DID YOU HOLD AN INTERNET EVANGELISM DAY?
If your church marked Internet Evangelism Day in some way - even with just a 2-minute spot - please write today and tell us what you did, and the reaction to it. It would be a big encouragement for us to know as soon as possible (in order to write a report).
http://ied.gospelcom.net/feedback.php
To see just how many people blogged about IE Day, do a search on "internet evangelism day" (with the quote marks included) at:
http://www.technorati.com/
Here's how news outlets treated the story in the week before IE Day:
http://www.inspiremagazine.org.uk/news.aspx?action=view&id=1172
http://guide.gospelcom.net/offsitelink?b07may-christianpost
http://www.churchcentral.com/nw/s/id/24538/template/Article.html
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/146258.aspx
(includes a video clip)
Thank you to everyone who helped make IE Day known in some way.
VIRGINIA TECH GRIEVING AND THE WEB
Rob Williams looks at the way the Web has changed the grieving process for tragedies such as this:
http://guide.gospelcom.net/offsitelink?b07may-eministry
TEENS LET FAITH TAKE FLIGHT ONLINE
Kayla Staton seems like a typical 14-year-old: She listens to pop music, loves to shop and enjoys spending time with friends:
http://guide.gospelcom.net/offsitelink?b07may-teens
UK-BASED COMMUNITY PORTALS DEMONSTRATION
UK visitors to the Christian Resources Exhibition 15-18 May will once again be able to see 2Day Community Gateways being demonstrated. Richard Searight says, "2day Community Gateways appeal to the whole community by providing Internet users with easy access to the most useful information on the web while highlighting what is going on at church. The sites are thus both serving the community and acting as a vehicle for Christian mission."
http://www.creonline.co.uk/frameset.asp?show=national
http://www.mycommunity.2day.ws/
There will be several other internet ministries at the exhibition too.
ANOTHER COMPETITION
Ayotunde Omodeinde from Nigeria won the FINDING COMMON GROUND book offered last time. Now we have another book to give away. Any group during May/June who either:
- adds our church site assessment tool to their website
- or becomes an IE Day partner, by linking to the IE Day site with a special link code which places your own site name and link in the top corner of all the pages of the IE Day site
will be eligible to be selected to get a copy of CHURCH NEXT by Eddie Gibbs and Ian Coffey.
Both these options will draw extra visitors to your website, and are very easy to implement:
http://ied.gospelcom.net/churchdesign-syndicate.php
http://ied.gospelcom.net/partners.php
BOOK REVIEW
Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture, by Michael Frost
UK-based ministry FACING THE CHALLENGE write about this new book, "Here's a book that, if you read it, could seriously change the way you think about church - and about life. Frost starts by saying:
'This book is written for those Christians who find themselves falling into the cracks between contemporary secular Western culture and a quaint, old-fashioned church culture of respectability.
Christendom is over, and we need to get over it. Followers of Christ need to learn again what it means to live as exiles in a culture that is not sympathetic to our faith. Being exiles is a dangerous situation, and it needs dangerous responses.'"
http://www.facingthechallenge.org/exiles.htm
THE EBAY ATHEIST
Hemant Mehta writes in Outreach Magazine: "I like many others, first learned of 'the eBay atheist' in a Wall Street Journal article last year. Hemant Mehta had 'posted his soul on eBay', the article read. He told eBay patrons: "While I don't believe in God, I firmly believe I would immediately change those views if presented with evidence to the contrary. And at age 22, this is possibly the best chance anyone has of changing me."
http://www.christianitytoday.com/outreach/articles/atheistwenttochurch.html
ARTICLE SUBMISSION TO CONTENT SITES
Pastor Ralph Wilson discusses the potential of submitting articles for syndication to a range of free content sites. These have the advantages both for giving others material to use, plus back-links to your website. If you can position your writing within secular subjects, you are more likely to get a wider distribution:
http://www.wilsonweb.com/linking/wilson-article-marketing-1.htm
Don't forget that we also offer a range of free articles on web evangelism:
http://ied.gospelcom.net/free-articles.php
USING ONLINE VIDEO CLIPS FOR OUTREACH
Faith Visuals write about this strategy:
http://www.faithvisuals.com/help/articles/creatingaviralvideo.html
Got some good audio/video resources - either outreach or discipleship? Try to add them to the religion section of this secular resource:
http://www.learnoutloud.com/Free-Audio-Video
THE WORLD WE LIVE IN
IT WAS A WOMAN WOT DID IT. The famous Stanford 'prison simulation' experiment in the 70s was indeed aborted after six days. But it was only on the instigation of his then girlfriend, now his wife, that Professor Zimbardo cancelled the exercise:
http://guide.gospelcom.net/offsitelink?b07may-stanford
WHAT IS THIS GENERATION OF EVANGELICAL STUDENTS LIKE? Comments from Keith Drury: "My students - The Coming Wave in the church."
http://www.drurywriting.com/keith/my.students.htm
THE KINGDOM OF GOD - how would you define it in five words:
http://guide.gospelcom.net/offsitelink?b07may-jasonclark
POSTMODERNISM: The latest issue of the CCMI Partners Magazine (formerly Interlit) looks at publishing and postmodernism, in the context of the non-western world. This obviously has relevance to web evangelism too:
http://guide.gospelcom.net/offsitelink?b07may-cookministries
"CHRIST, MY BODHISATTVA". Multinational businessman and politician Ram Gidoomal talks about 'translating' the gospel in today's world:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/may/17.34.html
GAUGING THE CYBER GAP - Thailand Study. Gnarly Kitty, as the 21-year-old is known on her blog, is not the bashful type....
http://guide.gospelcom.net/offsitelink?b07may-thailand
RELATING TO POPULAR CULTURE
'Pop Music: A Tool for Discernment & Witnessing' - in this article, Tony Rufo writes, "Many of us have used small talk to establish rapport in social situations where we've shared the Gospel. An art in itself, small talk is widely used in job interviews, on dates, while shopping, and in business meetings. Acts 17:17 & 28 records where the apostle Paul used his cultural knowledge as a springboard to the Gospel, speaking daily in the synagogues and public square, and by quoting poets of the day."
http://www.crosswalk.com/11539125/
CONFERENCES THIS YEAR
The MinistryCOM conference for church communication professionals will be held again in September. Earlybird deadline is end of May.
http://www.ministrycom.org/
Internet Evangelism Coalition and other conferences:
http://ied.gospelcom.net/events.php
THE BIBLE FOR YOUR IPOD
Podbible is a free version of the ESV formatted for use on the iPod. Brendan writes, "Something I put together while between youth ministry positions to better equip others to take in and share God's word. It's been up for about a month now and is just about to hit 5,000 downloads, and has had some nice featured spots in a few online magazines and radio stations."
http://www.podbible.org/
CHURCH LIFE
STORIES NEEDED: Has your church website drawn non-Christians into your church? Please tell us your experiences:
http://ied.gospelcom.net.feedback.php
FOLLOWUP: 'Web-based Prayers of Commitment and Their Follow-up' - a brief survey:
http://guide.gospelcom.net/offsitelink?b07may-contactforchrist
HOW TO SPOT A HEALTHY CHURCH - QUICKLY. "In the last 18 months I have come to a few conclusions about how to quickly gauge the health of the churches we visit," writes Dr Ray Pritchard. And he cites two, perhaps surprising, facets of church life which are a reflection of underlying health.
http://blog.keepbelieving.com/?p=621
UNREACHED PEOPLE SYNDICATE FEED
If your church or mission-related site could use a regularly-changing syndicated information box about unreached peoples, check how to insert this into your site at:
http://www.joshuaproject.net/upgotdfeed.php
E-VANGELIST SIGNS OFF THE E-VANGELISM BLOG
Many will recognize Andrew Careaga's name. His books on e-vangelism have been instrumental in encouraging many people to see the remarkable potential of this new medium. After 10 years, he is signing off, in order to be involved in other areas of ministry. He writes:
"I've been writing about Internet evangelism for more than a decade now. My first magazine article about the Internet as a ministry tool, Pastors in Cyberspace, was published in Ministries Today in 1996. Soon thereafter, Charisma magazine carried my story about Internet evangelism, Get Ready for E-vangelism, and 1999 saw the publication of my first book E-vangelism: Sharing the Gospel in Cyberspace.
Although I've written a lot on the topic, I've never considered myself an 'e-vangelist'. I tried to write more from the perspective of a journalist and an observer than from a practitioner. But somehow, I got categorized as an Internet evangelist type, and I've never felt very comfortable with that label. Lately, I've not felt comfortable with this link to my past, either, and for that reason I've decided to sign off from e-vangelism.com blog site for good. Thanks again for being part of the ride for all these years."
The web evangelism community owes Andrew a huge debt of gratitude for his pioneering writing. Bless you Andrew!
