A Letter To My Friends

On the way home from work yesterday, I was listening to a news item about a high school senior who had sent a letter to every student in his high school, presenting the simple message of the gospel to almost 3,000 of his classmates at Oak Hills High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. I was fascinated by the story and reminded myself to visit the website that this high school senior had developed, A Letter To My Friends.

I actually forgot about the website until today. When I visited, I was thoroughly impressed, not only by the courage and boldness of the three friends who had sent the letter (the radio program I listened to either did not mention the other two students or I was not listening well!), but by the strategy which is reflected in their approach.

Here’s what I found at the website (and after reading a .pdf copy of the letter at that website):

The three students sent their letter to their nearly 3,000 classmates.
The letter, which can be read here, invites recipients to contact them directly - by phone, by email, or by instant messaging.
The letter goes on to say that if people don’t feel comfortable contacting them directly, they can still visit the website
Upon arriving at the website, it is clear that the site’s primary thrust is an invitation for site visitors to come and investigate Christian community (in the form of their youth group).
Even the website’s “How To Become A Christian” page invites those who want to make a decision for Christ to contact the three friends for help in making the decision.
The answers to various questions which appear on the “Got Questions?” page invite people to contact them for more help, offering Josh McDowell’s More Than A Carpenter and a Bible for free.

I am thoroughly impressed. The aspect of all this that causes my heart to leap is that they are using media (first their letter and then their website) to invite people to enter into personal relationships with them and then experience authentic Christian community by meeting their circle of Christian friends.

If you’ve read the articles I’ve posted here since recently launching this site, you know that I am a proponent of using modern-day technology to introduce unbelievers to authentic Christian community (John 17:21-23).

Eric Bast, Nick Wall, and Meredith Christopfel have given us all a great example of this strategy.

Posted by on 12/14 at 11:55 AM

The Collective Voice!

Tre Pryor continues the discussion:

Wonderful!!

contributed on 12/15 at 07:39 AM

scott rust continues the discussion:

hey frank -

just a quick note to let you know that the website was a very deliberate thing that we did with the letter eric wrote.

i’m eric’s youth pastor. when we were beginning the process of putting everything together for the site, i knew we needed to have the website because it’s how these teenagers communicate - texting, IM’ing, emailing, blogging, livejournaling, etc. is the new medium of communication. as a 12 year vet of youth ministry, i’ve seen how incredibly important it is for me to have a youth group website, at least one IM account and regular use, updating and access to all of them. for 9 months earlier this year we even had a weekly AIM bible study for an hour on wednesday nights.

with the national attention on the letter eric wrote his friends at school, the website has served as even more than an outreach to his school itself - it’s been the way everyone’s accessed the letter and contact info for eric, nick and meredith! it’s surpassed even my expectations.

scott

contributed on 12/16 at 08:44 PM

continues the discussion:

Scott:

Thanks for your comment! I think you’re exactly right about IM’ing, email, etc. I heard Leonard Sweet say once that people from my generation (I’m 45 years old) use the internet for information, but people in today’s generation use the internet for communication. I have to keep reminding myself of that.

As I said in my original article, what I really like about the website is that eric, nick and meredith are inviting site visitors into community - come and see what we’re about.

Most web evangelism these days tries to persuade people to make a decision for Christ immediately. But I think John 17:21-23 has a lot of say about this - the world will know that God loves them and that the Father sent Jesus when they see Jesus’ disciples living in unity, when they see authentic Christian community. That’s why I think Christian websites should be inviting unbelievers to come and see what Christian community is all about (and giving them compelling reasons to do so).

Thanks again for contributing - I really appreciate it!

Frank

contributed on 12/17 at 05:10 AM

Scott Rust continues the discussion:

Check out Joseph Myers’ book “The Search To Belong” - it addresses exactly those things, in re-thinking what we consider “community” to be - I’m working with my church to challenge it in this area. As a youth ministry, this is how I function and work - it’s a necessity! We can’t be caught in ideas and philosophies of the past when we’re working with a generation that doesn’t think & react in the same way!

Dan Kimball’s “Emerging Worship” and “Emerging Church” are also helpful resources as well as Sweet’s “The Church in Emerging Culture” - frankly, the whole emergent line from YS is of good use. I’m neck deep in Brian McLaren’s “Generous Orthodoxy” right now, too.

Enough babbling.

scott

contributed on 12/17 at 12:53 PM

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You may be interested in reading these articles which enumerate core principles of the strategy we advocate:

Effective Church Websites For Emerging Generations
Investigating the various ways in which a church's website can be targeted toward unbelievers in a church's local community.

A Strategy For Local Internet Outreach
How can the internet be used for evangelism and outreach while maintaining an environment of authentic Christian community?

Flawed Follow Up Or A Flawed Philosophy of Evangelism?
The ease with which we can “share the gospel” online can actually short-circuit the God-ordained process by which unbelievers are brought to faith.

Should We Include A Gospel Presentation On Our Websites?
Should conversion be our immediate goal in our internet evangelism efforts?

A Strategic Opportunity For The Church
A proposed strategy in which a church would use short video profiles of members of their congregation to entice unbelievers in their local area to consider the value of a local congregation’s ministry in their own lives.

2 John 12
Is there something incomplete about digital communication?

Fri, September 05, 2008 at 08:48 pm
Frank : happy that I've figured out how to import articles from four blogs into Facebook Notes simultaneously

Thu, September 04, 2008 at 09:14 am
Frank : very happy to reconnect with an old friend on Facebook!

Tue, September 02, 2008 at 10:31 am
Frank : reading a great article from flyte.biz about how microblogging is the future of communications. http://ping.fm/IT0XL

Sat, August 30, 2008 at 06:54 am
Frank : looking forward to a weekend of watching my daughter play soccer.

Thu, August 28, 2008 at 03:32 pm
Frank : reviewing SEO recommendations from our partner.

When the Luis Palau Evangelistic Association wanted to use the internet to promote their city festivals, they turned to Strategic Digital Outreach. Read more ....

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We work with several different organizations in exploring ways in which digital means can be used to reach an increasingly digital world. Some of these organizations are more traditional clients. Some are friends. All are our partners in the gospel (1 Corinthians 3:9). Invariably, we learn as much from them as they do from us. Here is a sampling:

David & Linda Arzouni
Assemblies of God missionaries to West Africa, based in Mali (the land of Timbuktu).

Assemblies of God
The Northern California and Nevada District, based in Sacramento, California.

India Prayer Drive
A 21-day prayer drive through the nation of India.

IreneDias.com
Although the suffering they face is severe, this is not a story of despair, but of an incredible faith and even more of an incredible God who sustains His followers with lavish grace, extravagant kindness, and unrelenting love.

Luis Palau Evangelistic Association
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Sacred Ink
Joyfully declaring the gospel to the tattoo subculture.

Santa Cruz Bible Church
Their evangelism department focuses on marketplace ministries.

ShareFest Santa Cruz County
Churches in Santa Cruz County, California join together to become a bridge from the church to the community through work projects designed to bless the community.

TimeOut Conference
Enabling a deeper relationship with God and more effective relationships with people.

Wake Up! Santa Cruz
Presenting the claims of Christ to the business community in Santa Cruz, California.

These are projects which we have initiated (either individually or as members of a team) in our efforts to use digital means to spread the gospel:

MissionEquip
MissionEquip.com was established to provide resources to missionaries and short-term missions teams traveling worldwide.

ChristianCruz
ChristianCruz.com is a localized portal for believers living in Santa Cruz County, California.

Prodigal God
ProdigalGod.com, a work in progress, is designed to provide biblical instruction to the wider body of Christ through the use of video teaching segments and written articles.

Christian Screen Savers
ChristianScreenSavers.com offers a selection of high-quality, inexpensive Christian screen savers which reflect biblical themes. Proceeds from the sale of these screen savers are used to support the work of Strategic Digital Outreach.

Blogs I Read

Adventures Of A Web Evangelist
The Appian Way
BetaChurch.org
BlogMinistry
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Boyink Interactive
Carpe' Digital
Christian Web Trends
Church Beauty
Church Communications Pro
Church Marketing Sucks
ChurchTechToday
Church Website & Blog Ideas
digital.leadnet.org
Digital Ministry
The Digital Sanctuary
e-vangelism.com
Effective Church Web Sites
Effective Web Ministry Notes
Equip Blog
Evotional
GodBit
Goodmanson
Gospelcon
Heal Your Church Website
If Jesus Had A Website
Leave It Behind
MicroExplosion
Outside The Box Ministry
Sacred Digital
So You Want A Church Website?
The Ultimate Issue
Web Evangelism Issues

A Letter To My Friends

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