Doing Evangelism on the Internet

by A. Scott Moreau and Mike O’Rear

Can the Internet, that technological monster now home to so much pornography and rapidly becoming the darling of global capitalism, actually be an effective means of bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to lost and hurting people? There are now plenty of personal testimonies that indicate it can be.

Can the Internet, that technological monster now home to so much pornography and rapidly becoming the darling of global capitalism, actually be an effective means of bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to lost and hurting people? There are now plenty of personal testimonies that indicate it can be.

Christian evangelists are learning to harness the power of this new tool. Searching for “evangelism” on the Internet search engine, AltaVista, for instance, yields over 130,000 hits; searching for “web evangelism” results in more than 500 hits.

The Web is a new kind of medium, with its own strengths and weaknesses, and in some ways it seems ideally suited for evangelism. Sterling Huston of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association says “…it can reach around the world… it’s available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year… its anonymity is a big plus. People don’t have to make themselves very vulnerable to get online and start searching for answers.”¹ In a strange way, people seem to become more open, more quickly on the Internet.

In his book, E-vangelism, Andrew Careaga quotes Quentin Schultze, author, media expert and professor of communications at Calvin College: “The online culture values a spiritual life that doesn’t have any anchor in a traditional religion.” Careaga goes on to say, “While critics often paint the Net as a cold and impersonal medium, …on the other side of our computer-mediated messages are real people, craving real relationships. This new technology presents us with the opportunity to build relationship with people we would not reach or meet in any other fashion.”²

And for many of us—at least in the West—Internet evangelism is quick, easy, comfortable, and practically free.

In this installment of “Missions on the Web,” we take a look at how evangelism is being promoted and conducted on the Web. As usual, we have made the links mentioned in this column accessible to you through MisLinks at http://www.gmi.org/mislinks/Chures/evangelism.htm.

There are now some great resources—on the Web, naturally—to help us learn to effectively use this new medium for sharing the gospel. Well-known evangelistic ministries are leading the way. Christianity Today Inc.’s latest addition, Christianity Online Magazine, featured “Evan-gelism” as the cover story in the November/December, 1999, issue. Some of the best of the content is available for free online (www. christianity online.com/comag/9P6). You owe it to yourself to take advantage of this very readable introduction to the topic.

In the summer of 1997, the Billy Graham Center’s Institute of Evangelism sponsored the first “Internet Evangelism Conference” to explore using the Web to do evangelism. This was followed by The 1999 Internet Evangelism Conference (April 18-20) in the Chicago area. A first-rate, professional conference, many of the sessions and presentations can be viewed online via streaming video (www.webevangelism.org). Campus Crusade for Christ has a strong Web presence. Its Power to Change (www.powertochange.com) is a great place for the seeker. At the 5 Clicks site, (www.5clicks.com), Bill Bright steps you through the process of writing your personal testimony. The “Jesus” Film (www.jesusfilm.org) can now be viewed online in 50 languages. And Campus Crusade is sponsoring an ambitious cooperative project called The Evangelism Toolbox (www.evangelismtool-box.com), seeking to bring together a comprehensive set of evangelistic resources accessible from the Web.

Newer organizations dedicated to Web evangelism offer tremendous help to Christians seeking to have an evangelistic ministry on the Web. The U.K.-based SOON (founded in 1962) began using the Web for evangelism in 1996.

It offers SOON Online Magazine (www.soon.org.uk), an excellent example of evangelizing through contemporary and thoughtful articles on the Web, getting tens of thousands of visitors per month. The 115-page Web Evangelism Guide (www. webauthors. org/guide), available in nine languages, is the essential “must read” for anyone seriously interested in launching a Web-based evangelistic ministry. A 16-page “fast track” summary of the Guide is also available. You can subscribe to the monthly Web Evangelism Bulletin, edited by Tony Whittaker, by sending a blank e-mail to web-evangelism-subscribe@cc. egroups.com. Back issues of the Bulletin, also available on the Web (cc.egroups.com/group/web-evangelism), are very worthwhile.

A Voice in the Wilderness (www. gentle.org/voice) provides wonderfully practical help in creating an evangelistic Web site. It offers sound advice, gentle encouragement, and a good list of resources for the online evangelist. So does Fish the Net (fishthe.net) and NetCast E-vangelism (www.netcastevangelism.com).

The Christian Internet Initiative envisions a huge but still-on-the-launching-pad “Collaborative Seeker Site” (www.thecii.net/collabseeker.htm). Expected to cost millions of dollars, CII is bringing together 20 organizations “to create a comprehensive, heavily promoted site explaining the good news of Jesus Christ.”

The leading book on the topic is E-vangelism: Sharing the Gospel in Cyberspace, by Andrew Careaga ($9.99, Vital Issues Press, 1999). You can read the book’s introduction and lots more on his Web site (www.e-vangelism.com). In addition, Careaga publishes The Good News Bulletin, “an online mailing list for those interested in Internet evangelism and related topics.” To subscribe, send an e-mail to goodnews-request@e-vangelism.com with the word “subscribe” in the body of the message.

Those with a more academic bent will find Arne Fjeldstad’s doctoral dissertation (Fuller Theological Seminary, School of World Mission, Fall 1997), Communicating Christ on the Information Superhighway helpful; the introduction is available on the Web (www.geocities.com/Research Traingle/1541). Another thoughtful perspective is offered by Jim Amy, webmaster for the Congregational Christian Churches in Canada (www.cccc.ca/Conf/Internet.html).

Of course, critics point out that the Web, as any other medium, can be intentionally and unintentionally used to distort the gospel. At its core, the good news is that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

Despite our best efforts, the Web by its very nature converts “the Word” into bits and bytes. The incarnation—divine grace and truth lived out in flesh and blood among us—is still essential in Christian witness. John Naisbitt’s new book, High Tech * High Touch³ as well as the 1998 Cybernauts Awake!4, the result of a Church of England Board for Social Responsibility study, are both worth reading in this regard. We must see the Web as one part—a tool to be used skillfully and sensitively—in an integral approach to global personal evangelism.

Certainly the Web audience approaches communication differently. Members do not generally read pages but rather scan them, spending an average of less than a minute per page. In contrast to most forms of mass communication, it is the message recipient who seeks out the message sender; and it is primarily the recipient who controls what he or she sees, when, for how long, from what source, in what sequence, and how frequently. Careaga writes, “A cyberculture that craves authenticity and experience does not want to read rehashed Bible stories, but true stories of how God is real in our lives.”⁵ But because the Web is a very public medium—more like a highway billboard than a personal letter or an organizational newsletter—Webmasters need to understand that they have practically no control over who sees their material or how it will be used or misused.

One of the best ways to learn about designing evangelistic Web pages is simply to look at what others are doing. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s Web site (www.billygraham.org) is excellent. Michelle Akers (yes, the famous U.S. soccer player) presents the gospel in a classy way on her site (http://www.michelleakers.com). The Mennonite site “Third Way Café” (www.thirdway.com) is brilliant and engaging. “Peggie’s Place” (www. gospelcom.net/peggiesplace) has long been one of the best; webmaster Peggy Bohanon is editor of the Internet for Christians newsletter. Many more examples are accessible through the “Gateways” column on our MisLinks evangelism page.

The Web enables focused ministries to tailor their evangelistic communication directly to their audience. Answering Islam (answering-islam. org) is a first-rate site for Christian-Muslim dialog and apologetics. Likewise, Jews for Jesus has a well-designed site (www.jewsforjesus.org), especially helpful in its approach to chat rooms. Other specialized examples include Ron Hutchcraft Ministries (www.gospelcom.net/htm), communicating the gospel to teenagers; TheGoal (www.thegoal.com), speaking to sports enthusiasts through stirring testimonies from famous athletes; Stonewall Revisited (www.stone wallrevisited.com), focusing on the gay and lesbian community; SafeHa-ven (www.worldvillage.com/wv/square/chapel/safehaven) for women struggling from abortion; and there are many others.

Creating your own evangelistic homepage is easy. Leading Web hosting services, such as the very popular GeoCities (www.geocities.com ), offer free homepages. A quick search for the word “evangelism” on the GeoCities homepage results in nearly 12,000 GeoCities personal Web sites that contain the world “evangelism.”

Millions of people now have their own personal homepages, and many of them encourage their viewers to write back, to strike up a conversation. An easy way to start a personal relationship around a mutual interest is to go to a site such as the GeoCities homepage (www.geocities.com) and search for any topic you are interested in. Chances are good you will find a few homepages devoted to your interest. Beginning a natural conversation (and a personal relationship) has never been easier.

For most of us, e-mail is quick, easy and practically free. In fact, today, more people use their personal computer more often for e-mail than any other application. E-mail, together with electronic discussion groups (or forums), online chat and instant messaging are extremely popular methods of personal communication. If you are interested in pursuing evangelism via chat rooms, you will find good advice in “Introduction to Chat Room Ministry” (http://users2.ipa.net/~lturley/chat/intro.html).

As Andrew Careaga says, “The Internet may be a mass medium, but it is also a very personal one…. it gives us, as witnessing Christians online, the chance to get back to our New Testament roots of evangelism: meeting real people, a few at a time, and establishing meaningful relationships with them.”⁶

Anyone with a personal computer, modem and Web access can easily and naturally share the good news of Jesus Christ with others around the world today, sharing evangelistic conversations through personal relationships from their own home.

Endnotes
1. Christianity Online Magazine, November/December 1999, via the Web at www. christianityonline.com/comag/9P6/9P6010.html

2. Quoted in the book, E-vangelism, by Andrew Careaga via the Web at www.e-vangelism.com/book.

3. High Tech * High Touch: Technology and Our Search for Meaning, by John Naisbitt, (Broadway Books; 1999; Price: $25.00).

4. Cybernauts Awake!: Ethical and Spiritual Implications of Computers, Information Technology and the Internet, (no author), (Church House Publishing; 1998; Price: £5.95 0715165860)

5. Andrew Careaga, in the November 1999 issue of Christian Computing Magazine, as recorded on the Web site, www.gospelcom.net/ccmag/online/nov99/evangelism11-99.html

6. Quoted on the Web site www.e-vangelism.com/book

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Scott Moreau is associate professor of Missions and Intercultural studies at Wheaton College Graduate School (Wheaton, Ill.).
His e-mail address is A.S.Moreau@ wheaton.edu, and the Wheaton Missions Department Web address is: www.wheaton.edu/missions/dept/

Mike O'Rear is the president of Global Mapping International (Colorado Springs, Colo.), which is dedicated to providing access to information for church and mission leaders, especially in the Two-Thirds World. He also serves as Lausanne senior associate for information technology. His e-mail address is mike@ gmi.org and the GMI Web address is: www. gmi.org/Mislinks

EMQ, Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 218-222. Copyright © 2000 Evangelism and Missions Information Service (EMIS). All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from EMIS.

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