Lausanne World Pulse – Internet Evangelism and Your Church

By Debra Brown

2. Hands-on Internet Evangelism. Taking a proactive approach to Internet evangelism, we have:

• Arranged a set time each week where graduates of the online training program can meet online in pairs and enter into discussions with people in chat rooms and blogs.
• Encouraged the congregation to look for opportunities to evangelize on the Internet, in emails, on their own web pages and in other online forums.

3. Internet Evangelism Day. IE Day provides an opportunity for churchwide awareness, celebration and involvement. It is a day set aside each year to communicate the outreach potential of the web among the worldwide church. There are many tools and ideas on the IE Day website to consider for your church. At Woodvale we use this opportunity to commission the Internet evangelists who have graduated from the online training course throughout the year. We view Internet evangelists just as we view missionaries we send to a foreign field. We train, commission, send and pray for them.

Now Try God is set up so that individuals who go through the entire presentation will be referred to the originating church.

4. Gospel Presentation. The majority of church websites include little or no information on how to become a Christian. On Woodvale’s website we include a link to a presentation created by the IEC. This relevant presentation, Now Try God, is set up so that individuals who go through the entire presentation will be referred to the originating church. In other words, if the site was found through our church website, the seeker would be referred to our church for follow up.

5. Local Church Involvement. We also want to ensure that seekers and new believers who come to our church through our Internet evangelism efforts become engaged in the local church. The cell group system is the mechanism we use to introduce new people to the church. This allows us to integrate our Internet ministry with other ministries in the church and ensure that caring people are ready to welcome new people into the fellowship. It also ensures they are followed-up with and grow in their faith.

6. Spiritual Growth. Finally, we use the Growing in Christ project of the IEC (created by Campus Crusade for Christ) as a means of ensuring follow up of new believers. People who come to Christ online are comfortable in an online environment. Growing in Christ is a site that new believers can be sent to for follow up until, or in addition to, their involvement in a local church.

Woodvale’s Experiences with Internet Evangelism

Along the way, we have learned some things and made some mistakes. The following are four things to remember when launching an Internet evangelism ministry at your church:

1. Be a champion. Even though the Internet has been around for many years, in the local church setting there are a number of barriers to entering into a ministry online. Starting a program in Internet evangelism takes a leader with tenacity and a passion for both evangelism and the Internet. Church leaders often do not understand the Internet—technically, intellectually and culturally. And although evangelism is seemingly an important component of a church, it can be easily crowded out and placed on the back burner as traditional church programs compete for the attention of leadership.

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Debra Brown is president and CEO of Brown Governance Inc. and executive committee member of the Internet Evangelism Coalition. She is a member of Woodvale Pentecostal Church in Ottawa, Canada.