Netting surfers for Christ

In the beginning was the web ... CHRIS DANIELS checks out the virtual world of Christian evangelism.

Jesus invited his disciples to become fishers of men, but in this modern age of online communication an entirely new net is being used to snare people to the ways of the Lord.

More and more Christians are flocking to the world wide web, which is proving popular as a tool for attracting new followers.

One man who is using the web to help Christians to keep in touch and perhaps convert a few web users to his way of thinking is Auckland webmaster Ian Conza.

He is part of a Christian webmasters group, the members of which communicate with one another about ways of spreading the good news on the web.

Mr Conza has set up the New Zealand online Christian Directory, where Christian businesses and organisations can contact one another.

The basic principles of setting up a good web page apply just as much to Christian evangelists as anyone else trying to attract readers online, he says.

"Any website has to have the right information, then you've got to bring people to that particular place and put the information in front of them."

Mr Conza says he has been on the internet since it started in New Zealand, so he knows what works online and what does not.

The religious webmaster has two types of audience.

The first is the committed follower who uses the site to keep in touch with others, and the second, more difficult target is the non-follower, who must be attracted to the site, then kept there.

Mr Conza uses all the major search engines to constantly get new visitors to his site. By including popular search terms such as the word "travel" on his site, he ensures that many of the big search engines deliver new visitors.

And it does work, he says. Many people who never intended logging in to a Christian website end up visiting his, staying for a time and sometimes send him an email asking for information.

He says his Christian directory gets 30,000 to 40,000 hits every month, from New Zealanders and overseas.

Many of the overseas visitors are Christians wanting to visit New Zealand who are inquiring about the location and type of churches they might find at holiday destinations.

But despite the best efforts of Mr Conza, New Zealand churches and religious groups are still very much trailing behind counterparts in the United States.

A vast number of churches in the States have their own websites and are branching out into using the web as a pulpit for a congregation across the globe.

"Most of the Christian churches in New Zealand were quite laid back, they were quite a bit slower than other churches around the world to get into the internet and set up websites," said Mr Conza.

Despite being a leading Christian webmaster, Mr Conza does not believe the internet will ever remove the need for old-fashioned human contact when it comes to spreading the message

" It's a very good tool, but it just doesn't replace face-to-face contact."

But face-to-face contact has also been improved by the internet, says Mr Conza, because one of the most popular tools for Christians online is voice chatrooms - where Christians from around the world can spend time talking to one another.

Such forums are, however, not always benign places of theological discussion.

"Quite a lot of persecution' comes from non-Christians using the sites, says Mr Conza.

Gospelcom.net is one of the big sites offering advice for those interested in spreading the word of the Lord via the web.

Its advice sometimes stretches beyond the merely helpful and begins to sound a little like an endorsement of misleading conduct.

Sites that are obviously Christian in style, language and graphics are (to use a cliche in perhaps its original meaning) "preaching to the converted".

This is a big barrier, say the online evangelists, as it turns the non-believers off.

They advise toning down the message somewhat, including not using expressions such as "the word of God" (prefer Bible) or "the Lord" (prefer God).

"Christian organisations involved in online evangelism may be wise to choose a different name to brand themselves for a non-Christian readership than that they use for their Christian supporters," say the Gospel.com crew.

One of the most popular Christian evangelistic sites on the web, according to Gospelcom.net is "Hollywood Jesus".

Wacky, fedora-wearing pastor David Bruce apparently used to work in the film industry and now writes about recent movie releases, not as normal film reviews, but instead looking for parable meanings from the storyline.

While crazy Hollywood Jesus is quite obviously out to attract new recruits, others are somewhat less than open about their religious motivation.

One suggestion for Christians using the internet is to sneak in some evangelism through seemingly non-religious websites.

Gospelcom.net recommends the use of "cartoons and humour - everyone loves humour and it can smuggle truth past people's defences".

Online games can also be "very powerful", it says, though it appears there are not enough games around that are suitable for spreading the word of God.

In another example of online covert evangelism , English language students are encouraged to enrol in a free online language course from self proclaimed "professors" working with an organisation called CyberESL.org.

These professors, (who pay the language school to teach) also happen to be Christians looking to save more souls - a motive not exactly spelled out by the people at CyberESL.

This move to a more subversive, or subliminal approach to roping in recruits online may be a sign that bashing someone over the head with a bible is not the way to go when cyber-proselytising.

It seems that keeping it quiet, not scaring people away (and maybe once in a while masquerading as a non-Christian site) could the new way to spread the net of Jesus on the net.

Gospel.com

Hollywood Jesus

CyberESL