For 2,000 years, Christian missionaries have traveled to foreign lands to spread the Gospel.
Today, there are thousands of missionaries preaching around the world without leaving home. Sometimes even while wearing pajamas.
Global Media Outreach, a branch of Campus Crusade for Christ, held a Webinar, or online seminar, this week to raise awareness and to motivate people to participate in online missions.
With tomorrow being designated Internet Evangelism Day (by the Internet Evangelism Coalition), Michelle Diedrich of GMO said she wants “to change the way we think” about the Internet.
Tim Schmoyer, a youth ministry blogger and youth pastor in Minnesota, has organized an annual event called the “Online Missions Trip.” I’ve never really given it much thought, but it becomes more intriguing to me every year. The sites are:
http://www.onlinemissionstrip.com
http://www.studentministry.org/online-missions-trip-info-for-2010/
Incidentally, Tim’s blog is a great site to look through. The [url=http://www.studentministry.org/topic/freebie-friday/]Freebie Fridays[/url] are usually really great.
I’m really glad to see this, as the internet can reach places and people, especially in “restricted-access” countries that it is hard for missionaries to reach.
That said, (of course I’m very biased!) I don’t think anything can fully replace onsite incarnational ministry by flesh and blood believers. As the pastor quoted in the article says, “God is a relational God,” and Christian life is not just an assent to certain doctrines, but about entering into new reconciled relationships with God and others. Hopefully online missions will not be viewed as a replacement for more traditional on-the-ground ministry, but a supplement and aid to work that’s being done locally.
Fortunately, that seems to be exactly what’s developing, as outlined in the article.