Watching the web

Regular readers of this column may recall the inaugural International Evangelism Day (IED) launched last year by the Internet Evangelism Coalition (IEC), an umbrella group of Christian ministries based at the Billy Graham Center in Illinois, to promote the internet as a tool for evangelism.

The second IED is scheduled to take place this year on Sunday May 7. So the IEC hopes that the day will serve to encourage churches worldwide to consider how they can develop or support web-based ministries. The organisers have created http://ied.gospelcom.net/publicity.php#news with various resources to inform churches about the potential of the internet and includes specific material which can be incorporated into church services or notice sheets on or around May 7.

Tony Whittaker, UK director of the IEC, speaking last year about IED said: ‘The purpose is to try and enthuse people to reach out to a community. At present most Christian websites are aimed solely at Christians and are therefore pretty much member-only; which, though useful, is not evangelism’.

The IEC likens the internet to a modern day equivalent of Roman roads: just as Roman infrastructure, by God’s plan, assisted the spread of the gospel 2,000 years ago, so too the worldwide web can carry the glorious message of our Saviour most quickly and efficiently today.

Looking at the extent to which so many Christian websites are still little more than reams of text pasted onto ugly 1970s-style backdrops, there is much that we can do to wise up to the potential the web offers for reaching a fallen world. In so far as it focuses our thoughts, here the IED is a welcome step in the right direction.

Steve Doggett