Thanks to the internet, we no longer need to shower, get dressed, and leave the comfort of our homes to shop, bank, work, or even socialize, so we shouldn’t be surprised to discover online opportunities to worship God. These “virtual churches” claim they can fulfill your spiritual needs through online interaction and downloadable resources. This trend of doing church in front of your computer screen has grown substantially over the past several years, with sites offering links to lead you through the liturgy, or a video feed broadcasting the week’s sermon.

For instance, at the virtual church maintained by Shepherd’s Care Ministries, you and your mouse are called to worship by clicking on the opening prayer and reading through prayer requests, followed by “soul questions,” a sermon, and the closing prayer. The site does offer a disclaimer, albeit buried in a long paragraph of tiny type near the bottom of the page: “A church online is not as good as a church of believers.”

Other online churches offer chat rooms for weekly small group interaction, and members of Churchoffools.com can create 3-D characters that sit on pews and interact with other members each week. At Onlinechurch.com, a link supposedly guides people toward salvation in Jesus. When I followed the link, I wound up on several other pages, including one that listed even more Web sites. I never found the Gospel message.

If you’re not so much looking for the Gospel as you’re looking to cleanse your conscience, you can now also virtually bare your soul. According to CNN, confessional websites such as Ivescrewedup.com and mysecret.tv have become places where people can share their secret sins anonymously and in a non-confrontational way. The confessions can range from somewhat silly — “I don’t think my boyfriend is cute”— to criminal and relationally destructive— “I stole $15,000” and “I cheated on my wife.” The lure to these sites is substantial: When mysecret.tv recently was featured on AOL’s home page, more than 1.3 million people clicked through to the site that day.

When asked about the validity of online confessions, Father Ricardo Bailey of Holy Spirit of Atlanta told CNN, “As a priest, we ask people questions, we tell them to approach the person or persons they’ve wronged. [Online confession] is another way for people to avoid taking responsibility.”

As the Bible teaches us, we can only experience God’s fullness through genuine community and authentic accountability. For both of those experiences, real interaction with real people, not hiding behind a computer screen, is required.