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

1. those who don’t/won’t come to our Churches initially and/or
2. 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

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.

www.theaxiomnetwork.com

The post Lost opportunities on the Web (part 3) appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

One of the principle ministries of the Holy Spirit is to draw the Lost to Christ. Yet, one of the mysteries of His ministries is that He chooses to use Believers (and sometimes unbelievers and natural creation) as part of His work of Salvation. Doesn’t it make sense that in our work to complement the Spirit’s ministry that we provide as many resources for Him to draw on as possible.

I believe it’s safe to say that most Church websites provide few if any tools for the Holy Spirit to utilize in His internet evangelism ministry. Most churches have little vision for moving their sites from “informing” sites to “transforming” sites. We call these BUFU (“by us/for us”) sites with little regard, intentionally or not, for those outside their fellowship or around the world. We believe the Church can and should do better to have a greater evangelistic impact. What’s the best way to address this need?

For some time the Spirit has been able to count on Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, The Navigators, Campus Crusade and others websites to provide the Gospel to online seekers. And, apparently it’s working. They consistently report increases in new believers. These wonderful para-organizations have long had a vision for an effective online evangelism strategy. My question is why isn’t the Church engaging the Online Seeker as well?

In our casual observation of thousands of websites our unofficial guess is that less than 5% of churches offer the Gospel on their websites. With nearly 375,000 Churches of all stripes in the U.S., many of whom still have no online presence at all, that’s less than 20,000 (no one has firm numbers to my knowledge).

Of course, like all opportunities (pulpit, tracts, 1:1, small groups, crusades, “Evangelism Emphasis Day” or any other venue) there’s no guarantee many, or any, will discover eternal life at any given time, much less at the exact moment we’re willing and able to make it available.

The principle drawback to these tools is that they’re all limited by time/place/people constraints. With few exceptions, once a sermon is preached its long term effectiveness is limited by those who heard it at a specific time and place. Time and place pretty much limit the longterm effectiveness of the rest of these tools as well. And. it’s been the case since Pentecost. But, no longer…

Next Time: Working in tandem with the Spirit in Online Evangelism

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

…

Rev. Don Walley

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.

www.theaxiomnetwork.com

The post “Lost” opportunities on the Web appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 20 years or so, you know that most Churches, even most evangelical Churches, are not growing. Those that are growing usually do so through “transfer growth”, those who move to a new community or want a new Church experience rather than “organic growth”, i.e. adding new members by winning the Lost to Christ. Evangelicals need to reexamine the process of attracting new growth and more clearly distinguish between those “outside the Church” a reference to believer transfers and those “outside of Christ” or “organic growth”.

Was it really Christ’s vision to grow His Body on Earth by “shuffling Christians around” or to reach those who do not yet know Him? The question is therefore, how can we help the Lost in our Communities AND around the world to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and use online technology as part of the solution?

At The aXiom Network, we believe the Church is overlooking the most obvious tool available. Our observations suggest less than 5% of Churches, even “evangelical, Bible preaching, Gospel believing, Great Commission fulfilling” Churches include the Gospel on their websites.

And, frankly, we don’t quite understand why. When asked why they don’t include the Gospel on their website the pastor’s typical answer is, “we’ve never thought of the internet as an effective tool for attracting the lost” or “the only way we can know of someone’s new faith directly is if they walk in our Church doors”.

The question for today and the future will be:

“Is your Church website a resource for the Holy Spirit to use to fulfill The Great Commission? Could He lead a lost soul to your site knowing they’ll come face to face with their need for the Savior and His promises of Eternal Life?”

If not this, how?  If not now, when? If not you, who?

Despite our optimism about a marriage of the Gospel, the local Church and the Web we have no illusions that the lost throngs will queue up to the heavenly throne someday because a Church or 100,000 Churches (our goal)  had the Gospel on their website. However, we do believe there will be some, perhaps many who will. And, they will be eternally grateful to the Church that made it possible for them to be there.

I’ll be discussing these ideas in much more detail in the near future as a call to encourage local Churches to add the Gospel to their Websites.

Rev. Don Walley, Director
The aXiom Network
www.theaxiomnetwork.com

Rev. Don Walley

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.

www.theaxiomnetwork.com

The post Lost opportunities on the Web – Part 1 appeared first on Christian Web Trends Blog: Church Websites, Design, SEO.