Working in tandem with the Spirit in Online Evangelism (Part 3 in a series)
What if we could provide the Spirit with the Gospel 24/7/365? What if we were able to assure the Spirit that He could count on His Church to provide Him the means to carry out His ministry in the world?
Is He likely to take advantage of it? Only time would tell of course. But, with the Gospel present around the clock and around the world simultaneously isn’t it likely that
- those who don’t/won’t come to our Churches initially and/or
- are just as likely to be looking for spiritual succor at 3am as at 3pm
…will first and foremost look online for help?
Something I don’t think most of us have given much thought to but I’ve always believed the Spirit relies on the Church to provide Him tools for His ministry; not exclusively but, I believe, primarily. Not that He has to but He chooses to.
Therefore, it seems to our small team at The aXiom Network that the more opportunities the Church can provide for the Spirit to share with someone about eternal life the more likely He is to take advantage of them.
Recently, I was asked if our goal of enlisting 100,000 U.S. Churches into our network who will add the Gospel to their websites would realistically make a difference. My response was that while I can’t guarantee that the presence of 100,000 Churches offering the Gospel online would make a difference that I COULD guarantee that without them there will be 100,000 fewer opportunities for the Spirit to use His Church in His ongoing ministry. And, that seems like a needless strangling of the Holy Spirit’s work in the world.
To paraphrase a comment on our website:
“The [Gospel on a Church’s website] is to the web what the Bible is to a hotel room, a gospel tract is to a restaurant tab or a prayer lifted up for a person you’ve only met casually. You may never realize this side of heaven exactly the opportunity you gave for a lost soul to fall in love with the Savior.”
The Body of Christ is denying the Holy Spirit the very tool He could use to enable the online seeker to discover Eternal Life. Are we by implication “stifling” the work of the Spirit? It’s not my intent to accuse but to encourage! But, the question remains; what are the ramifications now and eternally of this truancy? The solution is so simple.
What would it take for your Church to provide the Spirit with a simple presentation of the Gospel to lead others to the Savior 24/7/365 and, would you do so even if there was no guarantee that anyone would ever use your site to discover Eternal Life through Jesus Christ? I believe it’s a risk worth taking…
Next time: We’ll discuss some critical benefits our Churches are missing when our websites lack the Gospel.
Serving with you,
Rev. Don Walley, Director
The aXiom Network
www.theaxiomnetwork.com
Important links:
See Previous post
View The Great Commission “LIVE” at www.roadswaps.com
Take our BRAND NEW “5 | 7 | 10 Survey” and add your views on your OWN Church’s Online Evangelism Ministry (or lack of). You may not like the results.
Rev. Don Walley is Director of The aXiom Network, an effort of, by and for U.S. Churches to call 100,000 U.S. Churches to offer the Gospel on their websites and networking them with nearly 150,000 U.S. Churches at affiliate sites.
The aXiom Network provides The 3 Keys to Effective Online Evangelism for the local Church and offers Road Swap Gospel Templates as its principle tool for engaging the Online Seeker.
For what he calls the “OnGen” (the generation that’s always Online) Don believes this and future generations will first go online to discover salvation before they enter a church’s doors. The aXiom Network is committed to helping Churches optimize their online presence so the world may hear the Good News of Jesus Christ: this generation and beyond.
Don’s passions include family, computers and helping Churches use online technology to grow through leadership development, small group ministry, online evangelism initiatives and discipleship training.
His ThM in Theology and years of ministry prepared him for his time as Pastor in New England, experiences with Campus Crusade, BGEA, Church Consultant with T-Net and associate staff with Navigators/CDM.
He is ordainted and is a Master Instructor in website design, database development, networking and desktop applications (MS Certified). For the last several years he has engaged the Church in becoming more effective in its online ministry.
With the advent of the Web, Don, and others developed several online tools to grow the U.S. Church including the world’s largest directory of U.S. Churches designed initially to help U.S. Navy Chaplains locate Churches for transferring sailors and families.
2 Comments
Are you going to publish the results of your survey in part 3? if you have time, can you take a look at our church website to see how we present the gospel? I would appreciate your evaluation of its effectiveness. http://www.newcovenantgj.org/
Thanx for the inquiry Richard. You can see the results by taking the survey athttp://www.theaxiomnetwork.com/survey_gospel.shtm… When you, or anyone, hit the SUBMIT button you are automatically sent to the RESULTS.
I would be happy to review your site. I will look at it first of next week 0507ff. I'm glad you've caught a vision for Online Evangelism as a 24/7/365 ministry. You see what apparently, tens of thousands of pastors don't see. But, we are committed to sharing our vision with at least 100,000 of them.