Though I am quite the supporter of the Internet and its related technologies, I don't think this is a good trend.
This is what I think.
The web is useful. Though the dotcom bust may be affecting us more than we know (as in the Fed cutting the interest rates again...and again...in order to stave off a recession), the technology produced from the minds of the workers in these companies has offered us a valuable tool for communication and community.
They call email the killer app, the one computer/internet application that has become as ubiquitous as air in our technology saturated society. Churches should use this more than they do. Weekly emails, a note from the pastor, an encouraging word from someone on staff, a schedule of weekly events - this is just a small thing that can be done to incorporate email into a church's daily life. Many churches already do so. More should follow.
To go farther, churches ought to offer a website that is more than just directions and a list of who works at the church. It should be a community hub for the members of the church, a place for people to get together in virtuality. Offer more than just a pretty page with cheesy graphics.
Offer your sermons and your music as sound files available for download (See Ginghamaburg, Ecclesia, and Mosaic [needs Quicktime]).
Offer a messageboard for prayers, news, and whatnot (See Ginghamsburg again and Mosaic, again .
Offer a chat room or onsite instant messaging so members and visitors alike can actually talk with each other though they may be separated by hundreds of miles.
Offer a place that represents your church, that feels like your church and sounds like your people. This is good. I would venture to say that this will be necessary within the next few years.
But for the Internet to become one's sole place of soul-help isn't the answer.
The church is the one brick-and-mortar place that the Internet can't replace.
It seems absurd to even mention the idea that one could "go to church" just by logging on. But this doesn't seem so odd in light of the fact that we've had televangelists for quite a long while now. Plenty of people who watch these men and women consider that "going to church."
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