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The first worldwide Internet Evangelism Day was observed this past month. Initiated by the Internet Evangelism Coalition, the purpose of IE Day is to generate awareness for the effectiveness of web-based evangelism.
Churches and other participants have commented on the awareness generated by the programs to Tony Whittaker, the IE Day Coordinator.
"I used the main presentation to talk about the Internet and some evangelism strategies, and asked people to come up with ideas for potential outreach sites on the Web, " a church in Andover, UK said. "It was really encouraging to see quite a lot of inventive and creative ideas! We are working on re-developing our website at the moment, so hopefully will have a dual church/outreach focus to what we do."
"It was a real eye opener for many… During the fellowship time after the service, we had a computer set up showing various outreach websites. We also had a long list of websites in our bulletin," another church in Muncie, Indiana said.
As of now, a second Internet Evangelism Day is planned for the following year. In the meantime, coordinators for Internet Evangelism Day have actively encouraged churches to focus more on web evangelism activities.
"There is no need to wait till 2006!" Whittaker states.
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The event's official website explains strategies for online evangelism. The new "60 Tips for Effective Church Sites," has reportedly been helping churches learn techniques in building web-based communities.
Another church in Dorking, UK told Whittaker that many "people were challenged and inspired."
"We are going to review our church website, add evangelistic signature blocks to emails, and see how to use bulletin boards and chat rooms," the UK-based church wrote.
For another Canadian church, Internet Evangelism Day was graduation day for a new team that had been training to become Internet-evangelists.
"On the 24th, we took time in the service to graduate and commission our newly-trained evangelists and speak about Internet-evangelism," said the Ottawa-based church.
Children were also influenced by the event. A church in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, USA reported that children could also share God's love online with their friends. The church has also included a handout with many outreach sites geared specifically for children.
For more information, please visit these two sites: http://guide.gospelcom.net/ and http://ied.gospelcom.net/index.php.
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