|
|
At most times and places, people only move upwards in their spiritual journeys if they have relationships with Christians and see the life of Jesus modeled in others. You may have read the book The Gospel Blimp, which develops this principle within a fictional story. The Gray Matrix is a useful tool to help us understand spiritual journeys.
We do not wish to overstate the potential of the Internet. It is, in any case, only a channel, and not the Message itself. Nevertheless, the Internet is unique in its ability to reach people, and, we believe a God-given tool for the whole Church.
It is a 'pull medium': just like a reference library, it draws people in, but only on the basis of their interests. Rarely do people accidentally find pages they are not looking for. If you have zero interest in, say, hockey, when did you last accidentally find yourself on a webpage about hockey? Probably never! A website does not have an automatic audience. It is also unlike radio or literature, which can be defined as 'push mediums'.
The Web is the only medium which can target any 'affinity group' of people, on the basis of ethnicity, geographic location, culture, hobby, felt need or interest, anywhere in the world. It can reach out to people such as 'Jay' - an imaginary but typical non-Christian.
God can use the Web alone to bring someone to Him. More often, it will be just one element in a chain, as this story of an atheist girl demonstrates. However, the testimonies below show how effective the Web can be. You will note that in each case, a key element in each person's spiritual journey was email relationships. The web-pages themselves were only a starting point (see our discussion questions). Effective web ministries often need e-mail mentors.
Source: http://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/churchandministry/evangelism/Whittaker_Digital_Evangelism.aspx
