I just got out of church and there was a BIG presentation about an online evangelism that our church is apparently going to start supporting. This presentation completely took the place of our sermon today. I have to admit that I have serious problems with this type of ministry. The presenters, and I have to confess I don't remember their names or that of their organization (probably not an accident) began with a presentation about numbers....ALL about numbers.
How many people use the internet, how many people are in China and India, how many people communicate by smart phone, the percentage of homes in a variety of countries that have wide band internet access, how many children in India have high IQ's, how many babies were born in the U.S. during the presentation, how many born in China and how many in India. The point being of course to let us know that internet communication is the wave of the future and they believe Christians need to jump on the bandwagon. Something I wholeheartedly disagree with!
I do not think this kind of ministry has any depth. I once heard Beth Moore talking about our current widespread communication...facebook, cell phones, e-mail, twitter and she said (and I'm paraphrasing here) "it's 500 miles wide and about a centimeter deep". That's how I feel about this type of evangelism. It's shallow and essentially meaningless. There's certainly no depth to it and it is really just a numbers game.
In the course of the presentation one of the presenters said something that I noticed, he pointed out that you could do it "as much or as little as you want". Something in those words really offended me. That is not what Jesus taught. Jesus taught that you are to give yourself wholeheartedly to God. That when you choose to become his disciple you need to count the cost and recognize what that decision entails. It isn't something that you get to compartmentalize and it's supposed to be a pervasive part of your life.
It's the perfect type of "missionary" work for men. No actual personal contact is necessary and you can choose to ignore messages you don't want to hear. The people who "make a decision" or "accept Christ" are anonymous and the man today emphasized that anonymity. All of the names he gave were first names only. He talked about a message he'd received from someone in Africa who expressed the desire to be a Christian but who didn't want to go to a local church "if anybody see me". In other words saying that through this medium he was free to be an anonymous Christian. But Jesus said "Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 10:32, NAS). I've always believed that verse means that our public confession of Jesus is necessary. The people who go to the internet searching for Jesus, especially those who live in free nations, can avoid going to real people in real churches for the answers to their questions. Instead they can go to someone they'll never meet in person. That person can become perfect in their own minds and they don't have to deal with the fact that real Christians are not perfect. I think it's the perfect set-up for long-term disappointment. For me the whole thing is oddly reminiscent of online pornography, men making contact (often merely visual) with women who are physically perfect and make no demands and the end result being that real women cannot ever live up to those standards.
Because of "technical difficulties" the beginning of the presentation was almost a picture for what I'm talking about. The presenter's back was turned to a congregation of real people while he fiddled with a computer.
