11 responses so far ↓

• 1 sumgirl // Mar 19, 2007 at 8:13 pm

  maybe the web is a decent initial stepping stone … in playing out possible scenarios, i started thinking about how people meet each other and fall in love and get engaged all via internet. they finally meet for real, flesh and blood, in time to marry. i wonder how those relationships work out, you know, percentage-wise? maybe some work but it seems wobbly from the get-go to me. similar to how i see web-evangelism. heck, i adore my internet relationships but they are no substitute for the real thing. a lot can be lost in typed communication - inflection, affect, sarcasm, eye-contact, sincerity, etc. i think the web can be helpful - i don’t think it’s a magic solution.

• 2 Kristen // Mar 20, 2007 at 7:39 am

  Maybe you’re already using the web for evangelism. It’s like you’ve been saying: ” It all starts with forming relationships.” You do a good job of that through your variety of web pages.

• 3 Melanie // Mar 20, 2007 at 9:53 pm

  Conversion has nothing to do with how much time you put into a relationship or any other effort on your part. Saving faith is a gift from God. And how we get that gift is through hearing or reading the Gospel message. So if you share the Gospel in a Christ like and loving manner, God can so choose to use that presentation of the Gospel to save the person you are sharing it with. And not the Jesus loves you Gospel (which is only half true) that was made up for America, but the true Biblical Gospel that says you are indeed a sinner, you have thoroughly offended God and apart from God, you will face his most deserved judgement. But Jesus came to earth and lived a righteous life for you, died for your sins, took the punishment that you deserved, and if you will repent and put your faith in Him alone, you will have everlasting life…
  http://www.needGod.com
  If you died tonight, are you 100% sure that you would go to heaven? Are you sure? Eternity is a long time.

• 4 Marsha // Mar 21, 2007 at 7:07 am

  Know ye therefore they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee all nations shall be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse: for it is written. Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident; for, the just shall live by faith. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise through faith.
  Galatians 3: 7-14
  I’m not trying to be cantankerous here, but I believe in the “Jesus Love You” Gospel. And I believe to reach people, you have to be relational. I believe people have to see the love of God played out in someone’s life for them to see the difference and to see what God can do for them. At the same time though, WE can’t save people. The Holy Spirit has to call the person to repentance.

• 5 Marsha // Mar 21, 2007 at 7:25 am

  And yes, I believe the internet can be a tool for evangelism if it’s used for communication between people, not directing someone to a web site. But I would be hard pressed to have someone search for God on it. Eee. It can also be a tool of satan. I guess I prefer the one to one method of sharing the gospel.

• 6 Melanie // Mar 21, 2007 at 3:41 pm

  I would like to edit my post to say the “Jesus loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” gospel presentation.
  The Jesus loves you Gospel is not exactly the correct way to put it. But I still stick with my opinion that sharing only the fact that Jesus loves you is ludicrous, because unless you know the whole story “Jesus loves you” sounds crazy.

• 7 Melanie // Mar 21, 2007 at 3:51 pm

  Also, you said “what God can do for them”….there you are with today’s man-centered gospel. The Gospel is not about what you can get out of God ie. heaven, blessings, fulfillment, etc. The Gospel is about us being guilty sinners, deeply offending God, its about God being holy and just. Its about God loving us so much that He gave his Son to pay our deserved penalty, so that if we would repent and put our faith in Him alone, we would be justified in His sight. We would no longer be enemies of God, but sons of God. That’s pretty cool!! And it is very different to come to God with a contrite, repentent heart, than to come to him to get the blessings that Joe Christian down the street got. To have a contrite heart, a person must first understand their guilt and the gravity of their sin.
  Jesus did not come to save the (righteous)innocent, but the (sinner)guilty.

  thanks for listening

• 8 Marsha // Mar 21, 2007 at 4:19 pm

  God loving us so much that He gave his Son to pay our deserved penalty, so that if we would repent and put our faith in Him alone, we would be justified in His sight. We would no longer be enemies of God, but sons of God.

  I agree 100%. And as far as coming to God to get blessing, no, not what I was thinking. But, hmm, what else could God do for them besides getting them stuff or making their life happy?
  Lots of love, lots of grace, lots of mercy, righteousness instead of filthy rags, a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, a relationship with their heavenly father, a comforter, and the list goes on……
  : )
  But then this was about internet evangelism wasn’t it?
  And yes, I do believe you have to build relationships with people to bring them to Christ.

• 9 sumgirl // Mar 21, 2007 at 6:44 pm

  {look what you started, dennis :)}

• 10 Marsha // Mar 22, 2007 at 6:58 am

  Now I feel bad
  (marsha very humbly steps off soap box.)
  

• 11 Tony // Mar 30, 2007 at 3:37 am

  Hi

  May I add to the discussion, since I am the coordinator for Internet Evangelism Day?

  I very much appreciate where you are coming from - that sharing the gospel is relational, and wholeheartely agree. There may be people who believe that an evangelistic website can just be stuck online and left to do its own thing. A bit like blanket distribution of tracts. Or even Tibetan prayer wheels. There are certainly websites which more or less say, ‘these are the 4 points of the gospel, this is the prayer to pray, now click the button, and hey presto, you’re a Christian.’ O dear.

  It helps me very much to understand conversion as a process, as illustrated by the Gray Matrix: http://ied.gospelcom.net/gray-matrix.php

  The Web (and other media) are good at starting people on the journey, and can catch people who have no initial interest. But when they get anywhere near a point of commitment, relationships come into play. OK, God can work any way he pleases, and there are people who get converted through reading a book, watching a tv prog, or whatever, without talking to anyone. But in most Christian life stories we hear, it was relationships, often over quite a period of time, that were the key. Even where people telescope their stories down to just their point of commitment, if you root around for more detail, I think this is what you’ll find.

  So you’ll notice on the IE Day website that we have about five stories of people who came to faith, in part due to the internet. What is significant is that in each case there was considerable two-way discussion and relationship (either online or offline) before they came to faith.

  So I’d posit that the Internet enables us to reach out further, to people we’d never meet initially face to face, and start building relationships from there!

  Blessings

  Tony

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