Internet Christianity: A Success Story

Internet Christianity: A Success Story

NewsMax.com Wires
Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2001

WASHINGTON (UPI) – Almost a century ago, the German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) discovered that a certain aspect of Calvinist theology spawned the American variant of capitalism.

If you need living proof for Weber's thesis, look at David Davenport, 50, lawyer, clergyman, academic and now Internet magnate.

In his 15 years as president of Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., Davenport turned it into a celebrated Christian center of higher learning, whose level of scholarship ranks with the finest secular schools.

It was Davenport who almost hired Kenneth Starr as dean of Pepperdine's law school before Starr became the special prosecutor investigating the assorted Clinton scandals.

Now Davenport, an ordained minister of the Church of Christ, is CEO of Christianity.com, a new and already highly successful application service provider for the Internet. Late last year, Galaxy, an Internet directory, conducted a survey of religious sites. The winner was Christianity.com.

It is tapping into a potentially enormous market. There are 1.9 billion Christians worldwide. By 2003, there will be 2.1 billion. Of those, 87 million are Internet users. They represent the largest chunk of the 196 million men, women and children surfing the Web regularly.

Religion is one of the hottest topics in cyberspace. According to a Pew Internet and Public Life survey, 21 percent of Web surfers seek spiritual information online. In the U.S. alone, the Christian consumer market's annual retail volume is estimated at $3.6 billion in videos, tapes, books, CDs and other products and services.

Moreover, religious chat rooms are among the busiest on the Net. Does this mean that the cyberchurch is competing with the traditional church? Is the virtual congregation about to replace the real one?

"Not at all," Davenport told United Press International. "Those who dialogue about their faith over the Internet throughout the week can't wait to get together on Sundays."

There are several older and outstanding Christian Web sites, of course. Crosswalk.com is one, Goshen.net another. They provide first-rate religion stories, give pastors and lay people the tools to exegete Scripture, and point to all kinds of resources useful to a Web-surfing Christian.

But Christianity.com, created in January 2000, is unique in many ways. To begin with, it is well funded, with $34 million so far from Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network; Sequoia, a blue-chip Silicon Valley venture capital firm; and Comdisco, a top-tier lender to leading technology companies.

Christianity.com operates like any other in Silicon Valley. It has a staff of about 80, "almost all of them Christian," Davenport said, "and our salaries are comparable to those of other companies in the valley. Among our staff we have roughly a dozen pastors, though."

Although Christian Coalition founder Robertson is the chairman, Christianity.com is not as predominantly evangelical as Crosswalk.com, nor does it cater to an assortment of religions as does Belief.net.

"We try to appeal to the full face of Christianity: Protestant, Catholic, Messianic Jew and Orthodox," Davenport explained.

Christianity.com is no charity, either. "We expect to turn a profit in the first quarter of next year," he predicted. The company generates money in two ways: Like any publication, it carries advertising, and it charges subscription fees from churches and ministries.

These fees can vary considerably. Christianity.com offers Internet tools and services to individual Christians, churches and ministries. It expects to have signed up 2,500 congregations and 225 ministries for Web sites and other services by the end of this year.

"Some of those are very small. They even get us for free if they accept advertising," said Davenport. "Others are very large and receive made-to-measure Internet tools for $250,000 to $1 million."

One large client is Chuck Colson's Prison Fellowship.

Davenport stressed that even this was a bargain compared with "$2 to $5 million charged by others for comparable tools and services." He called Christianity.com "the greatest messaging tool ever created for the greatest message ever told."