Is Praying A Prayer Enough?

Will Samson is back from the recent Internet Evangelism for the 21st Century conference and has some probing questions and thoughts surrounding the typical modern concept of conversion and its implications for internet evangelism.

In my favorite excerpt, Will writes the following:

If all I need to do is say a prayer, why be involved in a community of faith? Lesslie Newbigin, in his seminal work, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, talks about the congregation as a “hermeneutic of the gospel”. That is simply a more sophisticated way of saying that people understand the gospel by looking at how it is lived out. This has always been true. The writer of Hebrews tapped into this idea in saying that the expression of Christ’s sacrifice is to meet together. I wonder if one of the reasons people are less likely to follow Jesus but are instead content to simply pray a prayer and consider themselves “saved” is because we have so few compelling congregations?

Internet evangelism which encourages people only to “pray a prayer,” I believe, has to be considered suspect in its ultimate effectiveness because, as Will suggests, it divorces the process from an authentic expression of Christian community.

We tend to believe that Christian community is only a follow-up method once outreach has been “successful” - once someone prays the sinner’s prayer, we encourage them to find a Bible-believing church and join it. Jesus, on the other hand, sees Christian community as the foundation of outreach (cf. John 17:21-23).

Rather than encourage people to “pray a prayer,” I believe that our evangelistic efforts on the web (and through other digital means) should focus on drawing unbelievers into an experience of authentic Christian community (ideally face-to-face community, but in creative access nations, online community may be the only option). The expression of selfless love which the unbeliever will (hopefully) witness and experience in the midst of a community of believers will do far more to convince them of the truth of the gospel than statements of propositional truth and an invitation to pray the sinner’s prayer which they may find on our websites.

I suspect this post may generate some passionate dialogue , which I would very much welcome!

Posted by on 04/04/05 at 10:19 AM

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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?

Mon, January 05, 2009 at 08:13 pm
Frank Using XMLHttpRequest to load form in a div, want "return" of form to load in same div on submit. Know how? http://www.tinyurl.com/9wglcm

Sun, January 04, 2009 at 02:08 pm
Frank It's the first day of a much-needed week-long vacation!

Sat, January 03, 2009 at 12:59 am
Frank @boyink me too, but working with friend on website that really lends itself to the idea. Before this I would have said "No way ever," but...

Fri, January 02, 2009 at 11:29 pm
Frank @benwiles liveintheriver.com sounds familiar, but I didn't see the video intro like on liveonpage.com. Maybe they took it down?

Fri, January 02, 2009 at 01:48 pm
Frank looking for a recently launched church website that has something like this - liveonpage.com. Saw it on some church website, can't remember

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

Quick Contact Info

T: 831.461.1183
F: 831.461.1184
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ICQ: strategicdigital
Yahoo: strategicdigital
MSN: strategicdigital@hotmail.com

Web Development
Designwise Studios
DirectSteps
RockBeatsPaper
SparrowStyle
Turtle Interactive

Content Management
Expression Engine

Web Hosting
DreamHost

Email Management
Constant Contact

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
Proclaiming the Lord's Good News to the millions of people who have yet to respond to the Gospel.

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
BlogRodent
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

Is Praying A Prayer Enough?

Blogs I Read

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