How many American churches are screen-free?

“Screen-free church” is a phrase in the title of two things I’ve written: a CT piece from 2024 and my next book (due next February!). It’s a phrase that rings constantly in my head, especially when I visit new churches. Just last Sunday, visiting a friend’s parish in Austin, I found myself wondering: What percentage of churches in America have a screen in the sanctuary/auditorium and what percentage do not?

That’s an empirical question, not an aspirational one. I’m wondering what is. Most of my life I’ve been in churches with a screen (or more likely screens plural) “up front,” “on the stage,” quite large and imposing. They arrived at first for lyrics to hymns, then for announcements, then for videos, then for QR codes. In my personal experience in low-church America, sanctuary-screens are ubiquitous. It’s surprising if they’re absent.

On the other hand, when I visit liturgical churches they are rare to the point of nonexistence. I’m thinking now of multiple different Anglican, Orthodox, and Catholic parishes I have stepped foot in, and all of them without exception were screen-free.

This isn’t surprising; I’m not making a brilliant or surprising observation. But I’m also wondering about the churches in between: mainline churches of either liberal or conservative persuasion. And surely the answers have much to do with class, education, money, location—rural/urban, mega/minor, building/storefront.

So the relevant sub-questions would be: Of each particular tradition/denomination, what percentage of church buildings’ sanctuaries is screen-free versus screen-full? Next might be Catholic/Orthodox/Anglican versus all the rest, as well as mainline versus evangelical. And perhaps just a breakdown of Protestant traditions.

Nevertheless I’d love to know: Of all American church buildings in use at this moment in time, which sanctuaries remain blessedly screen-free?

Answering that question might prove useful in grasping the scale of the problem—and in identifying who, and where, needs the most help. And why.