September 5, 2006 San Diego, California, United States …. [Mark A. Kellner/ANN]
A young attorney in Brazil is baptized as a Seventh-day Adventist Christian after finding out about the church online. In Indonesia, a predominantly Muslim nation, the Internet is reaching people with the Gospel message. Many in Poland are being exposed to Adventist Church teachings through an innovative software program. Germany's Internet evangelists say they are “prepared for anything,” while, in North America, as much as US$1.5 million has been offered for a certain church-related Internet domain name.
These vignettes– and others–were presented at the world church's fourth Global Internet Evangelism Forum, held August 31 through September 3 in San Diego, California, United States. The event, sponsored by the Department of Communication at the Adventist Church's world headquarters, brought together nearly 100 lay church members, pastors and administrators from around the globe to learn more about using 21st century technology to complete the Church's mission to “go into all the world,” as Jesus said in Matthew 28.
“There is a strong presence of Internet evangelism in Indonesia,” declared Jonathan Catolico, communication director for the church's Southern Asia-Pacific area. In the Philippines, which he said was the only majority Christian country in Asia, the church is planning to reach members via cell phones with streaming content from the church's Hope Channel network. Internet viewership of some broadcasts is already taking place, Catolico said: an estimated 73,000 people viewed Pastor Lonnie Melashenko's Voice of Prophecy series from Cebu City, Philippines, via the Web, Catolico said.
According to Klaus Popa, director of Internet ministries for “Stimme der Hoffnung,” or “Voice of Hope” in Germany, the Adventist ministry is reorganizing its distinct Web services–for Bible study, services for the blind and the Hope Channel.
“Our strategic plan is to have independent media presences for Hope Channel/Germany, the Bible study institute and … all our different programs,” Popa said, although each separate site will be linked to Stimme der Hoffnung.
Although based in the United States, BibleInfo.com reaches a global audience with more than 100,000 unique Internet visitors each month, and has had visits “from every country that has the Internet,” according to Fred Hardinge, who founded the site 11 years ago. It is now part of the Internet outreach of It Is Written, a Seventh-day Adventist Church media ministry.
“More than US$1.5 million has been offered to us for the [Internet] 'domain name' of BibleInfo.com,” Hardinge told the GIEN audience, quickly adding that such offers have been rebuffed.
“We mustn't underestimate the power of the Internet,” Hardinge added, noting that BibleInfo knows of “more than 668 people who made decisions for Christ via the Internet.”
He did argue for a greater emphasis on linking local Adventist congregations with outreaches such as his, so that people interested in the Adventist message are reached: “When we try to push names [of interested people] to the local church, it breaks down,” he said.
In Poland, where there are 12 million Internet users, www.nadzieja.pl is reaching many of them, said Joe Smoczynski, founder and president of the lay organization. Nadzieja.pl is also getting 100,000 unique visitors each month, he said, and contacts with local churches are being established.
“We allow the pastors to reap the reward” of the site's outreach, Smoczynski said.
Adventist pastor Jobson Santos reported that in Brazil the church's Web sites are drawing 1,200 new Bible students each month. Over 153,000 prayer requests have been submitted online, leading to the creation of a television series about prayer. The baptism of a young female attorney–whose first contacts with the church were via the Web–underscore the usefulness of the medium, he asserted.
“The Internet does work,” Santos said. “It is a way to find people who are open to the Gospel.”
Copyright (c) 2006 by Adventist News Network
