WEB EVANGELISM BULLETIN
. . . learning from each other
W-E-B Issue 157 ~ February 08
Monthly ISSN 471-0323
News this time...
EASTER PASSION
INTERNET EVANGELISM DAY IS APRIL 27
WORLDVIEW WITNESSING
HELPING CONFUSED HURTING CHRISTIANS
TIPS
ICCM - COMING SOON FOR EUROPE
MIDDLE EAST TRENDS
A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE WESTERNIZATION OF THE GOSPEL
CHURCHES AND EVANGELISM: EVANGELISM COACH RESOURCES
GOLF PARABLE
ANOTHER PARABLE ABOUT EVANGELISM
WORLD WE LIVE IN
AFRICAN CULTURE LEAKING AWAY
MORE WEB EVANGELISM NEWS
IF ONLY
TAILEND
"To win some we must be winsome"
"Francis Schaeffer used to say that if he had only one hour with someone, he would
spend 55 minutes asking questions and five minutes trying to say something that would
speak to his or her situation, once he understood a little more about what was going on in
his or her heart and mind"
- quoted in The Heart of Evangelism, by Jerram Barrs
"Our God of Grace often gives us a second chance, but there is no second chance to harvest a ripe crop" - Kurt von Schleicher
EASTER PASSION
Despite UK being a fairly secular culture, the BBC is once again producing a serial
version of the Easter story. Whatever its precise merits or demerits, this is the Easter
story on network TV, and therefore a major opportunity. ReJesus.co.uk wants to see it
used:
http://www.rejesus.co.uk/passion/
London Times covers the making of the series:
http://www.web-evangelism.com/offsitelink?b08feb-easter
Easter also provides an opportunity to post Easter resources on church and outreach sites, blogs, message boards, or social networking pages.
There are mini-tract presentations such as GMO's 'Jesus and Easter' short page:
http://www.jesusandeaster.com/
ATS tracts in N America (available both in paper and online)
http://www.atstracts.org/
CPO leaflets in UK: http://www.cpo.org.uk/
The Life's Passions section:
http://thelife.com/passion/
Surprisingly, there are very few substantial resources about Easter designed to explain
this central facet of the gospel to non-yet-Christians. Or at least, if there are, they
are not easy to find. Someone googling 'what is Easter', out of topical interest, for a
school project, as a seeker, or for whatever reason, will find a range of articles on
Easter customs, and not much else in the top 10 results. The only positive and substantial
Easter presentation is a JesusCentral.com sponsored link in the Google search.
INTERNET EVANGELISM DAY IS APRIL 27
Just two months to go. Why not put on a short IE Day program in your church on that
day? Our downloads - PowerPoint, video testimonies, drama scripts and handouts - make it
easy for you to create a web evangelism awareness slot in your activities on or near that
Sunday, whether its one minute or fifty.
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/index.php
And please can you help to make IE Day known:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/helping.php
Latest news release in RTF:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/latestnews
Please can you copy/paste this into an email and send to religion editors of secular daily paper, Christian newsletter editors, bloggers, just anyone who might use it.
If you see a published reference to IE Day in any print or email publicaiton, please
could you let me know:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/feedback
WORLDVIEW WITNESSING
Research studies by the Barna Group have shown that only 6% of professing born-again
Christians (in USA) actually have a biblical world view. Freddy Davis aims to help
Christians understand both a biblical world view, and the world views of other belief
systems, so that we can more effectively share our faith. There are a range of online
materials on his site, and he has just published a new book Worldview Witnessing (ISBN
1-58961-563-8) where he develops these themes:
- that we must know what we believe, and why
- that we must know what others believe, and why
- that we must 'think like a missionary'
- that it is long-term relationships that win people
http://www.marketfaith.org/
HELPING CONFUSED HURTING CHRISTIANS
In the battlefield of life, many Christians struggle, falter, even give up on faith.
There can be many different reasons other than a deliberate turning away from God, and
stereotyping people as 'backsliders' may be an unhelpful concept. Reasons can include
being brought up in a rigid guilt-based version of the faith, taking on false guilt, or
otherwise being badly hurt by the church. Depression, bereavement and loss can also play a
part. It is interesting to note that even among those who claim to have totally lost their
faith (in a blog defining itself as 'resources for skeptical, deconverting, or former
Christians'), there is a surprising sense of loss shown by many of the contributors.
Ruth Tucker wrote the book 'Walking Away from Faith' (IVP) to help people in this
situation, and writes:
"Since writing my book and having the site questioningfaith.com, I have received an
incredible number of letters, phone calls and emails from relatives or friends of those
who are walking away or have already walked away. I also receive a lot of correspondence
from the individuals themselves. I have some stories in the book and I often receive
appreciative messages from ones who say I encouraged or helped them in their struggle.
Rarely, however, is there a quick turn-around from unbelief to solid belief. I emphasize
that folks should learn to live with the questions and doubts - and, indeed, be thankful
that they might be able to reach out to others because of their own struggles."
http://www.questioningfaith.com/
Learn to understand what many are going through, so that you can help them (online or offline) in their struggles.
TIPS
- non-techies look away now
GRAPHICS F.R.E.E.W.A.R.E - links to a range of software:
http://www.educypedia.be/computer/computersoftwaregraphics.htm
CREATING JOOMLA TEMPLATES - CSS table-free layouts:
http://www.webreference.com/authoring/style/sheets/joomla_templates/
CSS reference page:
http://reference.sitepoint.com/css
KEYBOARD WITHOUT LOOKING: keyboard bumps - have you noticed the small plastic ridges on
keys F and J. These are to help you identify the keys your index finger is on, when
touch-typing. If you have never learned touch-typing, it will repay many times over the
time this takes:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/training.php
CSS SOLUTION - How to center widthless floats with CSS (and check the rest of the site
for 3-column CSS layouts too:
http://pmob.co.uk/pob/centred-float.htm
GOOGLE processing of payment cards for non-profits:
http://checkout.google.com/seller/npo/
BLOGGING: why Trackbacks are useful for blogs:
http://www.webreference.com/promotion/trackbacks/
CD RIPPER: URL has been changed from that quoted last time - it is now at:
http://www.download.com/Free-CD-Ripper/3000-2140_4-10212165.html
ICCM - COMING SOON FOR EUROPE
"The International Conference on Computing and Mission (ICCM) is an annual informal (NO
ties allowed) gathering of women and men who have a common interest in computers and
mission. We share a vision cooperation for effective use of technology bringing the Gospel
to every nation."
Up to now, there has been an annual conference in USA and Australia. There are now hopes
for a Europe, and possibly Asian, conference too:
http://www.iccm.org/
http://www.iccm-europe.org/
http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/iccm
MIDDLE EAST TRENDS
This report on the Arab media for the next five years identifies the key trends and
issues that the media industry will face in this region, and has some useful forecasts
about population and technology usage:
http://www.web-evangelism.com/offsitelink?b08feb-mideast
A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF THE WESTERNIZATION OF THE GOSPEL
Lausanne article by Daniel Kim, director of Chiang Mai Theological Seminary, missionary church-planter in Asia with OMF International
"The beautiful essence of the gospel is its flexibility and divine capability to root in any culture or people group.
About ten years ago a new missionary engaging in language and cultural learning in Asia thoughtlessly threw a surprising question to a senior missionary: "Why can't they (national people) accept the gospel from the West? They seem to accept everything from the West: food, music, movies, car, technologies, etc." A deep, sub-conscience captivated his pre-assumption that the gospel is of the West. I carelessly pre-judged him, thinking, "How dare you bring the 'westernized. gospel of Jesus Christ from your country to Asia without de-westernization?"
Read more:
http://www.lausanneworldpulse.com/themedarticles.php/907/03-2008
CHURCHES AND EVANGELISM: EVANGELISM COACH RESOURCES
You can encourage church members to use ready-made business cards featuring the church.
Evangelism Coach blog explains how to do this (with sample) and the importance of a mini
map on the card too:
http://www.web-evangelism.com/offsitelink?b08feb-evangelismcoachcards
Check also the posting on the crucial task of assimilating visitors into the
church.
http://www.web-evangelism.com/offsitelink?b08feb-evangelismcoachassimilating
Chris Walker's article: Avoid First-Time Visitor Nightmares: Red Carpet Hospitality, is
also essential reading.
http://www.evangelismcoach.org/HospitalityArticle.pdf
You can sign up for this blog by RSS, and also subscribe by email to a monthly
newsletter:
http://www.evangelismcoach.org/newsletter
GOLF PARABLE
"You can't miss Stonylands Town Golf Club if you take the winding back road out of town. Bit if you are in any doubt, the signboard says it all..."
Our new golfing parable is really about church websites. You can republish this, blog
about it, link to it:
http://www.internetevangelismday.com/golf-parable.php
ANOTHER PARABLE ABOUT EVANGELISM
The Society for the Picking of Apples: a missions parable about lost people, putting
world evangelism statistics and numbers in perspective
http://home.snu.edu/~HCULBERT/apples.htm
WORLD WE LIVE IN
DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME: need to know when it is for different countries?
http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/b.html
AFRICAN CULTURE LEAKING AWAY
We know that many folk tales and songs have all but vanished from Western nations,
although they are often well-documented and recorded. This same loss of culture is
happening in sub-Saharan Africa, where story and proverb have for so long been an integral
part of teaching life skills, world view, and general wisdom. Lisa Grainger set out to
record the stories she heard as a child, before it was too late:
http://www.web-evangelism.com/offsitelink?b08feb-africa
MORE WEB EVANGELISM NEWS
Check our sister Internet Evangelism Coalition newsletter:
Jan: http://www.webevangelism.com/index.php?id=110
Feb: http://www.webevangelism.com/index.php?id=111
IF ONLY
... a Christian had made a 'bridge strategy' site something like this:
PicAnswers LLC has launched a picture question and answer site:
http://picanswers.com/
TAILEND ô¿ô
HEMA is a Dutch department store. Just watch the unique way their product page comes to
life. Creativity. Respect.
http://producten.hema.nl/
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