The Internet brings church to homes worldwide.

Finding Church in Cyberspace?

Is it possible to share the restored gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world? Absolutely!

The Bible foretells it in Matthew:

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations...” —24:14 NIV

In the past, this scriptural concept was a source of major difficulty for Christians. How could we possibly get enough workers to travel door-to-door throughout the world? In recent years though, technology has developed into a powerful communication tool for ministry. Through radio, missionary slide sets, audio and video tapes, TV, and now the Web, an unfolding opportunity presents itself.

What We Are Doing
Our small Bloomington, Illinois, congregation meets in a rented classroom at an American Red Cross building, so we can plug in a wire and a laptop to access the Internet.

As our seventy was working with seekers in Alaska through the church’s weekly Sunday Night Live seekers chat (www.CofChrist.org/pathfinder), he learned about free software called Skype, which allows free voice communications between PC’s. Exploring the capabilities, we began offering the First Steps seekers series (from the Missionary Toolkit, Herald House) in a format called First Steps Online (www.CofChrist-BrushCreek-MissionCenter.org/Seekers/FirstSteps.htm). Attendance varied from four to 133 people each session, as folks gathered from around the world. They were interested in the posted topics and wanted to listen, learn, and question. (A new definition of “gathering” maybe?)

We saw the global interest in Jesus, as expressed in the First Steps Online ministry, and our congregation discussed if it wanted to offer our Sunday worship service live and online.

After some squirming, we decided to try it, starting in June 2007. Through the rest of that year, we offered 11 services. The number increased in 2008.

Attendance varies, as with any public event. We’ve had from one to 141 visitors for at least parts of our Worship On the Web (WOW) services, including some repeat guests from China, England, and Brazil. We post our upcoming bulletin and music on our mission center Web site (www.CofChrist-BrushCreek-MissionCenter.org/Congregations/Bloomington/WorhipOnTheWeb.htm). We invite visitors to go there, follow along, sing with us, etc. They do!

On a recent day, we signed on, and more than 9.4 million people were using Skype. Imagine if we reach even a small percentage of those folks with the gospel! During a recent service, 19 people joined us, including folks from Bulgaria, Switzerland, Turkey, and Brazil. Since then we have switched to paltalk.com which is a similar form of technology.

Invitation to Participate
We do not want to take you away from your home congregation and local ministries, but if you find yourself stuck at home because of weather, health, etc., we invite you to join us. You can use the link above to learn when we’ll next be online and how to set up your PC.

We don’t broadcast every week, but we do schedule at least once per month—usually more.

How about Inviting Others?
Maybe you’ve been sharing about Jesus and his church with a friend or co-worker but haven’t yet persuaded them to join you in worship. Feel free to invite them to our WOW service…or to any of our online ministries (http://cofchrist-brushcreek-missioncenter.org/OnlineChurch.htm). We’ll be happy to help grow their comfort level toward saying “yes” to your next invitation!

Launch Your Own Ministry?
Other congregations should consider expanding their ministry into cyberspace. You, too, are called to help reach those 9-plus million Web citizens with the gospel. Some of your visitors might even live in your neighborhoods and become local attendees!

We’ll happily provide suggestions, guidance, encouragement, and support as you explore ways to use Internet technologies in building the kingdom. Feel free to drop an e-mail to bradbryant@hp.com with questions.

Onward to Zion!
—Brad Bryant reporting