There is something I have been thinking about a lot lately, and that is evangelism on the Internet. For a long time churches and people in general have been thinking of evangelism as something that is done on the streets, handing out booklets or showing the love of God through social kindness. However, I believe the time is now for evangelism on the Internet to arise.
I have in my life spent lots of time out on the streets of different cities preaching the gospel in different ways and using different methods. We have seen Gods goodness and people coming to the Lord through this work. At the same time I also know that many people never dare to stand and watch some event on the street, much less speak to someone from a local church approaching them to speak about the love of God. That same person will however when they come home without any doubt use the Internet to find information and to find answers to the questions they are looking for.
Internet gives you the information you are looking for
It is one thing I find really annoying about the Internet, and that is that you will always find exactly the information you are looking for, or at least something like that. If you read about the teachings of the Bible on the subject of speaking in tongues, you will find sites emphasizing exactly the view you have yourself. If you look for sites on the Internet telling you that God does not heal supernaturally anymore, you will find such sites as well. If you on the other hand look for sites claiming that God is still able to heal supernaturally and he can do it for you today, you will find that. In other words, you find exactly what you are looking for.
When someone gets interested in the word of God and in Jesus and they start searching the Internet for information, what do they find? Will they find sites that inspire them to find a local search and get more answers, or will they find sites telling them that it is just an invention of weak people in need of some powerful God? As churches and as Christians we need to get the good news out there, and not only get it out there, but it needs to get good Google rankings so that people will find the correct information about the living God as they get curious and want to find out more.
Finding Jesus when not looking for him
It is important for us as Christians and as churches to be found on the Internet when people look for information about God and about Jesus. But, it is just as important to be the temples of God and his lights in whatever we do, and thus help people to find Jesus, also when not looking for him. What do I mean?
As you make food, salt is a natural ingredient. You would never tell someone that you are making salt, but it is there all the time. It is great with evangelism as Christians and evangelism on the Internet, but the best is when you behave like the salt… it is always there. If you use social media, why not share some good articles about Gods goodness on Facebook or on Google+? You have tons of friends who will be curious to read the article you are sharing, and it might in fact lead them one step in the right direction.
[stextbox id=”info”]Some people behave as if the salt was the main course in itself. If every word leaving your mouth and your profile on for example Facebook is “Turn or burn” and “The end is near“, you will quickly be ignored by all unbelievers, so no more chance at sharing the good news with them. You might feel radical sharing such messages, but it doesn’t always hurt with some wisdom combined with being radical.[/stextbox]
As a youngster I used lots of time playing games online. My closest teammates with whom I played knew the fact that I was a Christian and one of them I met in real life and he started attending church together with some others of us. And that is the good thing about evangelism online, everyone can do it, even the tiny computer nerd who is stuck in front of the computer from morning till evening. Everyone can do it, but I believe it is getting more and more important to actually pour energy into it and strategically work to get the truth about the gospel of Jesus Christ out there on the World Wide Web.
If you blog about computer games, about nutrition or whatever, do not be ashamed of the gospel, but let the salt be found in everything you do and write. Life is much more exciting when you have a goal and a vision for doing what you are doing. Let God fill your daily life with vision and let us together be the salt of the earth and the salt of the Internet.
My first thoughts on evangelism on the Internet
This was just a warm-up article on the subject of evangelism on the Internet. As I mentioned in the start this is a subject in which I am very interested, and I would love to hear from others out there who have thoughts on the subject, ideas and projects dealing with this subject. Write a comment, send me an email and let me know!
