Lausanne World Pulse – The Strategic Role of www.hikidz.org in Internet Child Evangelism

By Harry Bryans
October / November 2011

At the 2004 Lausanne Forum in Thailand, the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization rated the http://www.hikidz.org/ children’s website as one of the four most strategic tools to communicate the gospel to the world’s two billion children over the next ten years.

According to the Barna Group, individuals are five times more likely to come to Christ before the age of fourteen than at any other time in their life.¹ They are also more likely to discover their gifts and calling in their youth, be stronger in their walk with God and better assimilate Christian values into their daily lives. As many leaders have proved, to change a nation we must start with the children.

Children are by far the most strategic and responsive to the gospel. Most, however, are far outside the walls of our churches. They are also the most seriously neglected in terms of using the church’s resources and time spent discipling. All children deserve the opportunity to hear the good news wherever they are and in whatever language they speak.

Research in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom also shows that children are now spending more time on the Internet than adults.

Whether we like it or not, the Internet is rapidly becoming the key communication channel. Even if we are appalled by some of its contents, the Internet can indeed be a channel of blessing. At no other time in history could countless millions be reached every second of the day as is possible today through the Internet.

It is also important to note that twenty-first century children:

• develop skills rapidly and are increasingly the ones who guide their parents and grandparents in using modern technologies
• are becoming the influencers and deciders in our consumer society and are targeted by companies using all kinds of media to get their message across
• are increasingly left alone by over-occupied parents to be informed, distracted and amused by modern media tools such as television, video games and the Internet
• are the focus of a United Nations sponsorship campaign to supply $100 laptops with Internet access to children in developing countries

Harry Bryans is the pioneer developer and webmaster of www.hikidz.org. Bryans is originally from North Ireland but served as missionary in Belgium for twenty-two years. He worked for fifteen years with the Grain de Ble European children’s ministry and helped launch the Hi Kidz telephone ministry in a dozen countries on three continents.