The extent of the worldwide acceptance of the Internet is spreading to religious institutions, with a new study revealing that every day more than 2 million Americans search the Internet for religious or spiritual material - and an increasing number of congregations are maintaining contact via the Internet.
Douglas Reed, managing director of leading Internet Service Provider and network systems integrator, Data Pro - part of the JSE Securities Exchange listed Control Instruments group - said that anyone that continues to say that the majority of business in the future will still be conducted off-line is "clearly not reading the signs".
According to the latest research, 21% of Internet surfers in America have looked for spiritual or religious information on-line.
"This is rather interesting if one notes that only about 18% of people going on-line have taken advantage of Internet banking."
The statistics were revealed after a survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project
"These statistics prove how pervasive the Internet has become in the modern world - and just how important on-line strategies, including business-to-business (B2B) and Business-to-consumer (B2C), are going to be."
Research also shows that eight out of 10 churches and synagogues surveyed have had a web presence for at least a year. Meanwhile, 83% said having a web-site has actively assisted their churches and synagogues to encourage visitors to attend their church.
Additionally, 75% of the churches and synagogues under review feature sermons, mission statements or links to other faith-related sites on their home pages.
"We are increasingly becoming a wired world and this is just another indication of how important it will be for businesses to embrace the Internet and ensure that they have workable Internet business strategies," said Reed.
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