Americans tend to give higher marks to worshipping together in person rather than online, according to a new Pew Research Center survey of more than 11,000 adults.
Broadly speaking, while majorities express satisfaction with virtual services, even bigger shares of physical attenders say they feel extremely or very satisfied with the sermons (74%) and music (69%) at the services they attend in person, according to the research.
In addition, virtual viewers are much less likely to report feeling connected to other worshippers, whereas roughly two-thirds (65%) of regular in-person attenders say they feel “a great deal” or “quite a bit” of connection with their fellow attenders.
A third of regular viewers say they feel they are watching “without truly being an active participant.”
