An open letter to mission agency executives
Dear friendsAs a director of an evangelistic literature ministry within an interdenominational mission agency, I am writing to share a concern and a challenge.
God has given all of us a new and highly-effective means of evangelism: the Internet. Yet to a very large extent, it is only being used by Christian missions for the perfectly valid uses of publicizing their work to the wider Christian world, or communicating with and equipping missionaries on the field.
Indeed, the Church as a whole has been slow to use this new opportunity. The vast majority of Christian websites are designed to resource and inform Christian readers rather than help non-Christians.
The potential of the Web extends way beyond the rich West these days: a projected 100 million people in China will be online within a year. Even sub-Saharan Africa is being wired up with Internet Cafes, and many small-town African teenagers are using them. The Internet is a key to sensitive evangelism in the Middle East, as well as being a lifeline to disciple isolated converts anywhere.
Yet only a tiny handful of mission agencies are actually using this tool for evangelism. This is sad - because who else is better equipped to understand the culture and language of other countries, and have the time and resources to produce evangelistic websites? I know of no website effectively targeting Hindus in India. There is nothing for Sikhs and Buddhists; none for Parsees, Falun Gong or Bahai; only a few sites effectively communicating with Muslims and Jews.
There is another key factor too: we all know how many missionaries have to return home prematurely due to health problems, care for elderly relatives, or children’s schooling. The Internet provides a remarkable option for returned and retired missionaries to continue to minister to the people they were called to, from their own homes.
Internet ministry is not just for technical people! Simple websites are not so very hard to make. And anyone can make a virtual visit to another country to witness in a chat room. One man speaks of 'witnessing in Kuala Lumpur every Saturday night' - by chat room.
Our Web Evangelism Guide is designed to explain how organizations and individual Christians can directly reach the world online. It is not designed to promote our own group in any way, but to explain appropriate strategies that work in online outreach:
www.web-evangelism.com/mission An alternative option is for mission websites to actually directly incorporate this material into their own sites, rather than merely linking to it:
www.web-evangelism.com/yourpage If you can use the site to encourage both your staff and supporters to use the Web for evangelism, I believe - indeed promise - they will find an exciting and fulfilling ministry that can literally touch millions.
Yours in His Service
Tony Whittaker
Director, SOON Ministries
(member: UK Evangelical Alliance and Evangelical Missionary Alliance)
Please copy or print this letter and send to mission leaders, administrators, webmasters or IT support staff. It can be freely reprinted in any Christian magazine or newsletter. You can link directly to this page at
www.web-evangelism.com/resources/openletter.php.