evangelism help

Online Evangelism

A guide to Web Outreach

You can reach the world

The Internet has become a powerful tool for us to use in evangelism. These resource pages explain strategies for using it - principles of communication which often apply equally to other forms of outreach too. You can also easily integrate these pages into your own site with a few lines of code.

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Web Evangelism Bulletin
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Introduction
1. Old story about the Old Story
2. Push or pull?
3. How people become Christians
4. Web strategy to reach millions
5. Church pages that work
6. Top evangelistic sites
7. Writing and language
8. Page usability/webmaster resources
9. Follow-up
10. Witness without webpages
11. Getting site visitors
12. The future
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Introduction

"An incredible new technology enables the transmission of text on a worldwide basis. It rapidly reduces production and distribution costs and for the first time allows large numbers of people to access text and pictures in their own homes."

You've guessed it. The invention of 'movable type' by Gutenberg - the printing press. It transformed education, learning, evangelism and communication. It laid the foundations for the Renaissance, the arts, sciences, and the world as we know it today. The digital revolution is bringing about a similar huge change in evangelism, Christian discipleship and community, in ways which are only just beginning.

"Using a computer for online religious activity... could become the dominant form of religion and religious experience in the next century."
      Professor B Brasher, author: Give me that Online Religion (Jossey-Bass)

Although the Internet first grew in USA and northern Europe, it is now no longer a toy for the rich West. Users in China are expected to reach 100 million in 2003. Only one country in the world bans Internet usage - N. Korea.

There are Christian 'future-watchers' who can help us to see the trends in society, culture, and the Internet revolution: Teaching IT and Web skills is therefore becoming an effective way of sharing the Gospel.

The needs of the world remain as great as ever: see the Unfinished Task counters clicking up. The Internet is a powerful and God-given medium to help us fulfil the Great Commission. Even its name reflects the nature of the fishing net which Jesus spoke of in Matthew 13:47 and elsewhere.

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1. The old story about the Old Story

The "99% problem"

Go into any Christian bookshop. Maybe 99% of the books and videos are written only for Christians, using Christian language, thought-forms and assumptions. Some Christians believe that "because it is Christian, it is evangelistic". But this is not usually true.

The same thing applies to most Christian websites. 99% have been written with only a Christian reader in mind. Of course, some non-Christians will visit them too. And if they already have an interest, maybe they will stay to read. But this is like hoping that non-Christians will walk in off the street into our church services. Some do. But most will not. (And site visitors will usually leave in 5 seconds, if they cannot relate to a page.) So we often find that we are only touching the people who may have a Christian background or interest. We reach the 'once-churched', but we do not touch the 'never-churched'.

The sad thing is that because some evangelism does happen successfully this way, Christians do not realize that we are not touching everyone in the society. And of course, some churches give evangelism and world mission a very low priority in their programs. Yet Wesley said, "You have nothing to do but to save souls."

We can help the wider church to understand the importance of online evangelism so that:

You can help achieve these goals by adding the content of this page to your own site. It is easy - just copy/paste a few lines of code. You can also print out this poster for your church noticeboard.

Because everyone sees the Internet as a 'free' resource, and because those involved in online evangelism produce no tangible 'product', it seems true that the wider church does not realize that online evangelism ministries need support and encouragement. There are surprisingly few Christian organisations actually involved in primary online evangelism. Why is this?  See this Open Letter to mission executives.

Can you translate this page into your language? There is a big need for online evangelism in non-English languages.

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2. Push or Pull

Why the Web is a different medium

Push
Print, video, radio and TV are mainly 'push' mediums. They communicate by sending out a consecutive ('linear') prepared message, usually only to a single area of the world.

Pull
The Web however is a 'pull' medium. It pulls in visitors - though only on the basis of a defined interest. People usually go only to pages on subjects they are searching for. And of course, the incredible advantage of the Web is that it is global: anyone, anywhere - in China or the Middle East - can find a page in seconds.

Two-way
The other unique property of the Internet is interactivity. Not only are users in control of which pages to visit, they can also send feedback to a webmaster. They can easily ask questions, receive help and advice, leave comments in a guest-book, or discuss issues on a Bulletin board or an email discussion group. This option to build 'community' around a website is very important. It helps people feel wanted and that their opinions are valued. It gives them a place where they can ask questions in a safe way, when perhaps they would not do that face-to-face.

For evangelistic websites, this interaction is very important. Very few people become Christians just by reading something. Conversion is usually a long process, and involves friendly interaction with people who are already Christians. Think back to how you became a Christian. For most people, seeing the life of Jesus in someone else, usually through experiencing friendship, is the most powerful witness.

All mediums are not the same
TV is not just radio with pictures. Print is not just speech written down. So too the Web should not be seen as just another way of delivering tracts or sermons. It is a revolutionary medium which can be used for evangelism if we understand its unique dynamic and develop strategies which understand and 'work with the grain' of an interactive medium where the user is in control.

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3. How people become Christians

It is important to understand the process by which people become Christians. The 'Gray Matrix' (proposed by Frank Gray of FEBC Radio) is one very useful way of seeing the process. It is a modification of the 'Engel Scale of Spiritual Decision', produced by the missiologist James Engel in his book What's Gone Wrong with the Harvest, (Zondervan 1975).

The original Engel Scale proposed 13 steps through which people usually travel on their spiritual journey:

         +5 Stewardship
        +4 Communion with God
       +3 Conceptual and behavioral growth
      +2 Incorporation into Body
     +1 Post-decision evaluation
    New birth
     -1 Repentance and faith in Christ
      -2 Decision to act
       -3 Personal problem recognition
        -4 Positive attitude towards Gospel
         -5 Grasp implications of Gospel
          -6 Awareness of fundamentals of Gospel
           -7 Initial awareness of Gospel
            -8 Awareness of supreme being, no knowledge of Gospel

For a more detailed graphical picture, click here

You can see from this scale that perhaps we should present the Gospel differently to people who are at different points. Someone at -7 on the scale cannot be treated the same as a person at -3 who has already understood much of the Truth and is almost ready to place their faith in Jesus.

The problem is that Christian outreach often only touches people who already have an understanding of the Gospel because of previous church background. They know the language and concepts already. So, we can be quite good at reaching the 'once-churched', yet may miss the 'never-churched' completely.

Gray is the color of life
The Gray Matrix adds a horizontal axis to this scale - antagonism/enthusiasm. This very simple picture is very important because it helps us to understand important evangelistic concepts.

gray matrix
The lower-left oval shape represents a group of people who are fairly
resistant and lack knowledge. The challenge is to use approaches which
reach down as far as possible into the bottom left-hand corner!


Conclusions from the Gray Matrix


How the Gray Matrix helps us with online evangelism

More on the Gray Matrix
Detailed analysis of the Engel Scale

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4. Strategy to reach millions

"If you want to make an evangelistic page, don't write about the Gospel."
Are you serious?

But what are most people searching for online? The things that interest them!

Writing yet another presentation of the way of salvation is not going to reach any of them, unless we "fish on the other side of the boat", by using . . .


The Bridge Strategy: "Be what they are searching for"

"Bait the hook according to what the fish likes, not what the fisherman likes." (Hemingway)
Write pages on these secular subjects or felt needs and you can target any group of people. This is often called the 'Bridge Strategy'. Others may use a different name (for instance 'magnet pages'), but it means the same - identifying with the real interests. This does not mean that we make trick pages that are not really about the subject they claim to be. If we write a page about restoring VW cars, or breeding mice, or a favorite musician, the page must truly be 'about' that subject. It must be as good and informative as possible, maybe with many helpful links to other pages on the subject.


How to build a 'bridge'

There are several ways that you can draw people 'across the bridge' to pages which explain the Gospel:

a. Your testimony
Whatever sort of site you have, make a link to 'meet the webmaster' or 'my story'. Here is a chance to share your testimony. (But don't call it 'testimony' - that's a Christian jargon word.) Introduce yourself first, where you live, what you like, etc. Then go on to explain how something happened to you which changed your whole view of life. "People are interested in people." They always turn to the human-interest stories in newspapers first. Short audio or video clips of the person can also add interest to a testimony page.

b. 'Meaning of life' links
On any type of website, you can offer a link such as 'What is the meaning of life?' or 'Finding real fulfillment'. These do not sound preachy or even Christian, yet show some sort of non-threatening 'spirituality' content.

c. Parable meanings
Jesus used stories with a message as his main means of evangelistic communication. And he didn't always explain the meaning - he left people to go away and think! Whatever the subject of a website, it is possible to write a page which brings out a parable or allegory from the main subject. For instance, a site about restoring VW cars can include a page which suggests that just as old cars need new engines, we need something new inside our lives. A site about breeding mice, can include a page about how a mother mouse cares for her young, and this is the same as God's care for people. There is an angle like this for almost any subject. Films, books and music lend themselves very well to this approach. They often contain meanings which the writers never intended.

All these types of pages can also link to a central part of the site which explains the Gospel in meaningful easy terms . . .

Explaining the Gospel
It is actually hard to explain the essentials of the Gospel in a web-page, taking these factors into account:

It may better to link to an existing Gospel presentation, instead of writing your own. There are some high-quality presentations available from major ministries, and they often have the advantage of a follow-up system for inquirers. Power to Change is a good presentation in a growing range of languages:

You can, if you wish, link to such presentations through a narrow top frame: [How to] [Demo] which integrates their pages within your site, though not all webmasters are happy with this. (Power to Change team are!)

Take time and prayer to find a clear strategy and focus for an evangelistic site. The best sites are usually preceded by months of prayer and online research.
[Cartoon: "How's the Website?"]

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5. Church pages

On a church page, visitors will expect the material to be Christian! However, most church sites seem to be written only for their members. Outsiders are not always obviously welcome. Few church sites carry any sort of link explaining the Gospel. Even fewer make such a link look enticing and relevant to non-Christians.

From bottom up, before anything is written, plan to:

Pinecrest Community Church is a very good example of a welcoming church site which is reaching many very effectively.

Church sites can also use the 'bridge strategy' to draw people in, by making pages on secular topics. A page of secular community links (covering shops, schools, colleges, tourism, local history, etc.) is particularly good for a church site. Churches with pages designed to welcome non-Christians are finding them to be an effective outreach .

An online two-way discussion for inquirers, based on the Alpha evangelistic group Bible study concept, is a strategy with big potential for church sites:

And surely all church sites should carry testimonies of some members.

It is possible to create church sites without knowing HTML using template-editing systems provided by a number of groups. [>more]

There is a free poster about this Guide which you can print for your church noticeboard.

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6. Top evangelistic sites

Power to Change

Power to Change from Campus Crusade Canada is an excellent general-purpose evangelistic site, combining a clear explanation of the Gospel, questions and answers on particular problems, and testimony. It is available in a number of languages, and the team is looking for help to translate it into new languages. Consider linking to it, rather than attempting to write your own explanations of the Gospel.

CCC has partnered with other ministries and groups of churches to promote the site using secular advertising on buses (for a regional church-based campaign) and TV advertising. This approach is very successful: [>more]

Using the 'Bridge' approach

There are many good evangelistic pages using the 'Bridge' concept:

a. Sport, hobbies and special interests
Sports have a worldwide following - there are even Chinese-language Manchester United sites! An evangelistic site can be built around a particular sport, team, event, or sports-people. The Goal and To the Next Level use testimony in a very effective way. Doug Reese, webmaster of To the Next Level, shares recent encouraging feedback.

Jason Stevens is built round an individual Christian sportsman. But there are few other such sport pages.

Hobby pages and affinity-group interests represent a major evangelistic opportunity.

b. Science
Life's Big Questions is an excellent and thought-provoking presentation of the relationship between science, cosmology and faith, featuring interviews with top scientists. Note how the site does not criticize science or sound preachy. Because of this, and because it interviews top people in their fields, it retains credibility. Fred Heeren reports recent feedback from this site.

c. Health and personal needs
Health sites are the second most searched-for on the Web. (You can guess the number one topic.) There are many opportunities to create support pages around a particular illness. Sadly, although a number of Christians have done this, often they have defined the page as a 'support page for Christians', which seems to exclude non-Christians. But others have realized the importance of building pages that welcome non-Christians, on such topics as heart problems, diabetes, sudden infant death, post-abortion trauma, Parkinson's disease, or post-polio syndrome. There are many opportunities to create other such sites.

People have so many personal needs and desperately seek answers online. Running on Empty is a well-designed site which deals with inner emptiness and needs, without seeming preachy. Christina Burbeck gets encouraging feedback.

The needs of business professionals are addressed in a very effective Priority Associates integrated outreach.

d. Women's interests
Women Today Magazine is a remarkable comprehensive site (1000+ pages) from Campus Crusade Canada. Note how it offers useful information for living, and does not obviously appear to be Christian or preachy on the front page. There is testimony and evangelism in there - when people are ready for it. One of the site team writes: "This strategy has worked well for Womentodaymagazine.com, which receives over a million hits from all over the world each month. By taking a 'value-added' approach to sharing Christ and offering people legitimate products and services, both IamNext.com [see below] and Women Today Magazine are very effective in gaining a hearing for the gospel."

Technical note: despite a complex front page, Women Today Magazine and IamNext work well at any screen resolution, down to 640 x 480 or even WebTV, and do not force irritating horizontal scroll-bars at these lower resolutions. (This is easily achievable by using percentages and avoiding graphics which would force a table too wide.)

A case study on effective communication
Because Campus Crusade also produces Christian Women Today, a site of similar appearance but for Christian women readers, this makes a wonderful opportunity for a case-study comparison. At first glance, some Christians would see comfortable Christian words on front page and inner pages - prayer, Bible, saved, etc., and say, "Ah, this is the best evangelistic site. This must preach the Gospel." But no! Christian Women Today was designed for Christians. No doubt some non-Christians will visit, as with any site.

Editor Claire Colvin writes: "It seems so obvious that a Christian site is not necessarily an evangelistic site. One of the biggest barriers that stops a site from being truly evangelistic is language. One thing you'll notice on the Women Today site is a lack of Christian terminology. You don't see words like 'church, pray, salvation, holy, sanctified, born again, repent'. Instead, you find articles written from a Christian perspective but presented in regular English."

e. Teens
IamNext is another valuable site from CCC. Using the same strategy as Women Today Magazine, this highly effective, non-preachy site can easily engage young people and students. The team writes, "In the first 10 days of April alone, 12 people prayed to receive Christ and eight people re-dedicated their lives through IamNext.com, Campus Ministries' new evangelistic website for university and college students. Site statistics indicate that hundreds more have been exposed to the gospel by going through The Four Spiritual Laws and reading student testimonies. Reports of more conversions and rededications are coming in each day."

Other top teen/student sites:

f. Children
Sadly, most Christian pages for children look very like Sunday School lessons for those with plenty of Bible background. There are few truly evangelistic sites for children who know little of Christianity. What is the reason for this? Here is a big gap to fill!

Games can be a feature of children's websites, and can be easily added to a page using Javascript.

g. Bulletin board apologetics discussion
Many evangelistic sites include bulletin boards for feedback and discussion. 'Apologetics for non-Christians' sites are particularly suited to this type of interaction. Some are designed mainly for discussion, others include additional apologetic material too:

h. Looking at the culture
Almost every culture spends a large part of its leisure time in an unreal world! Where? The world of stories: books, theater, films, video. Why did Jesus communicate almost entirely through short stories? And often leave people to go away and think...?

One of the most popular evangelistic sites on the Web (with many millions of hits) is Pastor Dave Bruce's Hollywood Jesus. He used to work in the film/broadcasting industry and writes about recent film releases, not as normal film reviews, but instead looking for parable meanings from the story-line. Leslie Hand's Movie Glimpse uses a similar strategy - read her explanation of this approach.

Hobbit Lore makes excellent use of the Lord of the Rings story to present the Gospel.

A similar strategy can be used for many pop songs and music groups. Music pages receive millions of hits. The words of most songs are about emotions or situations which make a starting point for a parable interpretation. A similar approach can be used with fiction and plays. Yet almost no-one is using this approach - which could touch millions of people.

Shoot the Messenger. analyzes popular culture from a Christian viewpoint: music, film, literature, magazines, TV and cultural trends such as fashion, recreation, New Age beliefs, social, philosophical and political issues. They are excellent non-confrontational evangelistic sites carefully targeting non-Christians.

'Reality' TV is unbelievably popular, with shows such as Big Brother and Survivor attracting millions. UK's official Big Brother website had millions of hits in a week. More British people voted to remove Big Brother members, than voted in the 2001 British government elections. Gospelsearch has used this approach in English and several Scandinavian languages to create the Big Father site.

Understanding our culture
It is very important that Christians learn to understand the post-Christian 'post-modern' culture we live in, so that we can learn to present the Gospel in appropriate terms. These resource sites for Christians are designed to equip us for this:

It is also important to understand what other religions and cults believe.

i. Other approaches
There are many other ways for sharing the Gospel online:

There are thousands of other subjects for evangelistic websites. Hobbies, people, history, tourism. If you have an interest in it, you are equipped to write about it! There is a big need for sites which engage with New Age and occult issues in a sensitive way.

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7. Writing and language

Writing for the web requires the style and gifts of the journalist, not the preacher. The Press has had more than 200 years to learn how to communicate effectively in print. Learn from them. Read books on journalistic writing. Observe the way newspapers and magazines tell stories. They know the rules for clear communication and keeping a reader's interest.

Read widely, especially secular newspapers and magazines. Cut out and file away stories, illustrations, and ideas, which may be useful as a basis for future articles.

It is harder - and 25% slower - to read print from a computer monitor than on paper. If people cannot easily read a page, they will lose interest and leave. Help them by:

Taking care of the stranger
Realize that many visitors to an English-language site are from other countries and may be second-language speakers:

Revise and edit and revise
Never put a first draft of writing online. Revise and edit many times. It is usually possible to cut word-length by 25% or more, and increase clarity at the same time. Ask other writers to critique your pages, and be humble enough to accept their advice.

Kill the typos
Of course you should use spell-check! But this won't find grammatical errors such as it's (only ever means 'it is', never 'belonging to it'), and who's (only ever means 'who is', not 'belonging to [that person]'). Apostrophe with 's' never means more than one of anything - it only ever means 'belonging to' or indicates a missing letter e.g. who's.(Avoid banana's, video's, apple's to mean 'more than one'). This applies to numbers and abbreviations too - 60s and CDs is correct, 60's and CD's (though commonly used) are not really OK. The only time an apostrophe should be used for a plural is when the meaning would otherwise be totally confusing or meaningless, e.g. do's and dont's.There are other easily-made mistakes such as loose meaning 'lose' which rob a web-page of credibility. (One possible trick is to delete these common words from your spell-check dictionary. Then they will always display as errors, so you can assess correct usage.)

Hyphens however are under-used. They can link words together in a logical way. This is important where there are several adjectives which belong together. For instance:

The ticket is first class but The first-class ticket
That fact is well known but The well-known fact
Without the hyphen - and especially if the line breaks after the first adjective - meaning is temporarily lost. For the same reason, it is better to hyphenate 'no-one'.

It is also important to use a consistent style of punctuation. Use our house-style/grammar guide to help you.

Which language to write in?
There is a big need for evangelistic pages in many languages.

English remains the most popular language of the Internet. If English is not your first language and you wish to reach beyond your own country, you may wish to produce pages in English.

Remember, you have an advantage: if you are a second-language English speaker, you know which words of English are difficult to understand, so that you can avoid them. You will also understand the importance of not using English idiom and slang. But it is important that you avoid translating your own idiom and sentence structure into English. Also learn to avoid 'false friends' - words which sound the same in English and your language, yet have slightly, or very, different meanings. If you have the opportunity, ask a native English speaker, who is also good at writing, to edit your pages.

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8. Page usability

"Content is what you say, design is how you say it," says Warren Kramer of Gospelcom's Daily Wisdom. Even if the written text is clear and understandable, no-one will read it if the site design is confusing. Here are some tips:
As important as the appearance of individual pages, is the way that they all link together. It is very easy to get this aspect of usability wrong. The web visitor does not, like you, know what all the pages contain. He or she is a stranger, navigating 'blind', and needs as much help as possible. However, the visitor wants to feel in control of the browsing experience. It is very important that those visiting your site know where they are, where they have been, and where they can go. This requires: Before designing a website, take large amounts of time to look at other websites and learn from both good and bad ones:
This weekly tip can be added to your own site.
Make notes about good design features to use on your own pages and the bad things to avoid.

Expect that your website will grow - so build in room for easy and logical expansion right from the start.

Site design and usability links

A highly-recommended book on designing effective and meaningful homepages:

Homepage Usability: 55 Websites Deconstructed
Jakob Nielsen & Marie Tahir
New Riders ISBN 0-7357-1102-X
Maybe your library will order it for you? It is not cheap, but worth every penny. Online bookstores offer it at considerable discount.

Learn too from showcase examples of bad design and good design.

Webmaster resources - go here for a wide range of newsletters, links and tips.

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9. Follow-up of contacts

Any media outreach, using radio, literature, or the Web, has to face the problem of helping inquirers and converts who may be at a long distance. However, the Internet does have the advantage of rapid email communication for online fellowship and encouragement. There are also many good online discipleship/teaching pages for new Christians. For converts who live many kilometers from a church, online fellowship and mentoring may be a very big help to them. Even in southern Europe, there are huge areas with very few good churches. In the Middle East, it may be even harder for a new Christian to meet together with others. Ongoing online fellowship can be a lifeline to such people.

The Web also helps us to locate local churches and other help for new converts. People with particular problems (e.g. alcohol, sex, drugs, health, abuse) may need specialized help. It is important that we are familiar with good help-sites, so we can suggest to people where to find the support they need.

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10. Chat room, Instant Messaging and email witness

Online real-time interaction in a chat room can be a highly effective form of witness.It is important to be sensitive and wise without arguing. [What is a chat room?] Some people visit chat rooms together with a friend to help each other and also pray for each other. Bulletin boards and email discussion lists can also be a place to share faith - though it is best when it is appropriate to the topic of the board.

Chat rooms can be built into larger evangelistic sites if they have sufficient visitors. Instant Messaging can be a quick way for site visitors to contact you, if you are frequently online.

Chat rooms are very popular with the young. A church can train its young people to learn how to witness through chat, email and instant messager.

You can of course share your faith sensitively by email with anyone you meet in cypberspace. It is important to be aware of good evangelistic sites that you can refer them to, especially pages that explain particular questions they have. It is also possible to send Digitracts to those you are in touch with.

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11. Catching some visitors

Understand search engines and other methods of page promotion

Most people find evangelistic sites through links, particularly on search engines. It is important to learn how to get a high 'ranking' on search engines for particular keyword searches that relate to the subject of your site. Understand the way people string search words together, by obtaining good access statistics for your site.

It is sad that many good evangelistic sites do not apply these principles. People may spend days writing a good page, yet not spend the extra few minutes which would help their page to be easily found through a search engine.

These techniques are very easy, and include the writing of meaningful 'Title' and 'Meta description' tags in the 'Head' section of the page, and the use of <H> tags correctly.

Most of your pages should be logical entry points to the rest of your site. So each page should have its own different, carefully written, 'title' and 'meta description' tags.

There are also many other ways to promote your website, including contact cards.

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It is also very important to make your site 'sticky' to encourage return visits.

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12. The future

Online outreach is proving to be an effective and far-reaching tool.There are many new developments and ideas for online evangelism. You may wish to receive regular news through the twice-monthly Web Evangelism Bulletin. Subscribe by sending a blank email to:
web-evangelism-subscribe@lists.gospelcom.net
or subscribe using the form at the top of the page.

Here are trends that we can already see:

The world will never be the same again. Increasingly, people use the Internet as a starting place for information, help, friendship, fun, and leisure. They can be reached! The opportunities are enormous.

There are many opportunities for big organizations with time, money and expertise, to produce large evangelistic websites. But there will always be a place for the sparetime webmaster, giving his or her evening hours to reach the world. Your fingers - on a keyboard - can be used in the battle for souls.

"Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle." (Psalm 144:1)

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Other top evangelism links
Evangelism Toolbox - over 1,200 evangelistic, follow-up and discipleship resources in many languages from 50+ of the world\'s top organizations.
First Priority - weekly article about evangelism from top writers.
Fish the Net - large range of resources for evangelism.
DramaShare - communicating the Truth through drama.
Operation World - the definitive resource book/CD on every country in the world.
newWway.org - communicating effectively in today's world.
Jesus Cafe - learn evangelism in fellowship with others.
Rox35 Media - using cartoons for evangelism.
A4C - computer training for the under-privileged.
Free church-planting booklet - from IMB.
Gospelcom.net - the biggest online Christian resource - online Bibles, CrossSearch directory, Daily Wisdom, and much more.

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Free evangelistic literature - in easy-English & other languages.

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