Cybermissions

1
Cybermissions

• The Intentional Front-Line Use of Computers And
  The Internet To Facilitate the Great Commission.

2
The Use of Means

• Frontier mission is always an adventure and a
  calling, in the words of William Carey, to use
  means for the completion of the Great
  Commission.
• One of these means is the use of the Internet.
• The Internet has many unique features that make
  it suited for missions.

3
The Internet Advantage

• The Internet reaches
• Many people about 1 billion!
• In many nations simultaneously
• And can build community
• Reach a mass audience
• Or communicate just one-to-one securely
• Using text, graphics, ebooks, audio, video,
  email, conferencing, VOIP, forums, web pages,
  blogs.
• In a wide variety of languages
• And can be regionally or culturally targeted.

4
More Advantages

• No airfares needed
• No visas required
• Less health problems
• Greater personal safety
• Enters closed countries
• Reaches community leaders
• Works even when you are asleep
• Very cost effective
• Ideal for retired missionaries

5
The BIGGEST Advantage

• People arrive at websites because of purposeful
  behaviour - they clicked on a link or used a
  search engine.
• Thus web visitors are there with a purpose and
  already have some interest.
• Thus you are not dealing with cold, apathetic
  people.
• You are ministering straight to the people you
  want to be ministering to.
• To be able to minister to people who are already
  interested in what you have to say is the BIGGEST
  advantage of Cybermissions.

6
Seekers Use The Internet

• People use the Internet to do private searching
  for information.
• Whether it be conspiracy theories or health
  information people go online to find what they
  are afraid to ask out aloud publicly.
• People considering adopting the Christian faith
  also use the Internet to find out information and
  to talk with Christians.
• Religion seekers are a major Internet
  phenomenon with 40 of Internet users regularly
  searching for religious information online.
• That is 400 million people seeking religious
  information. These are the people you want to
  contact!

7
The Religion Seekers

• Religion seekers
• Are not just hits or visitors or statistics
  
• Have names like Bob and Jane and Mohammed and
  Beng!
• Live in a real country and do real work.
• Are just as real as the people in the street!
• Come to a website seeking answers about their
  deepest questions.
• Are often very curious about Christianity.

8
Are We Seeker-Sensitive?

• Surprisingly most mission websites are not
  targeted towards religion seekers
• And do NOT answer key questions about
  Christianity asked by non-Christians.
• Often they are just tools for the corporate
  image!
• Some people think the harvest field is out
  there in Zimbabwe and this website is just where
  we put the pictures, and raise the funds for the
  real work.
• However the Harvest Field is also ONLINE!

9
Getting The Point!

• Christian mission agencies need to get the point
  - of 400 million people with spiritual questions
  who are just a mouse click away from salvation.
• Websites need to be Harvest Fields! Places of
  sowing and reaping for the gospel!
• The website is one of your most strategic tools
  for evangelism!
• Religion surfers can hear the gospel online just
  as they can hear it from a book, a tract or a
  pulpit and give their lives to Christ.

10
The Right Reason

• The right reason for a missions website is to get
  spiritual results for Jesus.
• You can explain the gospel, answer questions,
  exhort, reprove, instruct and disciple young
  people, train and counsel your workers and so
  much more!
• Ask What would Jesus do with this website to
  build His Church and expand His Kingdom?

11
The Possibilities

• Web evangelism
• Bible teaching
• Online seminaries
• Discipleship in discussion forums.
• Online counselling and mentoring.
• City-wide Christian web portals.
• Target a specific people group.
• Target a particular interest group
• Offer practical help such as how to purify
  water.
• Coordinate and connect Christians and
  non-Christians, teachers and students, problems
  and solutions

12
More Possibilities

• Safely witness to Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists.
• Language and culture exposure.
• Build friendships before going to the field.
• Use websites to follow-up after crusades.
• Tightly coordinate the website with your other
  outreach efforts - build relationships offline
  and put the information online.
• Network widely scattered missions specialists.
• Raise up informed intercessors by using websites
  and email lists.

13
EXAMPLE Cybermissions And The
Tsunami

• Online databases coordinated massive relief
  efforts.
• Millions of dollars were donated via websites.
• Theological questions about justice, tragedy and
  suffering were answered in blogs, web pages and
  emails.
• Short-term mission teams were pulled together
  using websites, emails and online recruitment
  tools.
• People and locations were prayed for on Internet
  prayer boards.
• The Internet made the Christian response to the
  tsunami far more timely and possible!
• Those who knew how to use the Internet best,
  responded best, when the crisis came.

14
Strategy Section

• How to be effectiveGood missiologyAppropriate
  technology

15
The Word In Cyberspace

• It is the gospel that is the power of God unto
  salvation and not technology, methodology or
  personality!
• The gospel can be encountered on a web page or in
  a chat room and a person can give their life to
  Jesus.
• This can happen even when you are asleep!
• The important thing is to connect religion
  seekers with the word of the gospel in a way that
  they can clearly understand.

16
Missiology Still Applies Online

• You still need to think missiologically when
  doing online ministry.
• You still need to learn the language and the
  culture and understand the worldview of the
  people.
• The idea is to assist the implementation of a
  good missionary strategy by using powerful
  technology.

17
Thinking Strategically

• Who are you aiming to reach?
• What are they interested in?
• What do they feel they need?
• What sort of people do they want to meet online?
• What are their questions about God?
• What language do they use?
• What is their communication style?
• How can all these factors above be reflected in a
  well-designed and easy to use website?

18
More Questions..

• What security issues are there?
• What is their bandwidth?
• What is their level of technological
  understanding?
• How patient are they with technology?
• Are they group learners or individual learners?
• Are they oral learners requiring lots of audio
  and video online?
• How much time can you put in?

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Meet A Pressing Need

• Start with the need then build the website.
• It is OK to have lots of different websites.
• E.G. Do your grass-roots national pastors need
  free theological training? Can they get to an
  icafe once a week and download what they need?
• Build a website to meet their basic training
  needs then follow up with occasional visits by
  trainers.

20
Use A Bridge Strategy

• Build a website around a secular interest.
• Then connect to testimonies and gospel
  presentations.
• E.G. To reach Iraqis - History of Babylon
• To reach Indians What Ghandi Learned From
  Jesus

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Tips On Strategy

• Language group / interest group is far more
  important than nationality.
• 2/3 of the Internet is non-English speaking.
• Learning style is almost everything !
• Aim for the 2 who are most responsive to the
  Holy Spirit.
• No one first visits a website because of the
  graphics.
• Word of mouth and viral marketing drive the
  Internet - so connect with those who can connect
  with others.
• The more specific the website is, the more
  visitors it often attracts. (For low to medium
  budget websites)
• Command a niche market for maximum impact.

22
Specialized Websites Get The Most Hits

• Specialized websites do much better in the search
  engines and so get many more hits.
• For instance a general website on God will be
  lost on page 43 of Google and get almost no hits.
• But a specific web page say on A Christian
  Response To Human Cloning will get many hits
  because it is a specialized website on a hot
  topic and will have few competitors.
• Generic websites generally fail unless they have
  very big advertising budgets.
• Specialized websites rare books, vintage cars,
  specific medical problems are doing very well.
• Websites targeted at Third World cities or less
  known UPGs may be among the only ones on that
  topic and will rate highly in the search engines.

23
Designing With The Average End User In Mind
24
Basic Web Design

• The Internet is driven by seekers searching for
  information or for relationship (or both).
• They start either at a link or at a search
  engine.
• So you need to havea) information that people
  are looking for b) relationships they can
  connect to c) many links pointing to your
  website d) be well-ranked in the search
  enginese) be clear, easy-to-use and to navigate

25
Be Clear!

• Many people are easily confused by computers and
  the Internet.
• You may need to train people in how to use your
  website.
• Provide plenty of cues and lots of help.
• Make it fast-loading, and not cluttered or
  unreadable.
• Use high-contrast e.g black text on white
  background.
• Make links underlined, and avoid junk like
  rotating crosses that clutter the visual
  landscape.

26
Think Interaction Not Just Information

• Interaction builds loyalty.
• Interaction grows the relationship so you can ask
  the tough questions.
• Interaction must be carefully nurtured.
• Make numerous opportunities for people to
  respond, to contact you, to ask questions, to
  meet others, and to post their opinions.
• Use web forms, bulletin boards, email links
• When replying be POP Prompt, On-Topic, and
  Personal
• Do not commercialize the interaction unless given
  permission to do so.

27
Make It Easy To Spread The Word

• Make web pages and articles easy to print out and
  take home.
• Let them copy and distribute your materials for
  free.
• Make them easy to download in an icafe - have
  online resources able to fit on a single floppy
  disk.
• Use ebooks they are compressed, download very
  quickly and can be emailed to others.
• Provide tell a friend forms where they can tell
  others about you.
• Have a web address that is easy to write down or
  remember.
• Use bring-em-back technology such as Inspired
  Text browser plug-ins that they can download.
• Give them an attractive screensaver with your
  website address on it.

28
Common Objections
29
But They Arent Online!

• But their community leaders are, and often at
  least one extended family member is!
• If you can reach one key person you can reach a
  whole community.
• This is known as the tunnel and blast strategy.
  Use the Internet to tunnel in and find one man
  of peace, then build a relationship, equip this
  person to win the community - and blast the
  gospel.
• Internet cafes also provide access for many
  people in developing nations.
• You are not just contacting a person, you are
  contacting that persons network.
• Use the Internet to connect with people who can
  connect you to still more people.

30
But It Wont Work Everywhere!

• The fact that you can't do something everywhere
  is no reason to stop trying it somewhere.
• Cybermissions works in the most surprising places
  e.g., Bhutan
• Cybermissions can work via both online strategies
  and through establishing Internet cafes and
  student centers.
• There is an enormous hunger for technology and
  free information in developing nations.

31
Doing Cybermissions
32
Set Up A Cybermissions Department

• An ideal cybermissions department has four kinds
  of people
• Technical staff, web designers, graphic artists
• Content editors, writers, video producers
• Field missionaries with language and cultural
  experience.
• Evangelists, bible teachers and intercessors

33
Missions Should Be The Focus

• Focus the team around the missiological
  objectives.
• Keep the technology appropriate to the average
  end user you are trying to reach - who may have
  limited bandwidth.
• Coordinate the goals of the Cybermissions team
  with the other objectives of the missions agency
  to create synergies.
• Have a Field Director - Cyberspace

34
Select A Major People Group

• Focus your efforts for maximum effectiveness.
• China, Japan and the Middle East have hundreds of
  millions of people that can be reached by
  Cybermissions and in eachcase have just one main
  language you need to use.
• China has 90 million Internet users and is highly
  responsive to the gospel.
• India has many English speakers and is
  increasingly tech savvy.

35
Places Where Cybermissions Might Be The Main
Strategy

• If the nation is difficult to reach by
  conventional missionary strategies.
• But they have enough Internet connectivity to see
  people saved and to start a church-planting
  movement.
• There are 43 nations where cybermissions could be
  used as the main outreach strategy Azerbaijan,
  Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bhutan, Brunei,
  Burma, China, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Georgia,
  India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan,
  Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Malaysia,
  Mali, Mongolia, Nepal, Niger, Oman, Pakistan,
  Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sudan,
  Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey,
  Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan,Vietnam,Yemen

36
Dollars And Sense

• You can set up low-cost icafes in unreached
  people groups using donated recycled computers.
• Open source software can save you big bucks.
• Major foundations are starting to look at funding
  Cybermissions.
• Cybermissions is ideal for volunteers can work
  home.
• It is often possible to get free web hosting.
• On average Cybermissions costs less than 100
  per new convert.

37
Final Comments

• Cybermissionaries can work alongside conventional
  missionaries to generate synergies that spread
  the gospel.
• The Internet is where many seekers doing their
  seeking and Christian missions needs to
  prioritize the 400 million relatively easy to
  reach religion surfers online.