Gospel.com Blog

Internet Evangelism Day is one month away. What does your church have planned?

If you’re not familiar with Internet Evangelism Day, there’s still time to learn about it and get your church community involved. Each year on IE Day (this year, it falls on April 27), churches are encouraged to focus on a massive missions field that we interact with on a daily basis, but which often goes unmentioned by the church: the internet! It’s a day for churches to educate themselves about the evangelism opportunities that the internet makes possible, and to pray for the ongoing evangelism work taking place online every day, all around the world.

If you and/or your church aren’t overflowing with technical knowledge, don’t worry—the IE Day website has some excellent, user-friendly materials available for free download to help you learn about internet evangelism and share what you know with your church community:

• An explanation of why the internet is an excellent missions field, and a discussion of whether or not internet evangelism achieves results.
• Free resources and ideas to help you set up an IE Day service at your church—anything from a full church service focused on the topic to a small group discussion. And IE Day isn’t just for churches; all Christian groups and organizations are encouraged to take some time on or around IE Day to give some thought to the ways that the internet can be used to share the Gospel.
• Strategies for making effective evangelistic websites, and for improving your church website so that it actually speaks to non-Christians.

There’s much more to explore over at the IE Day site, so take some time to look around. There’s still a month to go, so you’ve got time to plan something (big or small) for your church, small group, or ministry. Mark down April 29 on your calendar!

When was the last time your church asked the question: How does our web site look to non-Christians?

If it’s been a while, you might want to check out a new tool from Internet Evangelism Day that provides churches with a free 15-page evaluation report on their church’s web site design. Users self-assess their web site by answering 55 simple questions. A report is then generated with practical suggestions for improvement, and is immediately displayed online, ready to print or save.

Take the web site design quiz.

A church site which has been prioritized for non-Christian visitors can be remarkably effective in reaching the community. “Week in, week out, more visitors turn up at our church on a Sunday because of the web site, than anything else,” writes one growing church in London UK.

This Evaluation Tool is just one of a range of pages at Internet Evangelism Day that help Christians learn to use the Web to reach the world. Internet Evangelism Day also encourages churches and Christian groups to hold a web awareness focus day on or near 27 April 2008, to explore this huge potential.

Their site offers free downloads (PowerPoint, video clips, drama scripts and handouts) so that churches can create a custom program of any length from two minutes to an hour.

Very few cross-cultural missions use the Web for direct outreach, rather than as a publicity tool to reach supporters. Yet with the ’second billion’ web users coming online soon–almost all of them in the 10/40 Window–it is vital for missions to understand this potential.

“I am glad to commend Internet Evangelism Day,” says Dr. John Stott.

Colossians 4:5-6:

5 Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be gracious and attractive[a] so that you will have the right response for everyone. (NLT)

Last September, hundreds of people gathered in Grand Rapids, Michigan to attend the Internet Evangelism Conference 2007—all there to learn about how to do effective online ministry. Conference workshops covered topics like evangelism in Second Life, managing volunteers in an online ministry, writing effectively for the web, and lots more.

If you weren’t able to attend the conference, you’re in luck—videos from several of the workshops are now online for you to watch. They include workshops by David Bruce of Hollywood Jesus, Robby Richardson of Gospel Communications, and five others.

In addition to those videos, audio from several other conference workshops is available over at the Internet Ministry Conference blog. There’s lots of material to watch and listen to, so see what looks interesting and check it out! And if you like what you see/hear, the next Internet Ministry Conference is slated for October 2008!

Gospel Communications is making plans for the 2008 Internet Ministry Conference, October 20-23, and we need your help.

We’ve partnered with a university professor to prepare a paper that we hope to present at the 2008 conference. In order to help his research, we’re conducting a survey that focuses on organizations that are involved in online ministry. At the end of the form you’ll have the option to participate further or remain anonymous.

If you can, please give us a hand and complete this short survey!

Ever noticed that an awful lot of Christian books, websites, and music is targeted… at Christians?

Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with writing material meant for Christians to read or use — but if you glance around the Christian internet or the local Christian bookstore, it’s clear that there’s an imbalance. If Christians are supposed to be sharing the Good News with the entire world, shouldn’t more of our energy be spent talking to people who aren’t already Christians?

In a thorough article about this phenomenon, the Internet Evangelism Guide calls this the “99% Problem” — as in, 99% of Christian material seems to be written for Christians, and only 1% of it is of much use to non-Christians. If you do any sort of Christian writing, online or offline, ask yourself who you’re writing for, and if there’s a way to make your writing more meaningful to non-Christian readers!

Do your kids use MySpace or other social networking sites? (And if your answer is “no”… are you sure about that?) Horror stories about online predators on MySpace make it tough for technology-challenged parents to address the issue without overreacting. In a new series of articles at Al Menconi Ministries, Brian Dixon walks parents through the steps they can take to make sure their kids are staying safe on MySpace. Staying informed and keeping open the lines of communication with your kids is more effective than simply denying them use of MySpace–so find out what you can do to safeguard your family!

How do you do effective ministry online? What does authentic internet ministry look like? What do technological trends like Web 2.0 mean for online evangelism? These are just some of the questions being discussed at the Internet Ministry Conference, which is underway this week in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The annual conference is a core part of Gospel Communications‘ vision for doing ministry online, and training other Christians to do the same.

Even if you aren’t attending the conference, you can still follow along with much of what’s going on there at the Internet Ministry Conference blog. In the weeks to come, we’ll also be putting audio and video from the conference workshops online at the blog, so you can enjoy the conference content free of charge. If you share our passion for online ministry, stop by and follow along with our discussions at the conference blog!

In the past several years, Wikipedia has become a popular source of information on everything from higher mathematics to your favorite TV shows. TechMission hopes to bring the spirit of collaboration which makes Wikipedia a success into the realm of Christian community ministry, with their Encyclopedia of Urban Ministry wiki.

The wiki is intended to be a constantly-expanding resource, covering four main topics: how to run a Christian community computer center, addiction recovery (especially from pornography), urban youth ministry, and short-term missions and volunteer management.

If you’re looking for youth technology curricula, information on discerning your calling, or tips on how to protect yourself and your family from internet dangers, the Encyclopedia of Urban Ministry may prove quite helpful. Since it’s a wiki, you’re invited not simply to learn, but to share your knowledge. If you’ve got something to contribute on one of the topics, stop by and share your knowledge–and help the Body of Christ profit from the diverse gifts of its members!

Can virtual relationships–cultivated over an internet forum, in an online game, or with an internet community–be “real” relationships? Is there something fundamental about a face-to-face personal relationship or community that isn’t present in its online counterpart? At the Youth Ministry Exchange, David Garrison (who has lots of experience with online communities and games) asks some hard questions about the different between “real” and “virtual” relationships.

Looking to the Bible for a definition of community, he makes some challenging observations:

Real relationships are hard; mostly because they are hard to control due to the reality of other people being involved. Virtual communities provide an opportunity for us to have a greater level of control, or at least perceive a greater level of control, over those relationships and seek to engage people on our own terms rather than risking them engaging us on our terms. I am seeing more and more people trading genuine relationships for virtual ones. With the advent of MySpace, Facebook and other social networking sites, it is becoming easier than ever to abandon reality and seek to fulfill all of our relational needs virtually. And it feels like those needs are being met.
But they aren’t.

Read the full essay for his reasoning and conclusions.

Is your church ready for Internet Evangelism Day this Sunday? It’s not too late to check out some of the great discussion-starting resources at the IE Day website, where you’ll find tools and ideas for talking about online evangelism with your church or Bible study group. Take a tour of the IE Day site by clicking on the image below!