Elderly & Homebound

Students

Distant Relatives

Why the Virtual Church is a Blessing, Not an Evil

Nationwide, religious leaders have, made a call to use the Internet for the pursuit of good ends.  That is the precise goal the Virtual Prayer Group.

Is Technology good or evil?

Many people have criticized the emerging technology and the World Wide Web as sources of evil that will destroy religious institutions and the fabric of society.  They think people will choose to sit at home watching information arrive over their computers rather than attending services.  According to these thinkers, the Internet poses a danger to people because they will not participate in a faith community or actively pray.  

However, we strongly believe that the Internet will serve to STRENGTHEN individual faith, community, family, the fabric of society, the spreading of the Word, and the economic well-being of religious institutions.  We would not have formed this group if we believed otherwise.  Allow us to explain our belief by focusing on the reason we first sought to create the Virtual Prayer Group

The Origin of the Virtual Prayer Group.

One of my saddest memories is the day my brother called to tell me that he would not be able to come home from out of state to attend services with our family and share the holidays.  It was a blow to the heart and spirit, striking at the very heart of family worship and togetherness.

We recognize two trends in today’s demographics.  First, the population in the United States is aging, leading more people to reside in nursing homes, assisted living facilities or retirement communities.  More and more people are homebound or ill, as well.  Secondly, economic forces and the nature of our mobile society lead many people to take jobs in distant locations far from their families and home towns.  This separates families and communities.

Undoubtedly, both family and faith are strengthened through sharing traditions, holidays and worshiping together.  Coming home to share the holidays or weekly services with the family allows for a renewal of family bonds and shared faith.  The fabric of society depends on this.  Demographic and economic forces, described above, interfere with this ability to renew the spirit and family ties.

This led us on a multi-year quest to find the best and most suitable technology that would allow us to meet our spiritual, familial and social goals.  Our purpose was not to encourage family separation, but to serve people who needed the sustenance of family and the home town church but could not be there in person, through no fault of his own.  We wanted to create the ability for the LOCAL religious services to broadcast live services to distant relatives, hospitalized patients, homebound and the elderly.  This way, families could share worship simultaneously, emanating from their own religious home base.  Mom and dad could remain local, brother could attend from afar, grandma could participate from her hospital bed, and yet all could pray the same prayers together.

Our goal was to keep the technology simple, yet superior in service and cost-efficient.  Choppy streaming video or webcasts would not serve this goal.  Instead, we took the best technology available to the top corporations and brought it to a price level to make it affordable to the local houses of worship, nursing home, hospital and family.  We think we have met this challenge.

Let us band together from our distant locations to create a House of Worship Without Walls on the World Wide Web.  Broadcast your services or events live online and let families miles apart share in the same service.  

Hospitals, Nursing Homes, College Students, and far away relatives all will love this service!