eQuip archives

Let's take a moment to pause from the many examples and ideas we share here at the eQuip blog, to think and reflect about doing online ministry. Over the past 7 years or so, most noticeably, Web technologies have become increasinly popular and cheaply available for everyone to get online.

My local public library has over 20 computers connected to the Internet, freely available for the general public. Even a homeless person can get online -- and one person in Nashville has been doing just that, blogging about his homeless life for several years now.

Hundreds and thousands of web pages are available with practical step-by-step tips on building websites, doing online ministry, developing Internet evangelism, blogging, and so many other ways to share content and engage conversations online. We have hundreds of articles right here at ForMinistry.com about equipping the church online.

It's not for lack of training and resources that effective online ministry, in my estimation, is not more pervasive. It's not for lack of money, because technology costs will continue to drop. ForMinistry.com offers a free, donor-supported website building tool, and others do too. Yet, only a minority of church websites are regularly updated and well designed (according to research from GreatChurchWebsites.org).

It still takes people. Having great tools, easy-to-use tools, even free tools, readily available is like having a shopping spree at your local hardware store to get all the tools you want. But you still need people to build the house, to keep it clean, and to make occasional home improvements. Having the tools is not enough.

Whether you're a church, a ministry organization, or an individual who seeks to follow God in the way of Jesus, you have to commit people and time to do online ministry. Passion or interest does not have to dictate whether something is done or not. I have no passion or interest in taking out the trash or paying my taxes, but I do it. A basic web presence, well-designed and up-to-date is something you just have to do, like getting a phone number listed in the phone directory. One hour a week or every other week is all it takes.

Next week, I'll consider the role of online ministry and how it does not replace real-time, in-person, face-to-face ministry.

Ephesians 6:10 Ministries has a website at www.e610.com that invites conversations and serves as a web presence. Lee Bloch is its founder and director, and his story as a web evangelist was featured at the Internet Evangelism Day website.

Ephesians 6:10 Ministries seek to offer content that is non-threatening, practical and informative, using the technology of the Internet to answer tough questions about God, Jesus Christ, the Bible and Christianity. It's off to a start, and I hope to see its ongoing development.

www.bible-researcher.com is a website for Bible students who are looking for detailed information on the history of the canon, texts, and versions of Scripture. Over 300 members are part of its discussion forum (which is powered by Yahoo Groups).

The Bible is also the focus for several recently launched blogs. Better Bibles Blog is a resource center for evaluating English Bible versions, and the ESV Bible Blog has updates about the English Standard Version. TNIV Bible Blog has news about Today's New International Version of the Bible.

Commonprayer.wikispaces.org is a communal wiki for common prayer. For centuries, the liturgies of the church have been created and published by a small group of scholars and clergy. Now, this website allows anyone online to share liturgies. It's an online collection of liturgies for the Church in the 21st Century by the Church, and opens a tremendous opportunity for followers of Christ to share many ways of worship.

What is a wiki? Wiki is a website that allows users to add and edit content, instantly. It makes readily available online space to collaborate, to share ideas, to pool together the vast knowledge that individuals have into one collective place to serve many others. Some wikis have access control, so that you can selectively appoint only certain people to edit the content.

You can start a wiki at a free website like www.wikispaces.org, to grow a community around any topic you'd like. Imagine a wiki for sermons, devotionals, questions & answers about the Christian faith, denominational resources, and more!

StorySpot.com is all about sharing personal stories. Stories about relationships and everyday life. Stories about normal people going through the unexpected "stuff" in life and the resulting pain and doubt that surfaces. Any life experience is a potential story to tell. Any story told is a potential open door for conversation, especially online. (StorySpot is an online outreach of the Southeast Regional Office of Campus Crusade for Christ.)

Today is Internet Evangelism Day! While promotion has been vast and worldwide, getting started and doing internet evangelism and online ministry may be challenging for some. This weekend I just found out about a new book by Michael White makes it easier, with practical how-tos and tips: Digital Evangelism: You Can Do It, Too!

In his article Digital Evangelism Helps Fulfill the Great Commission, Terry Wilhite writes:
Computers are used in homes today in a multitude of ways – from paying bills on-line to archiving recipes. But for most church goers, it’s been my observation that they’ve never even thought about using their computer to grow spiritually or for that matter reach people for Christ. That’s the reason that I’m excited about a new book entitled Digital Evangelism: You Can Do It Too! written by Michael White. White has been a pastor, a national guard chaplain several years ago and currently is an active duty Army chaplain. In his new book, he does a masterful job of linking “high tech” with the most high calling of spreading the Gospel, which is not only something every Christian can do but everyone with a computer should do.

Also see article, Chaplain writes book on digital evangelism and press releases Army Chaplain Celebrates Ten Years on the Web With New Book About Digital Evangelism and New Book Explores Creative Ways YOU Can Become an Internet Evangelist with Minimal Time and Money!

(preview excerpt from book, purchase it online; plus, there's a 10% discount for clergy)

This Sunday, April 24th, is Internet Evangelism Day! Many churches (and other groups such as Bible colleges) are planning to mark the first worldwide Internet Evangelism Day. The organizers of the special day have prepared a downloadable PowerPoint presentation, video clips, dramas and other resources, so that churches and ministries can catch a vision for the enormous potential of the Web for effective outreach. For resources and info, browse to www.InternetEvangelismDay.com

The Minor Prophet is a Web site for Christians, by Christians, where they share the messages of God from the Scriptures through Bible study notes, commentaries, and blogs. Over 250 members share their notes and have coversations there.

Many of the early members are a part of Southside Bible Church in Greenwood, Indiana. This church has also linked to the library and blogs as a part of their church's discipleship and Bible study classes. This is something that any church can do in conjunction with their existing website. It's a great way to supplement a church's Bible study classes and also to provide real life (and real time) discussions about the Bible as a witness to the world.

This article recently appeared in Christian Today: "Who’s Jesus" 3D Interactive Website Introduces Basic Christian Faith: The first ever 3D interactive website WhosJesus.com has been launched by Back to the Bible International to share the Christian faith with many people in a new dynamic way. Excerpt below:

The first ever 3D interactive website WhosJesus.com has been launched by Back to the Bible International to share the Christian faith with many people in a new dynamic way. The website features real life images with interactive stories designed to touch the hearts of those who face similar experiences and offer them an answer.

Back to the Bible International's Dave Hansen described, "It is a website that allows you to go the site, look at a scene that scrolls in front of you, and as you're looking at that scene (you) see something happen or see someone pictured in that scene that relates to your life and when you click on that it takes you into the thought process of that individual."

Read the full article and see the Macromedia Flash powered website at WhosJesus.com

I don't know it all. So it's helpful to have resources available when engaging in spiritual conversations online, whether on a blog, a discussion forum, a chat room, or over email. The following websites are some spiritual resources that may be helpful:

• AllAboutGod.com - Answers to common questions + links to other sites providing evidence of our faith for Seekers, Skeptics and Believers
• Evangelism.com - A database offering multi-lingual, multi-format resources to share your faith in Christ
• GotQuestions.org - Over 700 answers to frequently asked Bible questions (FAQs)
• LeaderU.com - Resources addressing current issues geared for the academic mind
• RedText.com - Online Bible with passage lookup and resources for NIV, NASB, KJV versions
• bgc.gospelcom.net/iec/otoe/ - Evangelical Christian Online Training for Online Evangelists
• gospelcom.net/home/search/ - Another useful knowedge base for online ministry questions

This Dallas Morning News article, 'Retired' pastor takes on study Bible: Gene Getz expects to develop about 2,000 biblical principles, (free registration required) is a great example of sharing Godly wisdom with people around the world over the Internet. Excerpt follows:

"The weekly study is being videotaped so that church groups and individuals can eventually use it along with the study Bible. A videostream also is available online at www.renewalradio.org. It's already gaining an Internet audience. Romey Kilgore, a church member who began a soldiers' support group when troops were sent to Afghanistan, said she encouraged Dr. Getz to get the study on the Web site so that soldiers could follow along online. She's tracked about 100 U.S. soldiers in Iraq who are now plugged into the study. Troops log in at military facilities or Internet cafes."

Streaming or archiving audio and video online is usually much more cost-effective than a radio or television ministry, and has a potentially much larger audience reach. ForMinistry's affiliate partner MinistryCast can help you get started!

Chris Dillingham launched www.infinitechurch.com as an internet-only, interactive church. The vision is to bring a churchgoing experience to people around the world, with on-going praise and worship as well as regular Bible studies, prayer, and fellowship.

Www.infinitechurch.com is off to a good start, and I'd imagine it will reach people in a different way than traditional churches and even typical online ministries that offer content and/or conversation.

Karen Schenk (with TruthMedia Internet Group, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, Canada) shared at the Internet Evangelism Conference about how TruthMedia does online ministry. TruthMedia runs a network of 22 websites in 12 languages, has over 800,000 visitors per month, and has over 400 volunteers providing mentoring online.

As a part of corporate transparency, and possibly to show how many people are interested in spiritual things online, TruthMedia posts its monthly statistics for all to see. TruthMedia also shares great articles about how to do online ministry at its Internet Ministry Training Center.

Questions and answers can be a way of dialogue on the Internet. One of the ways to manage hundreds of online inquiries is through what Inter-LINC has developed, called ministry response centers. Through their web-based response centers, staff and volunteers can personally answer questions that website visitors have in response to reading content on one of their network of websites, like www.whoisjesus-really.org, www.growinginchrist.com, and the Evangelism Toolbox. (Inter-LINC is a part of WorldLINC and Campus Crusade for Christ)

Inter-LINC provide the training so you can get started in online ministry as a volunteer. See the many volunteer opportunities for you to participate.

E-Church Essentials shares their philosophy of online ministry in a free webinar (an online presentation with audio and Powerpoint-like slides; requires Macromedia Flash). This presentation includes three sections: introduction to the great opportunity for ministry on the Internet, the cultural dynamics, and the strategies for effective online ministry.

I didn't watch the clock while I viewed the webinar, so it might last about 15 minutes in all. I felt it did provide an excellent overview and good strategies. See the webinar online.

The GodBlogCon website has launched, with information about this first Christian Bloggers Convention, to be held on October 13-15, 2005, at Biola University, La Mirada, California (near Los Angeles.) The website is a work in progress, online registration will be launched soon, and the blog there chronicles some of the behind-the-scenes commentary, alluding to some challenges with getting things organized.

I'm planning to attend (already booked my air travel) and hope to see you there!

You can view all of the plenary sessions and workshops from the recent Internet Evangelism for the 21st Century Conference via the Internet as an on-demand streaming video. This costs just $20.00 for individual access, and will remain accessible for six months after it is made available on April 10th, 2005. Register online and make payment via Paypal.

Notes and resources from many of the workshops are already online. The conference blog and moblog (mobile photo album) are also online.

Rowland Croucher is the founder of John Mark Ministries, a website with over 14,700 articles to serve pastors, church leaders, and Christians everywhere. He is also active in Usenet Newsgroups, engaging people in that part of the Internet frontier into dialogue about the Kingdom of God. He shared a vivid story during his workshop at the recent Internet Evangelism Conference about how a post to a newsgroup about a relevant topic there generated over a 1,000 unique visitors in just one day!

Rowland also generously shared notes from his workshops online, and his reflections of that event, which include his key learnings.

At the Internet Conference over the weekend, I got to meet Glen Moriarty, who had recently launched a social networking website called 5loaves.net. This news article was posted at the Regent University website: Regent professor launches Web site to network Christians worldwide. Here's some excerpts about the website:

Assistant Professor of Regent’s School of Psychology & Counseling Dr. Glen Moriarty has produced a ground-breaking Web site that is designed to link together Christians from all over the globe.

According to Moriarty, 5loaves integrates chat, blogging (Web logs), file sharing, and social networking, which is supported by revolutionary technology that is three steps ahead of anything else currently online. This enables the Web site to serve as a worldwide cyber-church that can dramatically increase a Christian’s number of connections, and virtually eliminate geographic barriers.

It's a website with a lot of potential, ready for thousands of people to share what they have with one another. Read the full article online and sign up for free at 5loaves.net.

I've just returned from the Internet Evangelism for the 21st Century Conference this past weekend, held at Lynchburg, Virginia's Liberty University. It was a great time of fellowship with some old and new friends, as well as seeing a wide range of ideas and examples for doing online ministry. The next dozen posts here at eQuip blog will review many of amazing things shared at the conference.

I (DJ Chuang) was part of the bloggers panel discussion, along with Will Samson, Nick Ciske, Steve Knight, and Stephen Shields. Each of us brought a distinct perspectives about blogging and its relationship to the church and online ministry, and it was well received based on the feedback we heard from the audience. We had 2 sessions of this panel discussion with 2 different audiences, and a wide range of questions. The audience was a good mix of those who know what blogging was, those who didn't know, and a few who actually did some blogging. Questions mainly revolved around 3 categories: technical, strategic/ practical, and concerns/ risks.

While plenty of information, tutorials, and examples of blogging on the Internet already, many people find it helpful to have a personal tour guide present information at a seminar. That's what we were there for, and that's what the eQuip blog is here for. Technical issues are largely specific to the blogging tool used, so the answers are best found in the user's manual and online support forum. Strategic issues are related to the individual's or organization's mission, goals, objectives, and philosophy. Concerns and risks seem to be the prevailing hurdle that prevents people and organizations from getting started with blogging.

What I've observed is 2 different perspectives about online ministry, between non-bloggers vs. bloggers, and how they engage its readers. Allow me a little liberty to oversimplify it as: content vs. conversation, authority vs. authenticity, official vs. transparent, controlled vs. "open source," infrequent updates vs. frequently updated, corporate vs. personal.

Other links & perspectives: Nick Ciske listed the URLs to websites and resources mentioned at the session. Stephen Shields summarized the Q&A session and his perspectives very well, listing his cautions and opportunities about blogging. Will Samson shared some of his personal concerns about the whole notion of evangelism.

I'm here in Lynchburg, Virginia, at a significant gathering of those actively doing online ministry and internet evangelism at the Internet Evangelism for the 21st Century Conference, a first of its kind. There is live blogging, mobile blogging (moblog), and many wonderful resources. Video archives of sessions will be on their website too. I'll comment more about the experience in the coming weeks.