Social media allows us to have meaningful interaction with all sorts of interesting people, many of which we may never meet in real life.

Being able to form online relationships around my work in media and technology has been a genuine benefit of the new networks.

But nothing prepares you for the quality of relationships that can be built with seeking souls reaching out to connect through internet evangelism portals.

Just today, one of my new online friends in Holland emailed to check in on me.

She wrote to thank me for writing and to offer encouraging words.

So beautifully, she spoke of the freedom, joy, happiness and blessing that God brings into our lives.

“In every step you take or every thing you do He is there with you, to pick you up and and to give the strength you need to move ahead.”

How did she know that’s what I needed to hear today?

She continued. “It’s all true, nobody can get something before his time, or later. He will get it exactly on God’s time. So I have no disappointments anymore. When you receive it at the time that God wants you to receive, it will be a whole package! This reminds me somehow of the delivery of a baby. It takes nine months to enter this world. If a baby comes out in four or five months it will be not complete. He may have a handicap. But if it is on the right time, as it should be, it will be a healthy baby.

“All we have to do is to stay with God, and everything will be great,” she proclaimed. Indeed, my new friend. Indeed!

At the conclusion of her note she asked, “How did you get to God.” What an awesome privilege and opportunity to put the focus on Christ and to be reminded of his supremacy over every soul, even online.

Last days plan

My soul faints with longing for your salvation, but I have put my hope in your word.
Psalm 119:81

Internet evangelism is truly a part of God’s plan for these last days.

The online world is populated by millions and millions of seeking souls like my friend in Holland. Those who have never heard about Jesus. Others who understand that Jesus is their Savior and want more of Him.

And still others the Lord will inspire to bring YOU encouragement and strengthening, sometimes when you least expect it. Online ministry is genuinely two-way ministry.

We are the first generation – ever – to hold in our hands the technology to give every person on the planet multiple chances to accept Jesus and to follow Him completely.

Is God talking to you about investing your life online? Millions of souls hang in the balance.

Global evangelization online is accelerating. Helping new followers with spiritual growth and discovery of local churches and movements is the next great challenge for pioneers of Internet ministry.

The fact that large masses of people can be reached anywhere online still amazes me.

It is a God-given means of outreach that should be fully embraced while the doors are open.

The world witnessed again the possibilities for Internet evangelism during last week’s historic two-day online crusade staged by Global Media Outreach.

The numbers are so staggering they are almost incomprehensible.

Phenomenal milestones in online outreach

In forty-eight hours:

• 2,594,731 visitors to GMO websites
• 252,360 indicated decisions for Christ
• 29,204 email requests for follow-up from an online missionary

Participating in this historic event was a wonderful experience. Again we saw what can happen when the Internet’s power is harnessed through God’s power for reaching people in all corners of the earth.

It was a “Wow” moment, but “Now” …

And the seed that fell on good soil represents those who hear and accept God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted! Acts 4:20

Wouldn’t it be great if churches and groups could adopt a vision for both evangelism and discipleship? First, for introducing people to faith in Christ online. Then for discipling them. And finally for bringing those the Holy Spirit prepares into a local community of faith.

Outreach oriented ministries are leading the way in online evangelism. In my mind, they are paving the way for churches to create an array of online discipleship strategies. Individual and group prayer. Personal counseling and leadership. Bible studies. Discipleship groups.

All these can take place online first. As individuals respond to personal care, they can be moved into local fellowships when ready.

We must keep on emphasizing the importance of the local church follow-up to global and local online evangelism efforts. No group is better equipped than the local church to disciple new believers that have been reached for Jesus through Internet ministry.

Joining the digital ministry juggernaut

There are essentially only two ways to get involved with online evangelism and discipleship. Create your own program. Or, develop strategic partnerships with others who are already engaged in these new ministry methods.

Either way, we must also keep repeating that the need is urgent. The globalization of communication is only going to pick up speed.

It is being forecasted that by 2020, the number of mobile users will reach 6 billion and the number of people accessing the Internet will reach 4.7 billion—primarily through their mobile devices.

Make no mistake, cults and false religions are aggressively staking out territory online for converting people to their point of view.

Internet won’t change everything

Said many times and in many ways, the Internet is changing everything and everyone. Generation C (those born after 1990)  will be connected, communicating, content-centric, computerized, community oriented, always clicking

What will not change is their need for Jesus and for being connected to a local body of believers. “It was he who gave some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers.” Ephesians 4:11

Will local churches be online to meet Generation C at their point of need?

You have been hearing about Internet evangelism and discipleship. Do you know how it really works? Why it’s so important at this point in the history of Christian missions? This video explains how the spiritual battle for the hearts and minds of the next generation worldwide has moved to the Internet.

March Millions Gathering

With 2 billion people now online, millions are searching the Net for spiritual meaning.

On March 24-25 Global Media Outreach (GMO) increased its advertising and shared the gospel with over 2 million visitors. More than 200 thousand decisions for Christ were recorded. Over 25 thousand requested follow-up. Amazing historic firsts for online ministry.

Thousands of my fellow online missionaries had the privilege of responding to an incredible move of the Spirit in the lives of online seekers eager to know more about the Savior.

I got an email requesting prayer from a man in prison.

My friend Nick Runyon, who managed the campaign’s promotional strategy and operational systems, shared his thoughts about “Million Day” before the online crusade began.

You can still watch people coming to Christ LIVE NOW. Here are four more ways to get involved with Internet evangelism.

1. You can pray. Twenty prayer points:

• May God get all the glory for everything that occurs through salvation and discipleship occurring online.
• That Google and mobile ads will compel seekers to visit the sites.
• That God would bless the thousands of online missionaries with His presence.
• That not one person who has an interaction with the gospel message would perish.
• That God would bring many Muslim’s to Christ through the Arabic sites.
• That God would touch millions in Spanish speaking countries.
• That God would raise up over 1,000 new online missionaries who speak Spanish.
• That God would bless new sites in Vietnamese and Polish.
• That God would pour out His Holy Spirit on America to draw people to Him.
• That God would send revival using the Internet to Western Europe.
• That God would eliminate distractions that would keep people from hearing His voice.
• That God would help the team develop new mobile sites to reach young people.
• That God would double the number of online missionaries this year to 11,000.
• That God would bring more online missionaries in Arabic, Turkish, and Farsi.
• That in the next 10 years God would raise up over 150,000 online missionaries.
• That God would bless the writers as they create discipleship materials.
• That God would bless the online community leaders and community leader shepherds.
• That God would give great wisdom as creative discipleship approaches are attempted.
• That God would bless pastors everywhere as they care for people.
• That God would help GMO partner with pastors and churches around the world.

Each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved. Acts 2:47

2. You can become an online missionary. Perhaps today is the day for you to get involved in this ongoing effort to reach out to the thousands of seekers who knock on the Internet door and ask to hear about Christ. Get started now.

3. You can get your church involved. Your church faces a huge challenge every day. How do you encourage, train and equip your congregation to share Jesus with others? And how do you find people who are seeking and are at the right point to give their life to Jesus? The answer is the church online missions program.

4. You can consider a gift. There are many options to help share Jesus with the world through Global Media Outreach.

In the last few years, we have seen the birth of church online, live streaming of evangelistic events, online social communities, mobile ministry platforms, Christian web broadcast networks and millions of people visiting a website for no other reason than it presents the Good News of Jesus Christ and His plan for salvation.

God has given us technology for such a time as this. If using these tools in great outreaches or any other activity we conjure up is only about human ingenuity and commerce, it will fail. But, if it is from God, it can’t be stopped.

My sense is, twice reaching one million for Christ in one day online is just the beginning of what God is going to do.

It is still one of the most common questions that online missionaries (OM) get asked. Is gut-level personal ministry and discipleship really possible online?

As an OM, I’ll jump in. Yes, it is.

Technology has allowed us to develop and maintain relationships across distance for years. The Internet and Social Networking have massively extended the possibilities.

In a recent post, I wrote about some of my personal experiences with online ministry. In the last year, I’ve been contacted by 250 people from over 40 countries.

About thirty percent of these folks include a personal note in their email. They may ask questions about the Bible or request help in some area of their life. They share struggles. Many ask for specific prayer. These are very personal contacts.

Nearly a dozen friends in my online community email regularly.

On a daily basis, online missionaries connect with people like my friends. God has moved in their lives and they want to learn more about Christ, the Bible and how to live out their faith.

The numbers that can be reached online are astounding, as revealed in the latest results from the Internet evangelism ministry of Global Media Outreach (GMO).

In 2010:

• 119,444,072 people visited GMO’s websites
• 15,507,537 people indicated a decision for Christ
• 2,468,662 people asked for follow-up from an OM

Those numbers, which have been doubling every year since 2004 still, at times, don’t seem real to me.

Awhile back, an executive with HP had some questions about them too. He took his disbelief to GMO leadership. When asked what could be done to make him feel more comfortable with the numbers coming in, he suggested a survey to determine what was happening in the spiritual life of those making contact.

In other words, could it be proven that the people being reached in cyberspace were growing in their faith?

The survey was sent to people who, six to eighteen months earlier, had filled out a contact form and indicated a decision for Christ. 8,509 people from 185 countries responded to the survey.

Results of the survey:

Assurance of salvation
87% were “very certain” that they knew Christ as their personal Savior

Change in Biblical world view and life experience
72% said their thoughts/actions were changed by a prompting of God’s Spirit “daily”

Daily Bible reading
44% read their Bible daily and 30% 1-2 times per week

Attending church/small group regularly
63% attend church or meet with a small group weekly

Daily prayer
58% spend 10 minutes or more daily in prayer

Sharing their faith
57% have shared their faith 3 times or more with others
35% have shared their faith once or twice
92% have shared their faith

Seekers from all over the world answered. They knew they were saved. They were growing spiritually and they were telling others about their faith.

What does this mean for the local church?

You will be able to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all over Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the world.
Acts 1:8

1. People searching for spiritual meaning online is a U.S. phenomenon too. What is happening globally is happening locally. If thirty to fifty percent or more of our cities are unchurched, it is going to take thousands of churches to meet the need. Churches in two or three designated market areas could band together, combine resources, use geographic targeting technologies and blanket a region with the gospel.

2. People are hungry for community and the Spirit is leading them to the Word online. Innovative churches with a passion to form community and ongoing engagement have an incredible opportunity to position themselves with a generation that will only know the connected world. Better interactive and trackable tools for personal spiritual growth need to be developed.

3. The technologies for saturating our towns with the gospel are available now. We are now able to reach everyone. God has opened doors for local churches to do online evangelism and discipleship. There are fewer and fewer reasons to not go through.

Is it possible that we are seeing the early stirrings of a global revival? Let’s pray that is so. Let’s also pray that we use every technology and tool to join in what God is doing in our local U.S. towns and cities too.

Trying to keep up with trends in the constantly changing, ever-expanding world of technology and new media is a daunting challenge.

Inexact science, predicting future trends is. I will leave the sophisticated research to the professionals.

Watching, on the other hand, is very important.

History has many examples of those who failed to grasp the opportunities revealed by trends.

When you have time, I’ve listed four reports to help you examine the emerging global trends that are reshaping Christian media.

Trendsetting thrills and chills

View from the top: global technology trends and performance, Ernst & Young – Benchmarks, insights and questions around communications equipment, computers, Internet, IT services, software, and smart mobility.

10 Social Media Trends for 2011, Entrepreneur.com – A take on social trends that are on the horizon next year. From plug-ins, to location-based marketing initiatives, to the move to higher bandwidth.

7 Digital Media Trends of 2011, Daniel Anstandig, President McVay New Media Consulting – Digital ad targeting technology, Audience-driven programming, Social networking for broadcasters, Local retail ad networks and more.

Mobile Ministry Forum – 16 mission strategists representing 15 organizations focused exclusively on the mobile platform’s potential role in the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

Rebuilding the platform

In 1996, I began watching how traditional church and broadcast media were adapting to the changing world of global communications. In 2011, I think a full scale reconstruction of the legacy platform is under way.

Christian media has always been something “they” did. Radio and television stations, publishers, broadcast ministries. The expansion of electronic media platforms – Internet, mobile, social -  has empowered every Christian to become a communicator.

YOU are Christian media!

Individuals, as well as organizations, are now leveraging the most powerful communication technologies tools ever created to do the work of the gospel.

People around the world are keen to learn, improve and share ways to use digital tools for ministry. They are hungry for information and help.

Twelve communications improvements

With a deep sense that God has opened a door to an astonishing array of opportunities through information technology, doers are coming forward to set the pace of the reconstruction:

1. Extending complete Christian community to the Church online – teaching, personal interaction, stories, prayer, sharing faith.
2. Creating tools and resources for one-on-one Internet evangelism in local and cross-cultural environments.
3. Developing free Bible applications to run on mobile platforms.
4. Harnessing the power of film and digital media to communicate God’s Word.
5. Offering college courses to help the next generation of leaders learn how-to use the Internet and social media for ministry.
6. Establishing a peer learning community of Church and ministry IT people.
7. Writing books inspiring and challenging Christians to live their faith online.
8. Forming online communities to share spiritual experiences, distribute inspirational content and do social good.
9. Building church systems for content management, search engine optimization and search engine marketing.
10. Providing software solutions to support effective ministry, discipleship, and decision making.
11. Hosting web-based workshops to teach church leaders and volunteers about the latest technologies.
12. Initiating an annual worldwide focus day to showcase the potential of the Web for effective evangelism.

Cross-organizational collaboration and non-traditional partnerships and alliances are starting to emerge. Christian organizations are combining resources in new ways to have the greatest possible impact in their communities and globally for the gospel. These are trends that have encouraged me greatly.

Growth trends

Statistical data shows that a strong foundation is being put in place. Two mind-blowing reports paint the picture:

On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18

Global Media Outreach, an Internet ministry based in Campbell, CA reported for 2010 that it had 119,444,072 visitors to its 102 websites; 15,507,537 decisions for Christ, and 2,468,662 emails requesting follow-up.

LifeChurch.tv, a multi-site church in Edmund, OK finished 2010 with 2,848,144 absolute unique visits to its Church Online campus, representing 231 countries and territories. 16,162 people received Christ, and 2,809 new believer kits were mailed to people around the world.

In a message to his congregation on January 9, during the 15th Anniversary service of LifeChurch.tv, I thought Pastor Craig Groeschel summed up the building process so far, with this vision:

“We will not continue to do what used to work. In order to reach people no one is reaching, we will have to do things that no one is doing – video church, church online, and leveraging technology. We will do anything short of sin to reach people who do not know Christ. This is just the introduction. The foundation is being built for something God wants to do everywhere.”

Question: What trends are you watching? What communications improvements have you seen?