Christian love for technology: Faiths using Internet to help share their message

The church has more than 13.5 million members in 179 countries, nations and territories, and uses an extensive family of Web sites to share information about things such as genealogy, curriculums and also basic facts about the church and its beliefs.

In addition, the church also uses Web technologies such as Twitter and YouTube. Last weekend, an Easter message from the church was the top "viral" video on the Internet, according to Trotter.

The Internet is "very important as more and more people go online" because they can "go directly to the source for news, information and online resources," Trotter said.

That's one of the reasons Rob Lee, executive director of the Utah-Idaho Southern Baptist Convention is a fan of the Web. His group is charged with supporting at least 159 Baptist churches and missions in Utah and Idaho. It maintains a Web site and also a Facebook page.

"In folks' busy lives, it is a challenge to stay in contact with them and using the Internet, e-mail, Facebook and our Web site is another way to communicate to folks in a way that they can get when they are available," said Lee, who is also experimenting with Twitter as a communication tool.

From his perspective, there are few concerns with being online. His church does monitor posts on Facebook, but Lee said they have not had any issues with information submitted on their site.

From Goodier's perspective, the Internet is just another useful communication tool. He said he is careful when it comes to posting members' personal information online and his church also offers paper copies of information to members who aren't online, but beyond, that, he has few major concerns.

"We are finding that to have a Web site is not just 'fluff,' " Goodier said. "It's absolutely necessary to our survival and growth."

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