Lausanne World Pulse – The Internet Evangelism Coalition and Online Evangelism
By Sterling Huston
April 2006
Recognizing the need for a quality gospel presentation which is culturally relevant to the Internet audience, IEC partners developed the seeker site Now Try God. The content of this presentation is available to churches and para-church ministries as an effective tool for sharing the gospel online.
IEC partners have also developed The Evangelism Toolbox, which includes a database of effective Christian resources to help people share their faith in Jesus Christ. These resources, the work of many leading evangelical organizations worldwide, are provided in multiple languages in both online and offline formats.
Often when people come to Christ through the web there are no immediate Christian growth resources available. This motivated the establishment of Growing In Christ, which provides ways for new believers to get questions answered regarding Christianity and the life of Jesus Christ. It also helps connect new believers with more experienced Christians who will answer their questions.
The IEC also recognized that there were many offline training programs for sharing one’s faith with others, but that none were specifically geared to the unique environment of sharing one’s faith on the Internet. As a result, the program Online Training for Online Evangelists has been prepared and is available as a self-taught and self-graded training tool.
The IEC also recently developed a partnership with visionSynergy for the formation of the International Internet Evangelism Network (IIEN). IIEN seeks to bring together people pioneering in the area of non-English speaking web evangelism.
The Internet has some unique advantages for Christians who want to reach their world for Christ. With information available twenty-four hours a day and an instantaneous reach across time zones and national boundaries, believers can share the gospel from the privacy of their own homes with non-Christians halfway around the world. Note these examples:
- A young woman in Michigan, USA, entered into a digital dialogue with a woman in China who knew nothing about Christianity and wanted to learn English. Through the Internet she arranged for the Chinese woman to download a Bible in her own language.
- A North American church received an email from a man in Finland who had committed his life to Christ through the gospel presentation on their church’s website.
- A college student at the University of Virginia, USA, who was searching for meaning stumbled across a website for students and got on her knees in her dorm room with tear-filled eyes and surrendered her life to Christ.
The anonymity of the web allows seekers to be much more vulnerable in their spiritual search. The Internet’s accessibility permits these seekers to return again and again to explore biblical truths. The Internet Evangelism Coalition is committed to encouraging churches and para-church ministries to utilize the web as a strategic resource for sharing the good news of Christ and helping new believers begin their initial steps of Christian growth. To that end, the IEC continues to evaluate new technologies that use the web with one primary purpose in view: that we might enlarge and extend the presentation of the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ to a needy world.