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

By Dave Hackett

John Edmiston, who coordinates a twelve-week course in cybermissions and Internet evangelism with the Asian Internet Bible Institute, has compiled a list of forty-three high-potential nations for Internet evangelism.⁵ The opportunities are clear, the technology is available and the first generation of Internet evangelism pioneers is plowing new ground. Initial reports from many quarters around the world show unexpectedly strong and willing responses by those seeking a relationship with Christ and his people.

International Internet Evangelism Network
In light of these developments, the International Internet Evangelism Network (IIEN) is a hopeful initiative being promoted by a partnership between the US-focused Internet Evangelism Coalition (IEC) and visionSynergy. The aim of the IIEN is to provide an international forum for non-English pioneers of web evangelism to come together, share what they have learned and explore collaboration.

This writer, David Hackett of visionSynergy, is leading the effort to get IIEN off the ground. Hackett has been explaining the non-English Internet evangelism opportunities—and the benefits of creating an international network to help advance such efforts—before meetings of the IEC and the Global Christian Internet Alliance (GCIA) and other international gatherings. Language-specific groups are showing interest in Internet evangelism for their languages. Included in these are the Reaching Japanese for Christ conference and a newly forming Arabic-language Internet evangelism network that held its first meeting last year in Europe.

Prime goals of the IIEN effort are to draw together an initial group of practitioners and secure the commitment of an on-going facilitator to carry forward the project to its next level. Discussions are underway with a potential facilitator. Individuals interested in the IIEN are welcome to email Hackett at [email protected].

Directory of Non-English Evangelism Websites
As part of the effort to understand “who is doing what” in non-English Internet evangelism, Hackett is compiling an ever-growing directory of non-English evangelistic websites. This directory now has listings of over 1,250 non-English evangelistic websites.

The embryonic directory is not ready for public distribution. But already it is clear there are two main types of evangelism websites: (1) those that are multiple language versions of basically the same content and (2) what might be called “boutique” sites created precisely for one culture or language group. The directory has several collections of the former and long lists of the latter.

The largest effort of all to provide evangelistic content online appears to be Campus Crusade for Christ’s JESUS Film presented for online viewing. The JESUS Film website lists about eight hundred language versions of the film viewable anywhere on the web.

Another large evangelistic website collection is Campus Crusade’s “Four Laws” presentation. These sites are nearly identical versions of the same content offered in at least 175 different languages. Campus Crusade’s “Who is Jesus, Really?” set is produced in almost forty languages. Its “Life Agape” series comes in eleven languages, as does its “Every Student” series. 

The group “Films for Christ” (Eden Communications) has prepared its “Christian answers” outreach site  in thirty languages. Campus Crusade for Christ, Canada runs a collection called “Power to Change” (for example, www.powertochange.org/it) in ten languages, and it appears these sites have considerable freedom to contextualize for their target audiences.

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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.