Lausanne World Pulse – WORLD PERSPECTIVES – Global Internet Users Present Vast Opportunities for Online Evangelism

By Dave Hackett

Minute Factionalization
Many of the “boutique” evangelistic sites are examples of what Web Evangelism Guide’s Tony Whittaker and others identify as specific targeting of a tightly-defined affinity group. The ability to customize a website for a demographic group by a combination of language, interest, colors and geographical references is a kind of  “minute factionalization,” or segmenting, that is an increasing trend in evangelistic websites.

According to Whittaker, “The more specific the target group, the better. Also, the more obscure the group, the greater the chance to get a high-ranking website about Jesus Christ. For instance, if yours is the only site on the web in a given language—say, Polish—then every webmaster will link to you; you’ll have an automatic audience. The novelty factor grabs the audience.”

Singular evangelistic websites are often adept at connecting with the particular culture in ways that can convey to the reader that “this site is just for us in our culture.” We’re beginning to see the large scale, bigger-team efforts tailor their sites to more specific target groups, as well.

But such tight identification can come with a price. Many boutique evangelistic sites make identification of the persons or ministry behind the sites more difficult and each site has the cost of being custom-built. Sometimes the sites are in persecuted Church situations and so want to shield their affiliations.

Many sites do not want to be identified as an evangelistic effort at all to make their sites more effective and contextualized. One site in Japan, for instance, relates deeply to those wrestling with suicide, and it is only in the context of dealing thoroughly with suicide-related topics is faith in Christ presented. These have been described as “bridge strategies” to connect with the felt needs of web viewers.

Another trend is toward mini-presentations of content—tighter and smaller segments that pack an evangelistic punch. Dan Henrich, assistant professor of communications at Liberty University (Virginia, USA), is experimenting with one-minute video clips for viral transmission—that is, clips that people will want to forward to their friends. Walt Wilson of Global Media Outreach also predicts that online gospel video spots will become more popular, but will shrink to the one-minute length. These may foreshadow Internet integration with cell phone evangelism as transfer speeds increase.

In an effort to connect with youth and children, another approach gaining ground is creating online and electronic games for evangelism. The thought is that a website’s games can provide a fun and attractive environment to convey spiritual truths. Games offer a new opportunity to engage youth and children as well as adults seeking simple presentations in a notably relaxed and receptive atmosphere. (For an example, visit http://guide.gospelcom.net/resources/games.php.)

Fitting In: The X-Spectrum
Internet evangelism’s first generation pioneers are approaching this new medium in a variety of ways.

Some sites are explicitly Christian, designed for those who are well toward the seeking end of the evangelism continuum. These sites are clearly for Christians but hope that non-Christians will visit special areas on a website meant to help them understand faith and even lead them to make a decision for Christ.

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Rev. David Hackett is associate director at visionSynergy, a ministry developing strategic international Christian networks focused on high impact opportunities for world evangelization. See www.powerofconnecting.net for more information.