it has become more efficient, effective, and faster. Today, ChatGPT can even spell-check and grammar-check this article for me.

For many people, the internet was initially and primarily a tool. But in my formative years, I slowly realized that millennials like myself didn’t use the internet as a tool alone, for life online had become a place of real experience and deep community. Life online had also become a place where we belonged to one another in real and significant ways.

And for much of my life, being online has been both tool and place for me. As a kid, when I’d get home from school, I’d dial into the internet and log on to AOL Instant Messenger (AIM). I’d chat with friends from school and some from across the world. Often, they would share more with me online than they would in person. AIM was my first experience in ministry. From my family PC, I could help people I’d never meet in person. My best friend’s senior project was even about the thriving online communities in World of Warcraft and EverQuest almost 20 years ago in 2006.

For many people, the internet was initially and primarily a tool. But in my formative years, life online became a place of real experience and deep community, a place where we truly belonged to one another. Share on X

Digital Natives and the Changing Spiritual Landscape

I’m not a neuroscientist, but I know that the way we engage with new technologies affects how we perceive them. The older you were when you first encountered the internet, the more likely you are to view it as a tool. The younger you were when exposed, the more likely you are to see it as a place. Right now, most church leaders see the internet primarily as a tool. It’s a way to build your brand, get information, communicate quickly, learn new skills, and so on. But for an increasing number of us, particularly those from Gen Z and younger, the internet is so much more than that – it is a place where we can find belonging, where we experience true community, and where we develop a real sense of self.

My daughters are seven and five, and they are growing up in a world where the internet is an unstoppable force in our culture. They will likely never know a world where limitless information and entertainment are not at their fingertips. My girls naturally pick up new technology faster than I do, and I can see how their brains are being formed in ways mine was not. They are digital natives.

As a kid, when I joined AIM, I could reinvent myself. I was a hybrid creature, existing both in the physical and digital world — but I was also dualistic, seeing the two as separate. I had online friends and real-life (IRL) friends. Gen Z and younger generations, however, are much less likely to have separate online and real-life personas. They grew up in both worlds and see people they encounter in both spaces simply as “friends.” They navigate seamlessly between the two. My daughters are forming their digital identities alongside their physical ones, and platforms such as YouTube are learning these identities while my daughters simultaneously learn about themselves. Our brains are adapting, and we’re connecting in new ways. While older generations may struggle to feel connected over a Zoom call or a gaming chat, I regularly hear people say their deepest relationships are formed in digital spaces. This isn’t because they lack physical relationships — they simply build relationships differently.

Right now, most church leaders see the internet primarily as a tool. It’s a way to build your brand, get information, communicate quickly, learn new skills, and so on. (1/2) Share on X

While older generations may struggle to feel connected online, I regularly hear people say their deepest relationships are formed in digital spaces. They don't lack physical relationships, but build relationships differently. (2/2) Share on X

What Does This Mean for the Church?

What do we do about this? What does this reality mean for the Church in 2025? For starters, it means that we have a lot to learn. As younger generations mature, they aren’t simply dealing with complicated social norms, new drugs, or cultural wars — they think differently. They relate differently. They live in ways that many older generations not only can’t understand but physically don’t think of in the same way. The change the Church is facing is much bigger than the worship wars of the late 1990s — it’s a monumental shift that will only grow in scope, perspective, and potential over time.

We must start learning from younger generations. We must learn how they relate to one another and how they connect. Instead of dismissing their digital presence as “irrelevant” or “unhealthy,” we need to recognize that, just maybe, we are the ones who don’t get it. We are the ones who aren’t reading our culture contextually for faithful Kingdom mission in this cultural moment. We need to transition from seeing the internet as both a tool and a place to seeing it as a holistic, integrated part of life.

To get there, we will need the help of young Millennials, Gen Z, older digital natives, and beyond.

//

We are the ones who aren’t reading our culture contextually for faithful Kingdom mission in this cultural moment. We need to transition from seeing the internet as a tool or place to seeing it as a holistic, integrated part of life. Share on X

*Editorial Note: Mark and Jenn Lutz warmly invite you to reflectively explore Lux Digital Church on Discord. Additionally, Missio Alliance is pleased to have Forge America as content partners. Forge America is a network of practitioners who join in the everyday mission of God. On the last Tuesday of each month, articles from missional practitioners within the Forge network will be featured in our Writing Collectives. ~MA