Some
encouragement and help, for our churches to consider modern methods and
technology.
We
have two web sites, one specifically to promote Flames
of Fire
and the other our A.R.M.(Wales) site, into which I put the
magazine, some pages to identify us and a few items which I hope will encourage
others to draw closer to God (see Streams
of Living Water). But
there is a lot of empty space on both sites and I would like to make use of it.
We get a few visitors
from remote parts of the world and I wonder what they got out of the visit.
They may have arrived on our site as a result of searching for something
about God, prayer perhaps, but very often the search was for something I
didn’t expect and they probably didn’t stay.
But how should we be using the web?
Like it or not it is here to stay and a great influence on our lives
today. Young people are
encouraged to use it in their studies and will exploit it much more than most us
have thought about. We have a responsibility to know what it will do and the
effect it will have on our children and on our churches.
Web
evangelism is becoming important and we must not dismiss modern technology and
what it can do. But,
and this is important, it can be misused in a number of ways.
We must make ourselves aware of the pitfalls as well as the benefits.
Different
ways of communicating the gospel have been used in every century.
In medieval times pictures were essential because many could not read and
few books were available. Then
books increased in popularity and we are now spoilt for choice with available
books. Today we also have many excellent courses like
‘Alpha’, ‘Saints Alive’ and ‘Emmaus’
but are they touching those who have never heard the Good News of Jesus?
To be successful in evangelism there has to be contact with Christians
keen to spend time with people and share their experiences.
How
willing are you to become an evangelist?
Would you know how to start? Have
you got the necessary skills and are you willing to learn? Some young people today are showing an enthusiasm for
the Lord that was unusual when we were young and they are also web-literate.
Chat rooms are popular and are to be found covering any interest you
might think of. Christian
chat rooms exist along with the rest and that is one of the first things we
should think about. Whether
or not we set up a chat room on our church web-site our young Christians are
going to find their way to one. For those who know nothing of the
web, a chat room is a place where anyone can visit and join in the conversation
by typing in messages. What are
they saying to their ‘unknown’ friends?
We might like to consider how young people can learn to express Christian
doctrine in this environment. The
need to be loving and caring, the need not to argue and be ‘ruthlessly
dogmatic’ when you cannot see the people you are ‘talking’ to.
The church has always ‘turned people off’ through lack of thought and
that immediately alerts us to a danger.
But another danger is that people are not always who they appear to be,
and allowing young people to evangelise through chat rooms could put them at
risk.
There
are lots more things to consider, language for instance.
Christians use jargon all the time, but it is useless when speaking to
non-Christians. There is need
to be simple in expression, need to understand where someone else
is coming from, what previous knowledge they have, what their cultural
background is, where they live etc.
Some too, are hungry to know more about Christianity, others want to know
if it offers anything different from another faith.
Apparently
China, after America, is the second biggest user of the web. Chinese Christians are hungry for Christian teaching.
I doubt if your church web-site will appeal to the Chinese but it could
be a means of promoting the gospel to people
in your locality. But
you need to know where to find the resources, which Christian web-sites to
recommend, where to find on-line Bibles etc.
Most
Christian sites are written for Christians, and non-Christians will not
stay. So if you
consider writing an evangelism section for your site you have a lot of study to
do. It is much more than
learning how to write web-pages. But
those with strong Christian youth groups could really take this on,
Because most young people like using their computers, here is an
opportunity that needs to be looked at.
There are lots of ways of internet feedback besides the chat room.
Bulletin boards and forums give more control than an unmonitored chat
room. They are going to be
used more and more and we should be involved now.
But
there is a lot of help out there. I
have integrated pages from www.gospelcom.net
into our site as a resource for our churches.
You can read the what, why and how for yourselves (link below - bookmark it to
study off-line). The
material is very thorough and written by Soon Ministries and freely given away. This same material is to be found on a number of sites
including www.evangelism.uk.net
which is a site maintained by the Church of England's Division of Mission
and Public Affairs.
Other
helpful material can be found on the net and for some less developed countries
it will be much more accessible than books.
Soon Ministries are a site worth looking at
www.soon.org. I will in
time produce a list of what I have found useful, at the moment there is much to
absorb and appreciate.
Mary Newsom