Recently, through the [url=http://www.christianity.net.au]http://www.christianity.net.au[/url] website which I help run, we received a question from a young Muslim man living in the Arab Emirates.
He had read the presentation of the gospel on our site and wanted to become a Christian.
Just stop and think about the implications of this - a Muslim man, in an Islamic country, asking me about Christianity in the comfort of my study halfway round the world! We have never been able to do this before.
The new media removes the barriers that have traditionally stopped people from finding out about Christ.
For some people finding out about Christ is very difficult. Simply buying a Bible or having a Christian friend can cause them trouble, let alone walking into a church.
But the new media can give them access to all that. In the privacy of their own room or quietly in a public library they can engage with Christians and find Christ.
e-vangelism
We are to proclaim the gospel to the nations. This proclamation can take many forms but essentially falls into one of two groups.
We can "broadcast' the gospel using mass media such as TV, radio, books and even large meetings. Or we can interact with individuals either one-to-one or in small groups.
Broadcasting is efficient because it reaches many people but is not necessarily effective because those people cannot interact with the broadcaster " there is no relationship.
Individual evangelism is far more effective because it's done in the context of relationship.
They can observe my life as well as my words, ask me questions and discover for themselves the truth of the gospel over a period of time. But it is not necessarily efficient as I am limited by time, resources and location.
The new media, however, offers us an alternative.
For a fraction of the cost of a book I can proclaim the gospel on a website that will reach millions and then invite any reader to enter into a personal conversation with me at the click of a button. And because the new media knows no boundaries, this reader could come from any country in the world.
The anonymity of the internet is also important for evangelism. I can have a Christian conversation with someone I may never meet and this anonymity can put them at ease and help them to be more open and honest. I don't know them, they don't know me so we have nothing at stake in the relationship. We can both say things that under different circumstances we may feel constrained to say. Over time this may change as we develop a relationship but initially it can be an great advantage.
e-community
Yet, if we only see the internet as a fantastic means of evangelising the outside, we are completely missing half of its potential.
For the church's mission is not only to grow numerically but also to grow spiritually and here the new media has something to offer.
The essence of church is community. We are a community that shares a common purpose and fellowship in Christ. It's not a passive community but an active one, one in which everyone has a part to play. This is the thrust of the "body of Christ" imagery that Paul uses in Ephesians.
The most effective way we maintain this community is by meeting together. But such meetings are, by their nature, limited to the local area. It is difficult to maintain a sense of community amongst people who are geographically dispersed.
Our modern lifestyle also limits this communal aspect of church.
Many of us are too busy to meet more than once a week, too busy to stay after church for morning tea, too busy and distracted to simply "hang out' with each other. And as a result the sense of community in our churches is breaking down.
I don't know how many times I have spoken to people who say they do not feel a part of the church that they have been attending for years.
The new media, being unbounded by location or time, can help overcome these limitations and enhance our Christian communities. I can help people feel part of the church by making information available on websites or in emails. I can send thought-provoking questions or encouraging biblical insights to my Bible study group during the week. I can encourage ongoing Bible discussion through a blog or online forum. I can SMS friends to see how they are going.
These are simple ideas but they can have a profound effect. At my church we have an email-based prayer group. I regularly receive requests for prayer and when I do I can stop where I am and pray for the people.
I am, at that point, being an active member of church and I haven't had to go anywhere to do it!
But the communal effect of the new media goes beyond our local church. It can be used to connect churches together and give us a sense of the wider Christian community.
Your.sydneyanglicans.net helps our diocese remain focused and connected. But more than that, anyone who finds themselves in circumstances where they cannot find locally the spiritual support and encouragement they need, now has a means of joining an online community where they can.
e-church?
But we do have to be careful. The public interest in my role as e-vangelist for the Diocese was centred on whether or not we could have e-church " an online version of our local congregations.
One interviewer cheekily suggested that we could have online communion with BYO bread and wine! Indeed there already are online churches in existence on the internet. But is this going too far?
While it is possible to have an online church and give those who come a sense of community and belonging, I don't believe it can ever replace the local physical gatherings.
The new media should not be seen as offering an alternative to the local church but rather offering a way of extending its outreach and effectiveness. It should complement rather than compete.
After all, we are created as physical beings who crave physical contact.
I don't ever think we will conduct our whole lives online in some Matrix-like network. This would be unhealthy and unwise. A balance between the online and the offline worlds needs to be struck.
We are also accountable to our church community. It keeps us honest in our walk with God. The integrity of our Christian lives is not only seen in what we say but also observed in the way we live " this is almost impossible to do in the online world.
Yet, we should not let this deter us from taking advantage of the opportunity the new media offers. We would be poor stewards of the gospel if we ignored it.
Just imagine the outcry if a new country were to be discovered that had never heard of Christ and our missionary societies decided not to send someone in with the gospel! A new country has been discovered with a population of millions and it is just on the other side of the screen.
So let's get on with it.
It is a brave new online world out there, but with God's help, together we can reach it with the gospel.
David Horne is employed by Anglican Media Sydney as E-vangelist.
