My Core Philosophy
I remember a few years ago teaching a course on web strategy for churches for the denomination with which my wife and I are affiliated. Prior to the first session, I wrote some notes on the whiteboard, including several passages of Scripture which I felt were relevant to the discussion I was hoping we would have.
When some of the session participants saw what I had written on the whiteboard, one of them snickered to his neighbor, “I wonder what the Bible has to say about websites.”
True, the Bible doesn’t have anything to say directly about websites. But it does have a lot to say about outreach! And if the purpose of our websites is to reach unbelievers, then we would do well to heed the principles of outreach which the Scriptures give us.
My core philosophy of internet evangelism revolves around a passage of Scripture in John 17:21-23.
That passage reads as follows:
My prayer is not from them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one. Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
That passage intrigues me because it tells us how unbelievers come to know that the Father loves them and how they come to know that the Father sent Jesus (and presumably the reason why the Father sent Jesus - to redeem us from our sinful existence).
The passage says that unbelievers (the world) will know that the Father loves them and that the Father sent Jesus when Jesus’ disciples are one and when they have been brought to complete unity. So if we are one and living in complete unity, then the world will know that the Father loves them and that He sent Jesus to save them from their sins. The converse is true, it seems to me - if we are not one, if we are not living in complete unity (or at least to the measure that we are not living in unity), then unbelievers will not know that the Father loves them. They will not know that the Father sent Jesus.
So what does that mean for evangelism? Simply this. Any method of evangelism we use which does not have authentic Christian community as its foundation will be suspect in its effectiveness.
What does that mean for internet evangelism? Any approach to internet evangelism which does not have authentic Christian community as its foundation will be suspect in its effectiveness (repeated for the sake of emphasis!).
It seems to me that the norm for internet evangelism should be the use of methods which introduce unbelievers to believers and their circle of Christian friends (authentic Christian community) in personal relationships. Ideally, those relationships should be face-to-face. Obviously, some areas of the world have governmental and/or social policies which may prevent this. In those cases, we should strive to use instant messaging technology and other similar means to electronically introduce unbelievers to Christian community.
Is it possible for someone to visit an evangelistic website, for example, read the plan of salvation and commit their lives to Christ? Of course. But should that be the norm toward which we strive? I say No. We should be purposefully striving to employ methods which establish ongoing relationships between believers and unbelievers. We should be striving to use approaches which introduce unbelievers to local fellowship groups, support groups, etc.
Comments are of course welcome!
I believe that the internet provides today's church with a historic opportunity .... to tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love in ways which could only have been imagined in times past. The objective of this website is to explore the various ways in which today's technology can be used to spread the gospel around the world.
