Using Affinity Interests in Digital Outreach

Rob Williams is blogging today about the wisdom of using particular interests unbelievers might have (guitars, baseball, gardening, etc.) to develop relationships with them and provide platforms for talking about Jesus. This is at the heart of a very effective strategy for web evangelism, developing websites dedicated to those interests, promoting them, and then engaging site visitors in conversations that lead to discussions about the gospel.

Posted by on 12/09/04 at 07:32 AM

The Collective Voice!

continues the discussion:

Hmm...not so sure I agree - at least with the website building part. I once challenged the author of those pages on Gospel.com (his name is escaping me) to prove that building and maintaining such a site (hobby or interest-based, but with the intent of evangelizing)was effective.

All he could answer with was traffic numbers - that the pages were getting viewed.

To which I respond “So what?”. What’s the traffic mean? Can you really use server statistics to justify an evangelism effort?

He couldn’t give the names of anyone who had come to Christ as a result of using those pages.

IMHO the Gospel is best communicated via a 1:1
“in the flesh” personal relationship. So bail on the website for Fender Guitar enthusiasts, and go out and start a band...give lessons..take lessons..whatever.

My wife and I have re-thought this part of our lives in the last year. We used to be part of a Jeep club here in West MI, but got out of it as the runs typically lasted the weekend, and we’d miss church if we went.

We realized we had it exactly wrong - we were missing the chance to “be the church” to a largely non-Christian group.

We hope to remedy this this coming year.

contributed on 12/31 at 08:08 AM

Frank Johnson continues the discussion:

contributed on 01/02 at 05:13 PM

continues the discussion:

Sorry for the delay in returning to this..I must have not clicked the box to send me an email.

I’m not arguing (I don’t think.. against affinity based websites.

Where my thoughts are today is that rather than taking on the creation/marketing/tracking of a site as an evangelistic effort, let’s instead find the ones that already exist (because I bet that they already do), and join up. Spend the time you would have spent building such a site developing relationships with the people already using this existing site.

Or forget the web aspect, and find the local “affnity club” instead.

To me it’s “bottom-up” work, rather than the “top-down” approach of building a site first.

For example - I spend alot of time at http://www.earlycj5.com. The forums there are quite busy with (mostly) guys talking about old Jeeps. I’m not spending time there because I have this hidden agenda of evangelising, I’m there because I do love old Jeeps too. But...once the “relational history” was there where I knew including comments about my faith or God would be OK, I started doing so.

I can’t image the time and effort it would have taken me to set about building a new site with this goal in mind. This is the same issue I have with Tony’s “Community-Based sites” - just the overwhelming amount of time it would take to build and maintain, and is that the best use of your time?

contributed on 01/04 at 12:05 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, October 10, 2008 at 06:19 pm
Frank : savoring the start of a four-day weekend, looking forward to a great Time Out

Tue, October 07, 2008 at 08:13 pm
Frank : wishing that the spin doctors would have an ounce of honesty and integrity.

Sat, October 04, 2008 at 10:08 pm
Frank : winding down after a long Saturday's work on things of eternal value.

Sun, September 28, 2008 at 11:44 am
Frank @GregAtkinson my daughter is a goalkeeper - nothing quite like being a goalkeeper's parent!

Wed, September 24, 2008 at 09:55 pm
Frank : back home after a high school back-to-school night, evaluating high schools for next year

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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Content Management
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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
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

Using Affinity Interests in Digital Outreach

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