Internet Discipleship

What has Jesus called us to do as Christians? If you have been attending an evangelical church for any time at all, you will immediately answer, “Make disciples!” Of course. Matthew 28:19-20 records Jesus’ words commissioning each of us to go into all the world and make disciples. So is it any wonder many of us labor under a sense of failure? After all, how many disciples have you made recently, and how many parts of the world have you touched? Don’t answer that. It will probably only make you more miserably guilt-ridden.

Let’s face it. This matter of making Christian disciples is really tough today. The media has sold the public on very unappealing caricatures of evangelical Christians, the gospel has been maligned and misrepresented over and over again, and the church, whose mission it is to train and send out disciplemakers, seems impotent. As if that is not enough, Satan has effectively blurred the lines between being a church attender and being a disciple of Christ. I live in Lynchburg, Virginia. After just five months here, I am convinced that at least 90% of Lynchburgers would consider themselves Christians. They attend a church, they have a “Not I but Christ” sticker on their car bumper, and they know that Amos is a book of the Bible, not a character on an old-time radio series. So how am I supposed to find people who want to know the Lord, and desire real discipleship? How am I to become actively involved in helping people come to faith and grow into maturity?

My wife Penny and I spent several years on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ. Two things about that organization became very clear: first and foremost, Crusade is all about evangelism; and second, the organization has not put enough emphasis on discipling new Christians. But that seems to be changing. With the creation of a worldwide internet outreach ministry called Global Media Outreach, Crusade has tapped a seemingly endless well of spiritual inquiries and directed them to trained workers who can encourage and equip their contacts.

Not sure about the value of spiritual inquiries online? Look at these recent statistics. In July alone, 9,373,000+ people visited Crusade websites to make spiritual inquiries. Over 1,128,000 decisions were recorded (either first-time decisions or recommitments), and 196,000+ of these were followed up with contacts by workers. In the period January to July, the figures look like this: 70,711,000+ visitors, 9,318,000+ decisions, and 1,433,000+ email follow-up contacts by trained workers. And this is not just a matter of recording numbers, like so many evangelistic efforts of the past have been. These web-site visitors who indicate a decision are contacted by a real person who has been equipped to respond to them individually, resources are offered to allow the new disciples to begin to grow, and their progress is tracked and made available to their disciplers.

Sound interesting, but a little daunting or beyond your capabilities? Believe me, it is easier than it sounds. And Crusade is recruiting more online disciplers all the time. Go to www.GMOJoinUs.com for a 4 1/2 minute video summary of what is involved. If you sign up, you will be trained to answer inquiries, given suggested responses and websites to direct your disciples to, and assigned a training community to monitor your progress through the preparation process.

Over the past few months, I have been in contact with 121 people, and I have had extended online conversations with 17 of them. They come from all over the globe, from Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Animist backgrounds, as well as various Christian points of view. What a blessing to be extending the kingdom all over the world. Join me, and you too can find an outlet for that desire Jesus has given each of us to create disciples.