The Internet in Mission and Ecumenism ... - Reformiert online

6. Internet and Mission: Possibilities
There are various ways with which the churches can engage in the Net culture. In this context
they can consider engaging with the innovative technological means, the interactive way of
communication and the virtual communities. The mainline church institutions should find ways of
providing a web server in order to host some of their websites by themselves. For this they need
the Public Internet Protocol- PIP address. They also need to participate e-groups, e-communities,
and online newspapers/newsletters, email connections, Development oriented, liberative,
advocacy related and Interactive sites. This would enhance on the one hand the ongoing
communication process within the churches and between the churches and those who are outside
the churches and also on the other hand the public communication in which other religious
communities are also involved. In this section I am highlighting certain possibilities of taking part in
the culture of internet and discover new ways of doing mission and ecumenism.
a. Sharing the Gospel
The digital technology, culture, space and virtual communities of Internet provided a
platform for us many challenges for our mission. There are diverse ways of doing mission in and
through the Internet. One of the best ways is to engage with individuals who are seeking meanings
of the gospel through the net. Through our websites we can establish contact with those who
searching for the meanings of the gospel. At times we have to establish different types of websites
for Christians and non-Christians and also cater to individual’s questions as well as non-Christians.
Our website should provide a simple message of the gospel. There is a need to develop websites
for different audiences. For Children a Christian education oriented, animated Bible stories and
games can be developed in regional language. Our websites should present the churches’
doctrines and other dogmas in a simple manner to the readers.
The charismatic and evangelical groups have recognised the potential power of the net and
have already started placing their video on demand, their sermons (both text and audio files)
besides providing any other information that the users want. Some of these groups provide
misinformation about Christians and Christianity by emphasising the number of converts through
their mission, by popularising the prosperity gospel and by highlighting their links to certain
fundamentalist Christians in other parts of the world 32 . This creates a bad image for Christianity,
and Christians, and is one of the main reasons for attacks on churches. Our first task of mission is
to provide moderate information about the gospel to all people through the net. We need to make
our doctrines, tradition and gospel clear to the net users. As I mentioned already the National
Council of Churches or the main church offices can provide a Web Server which can host member
churches’ websites for a low cost. Each member church can be encouraged to communicate the
gospel in the way they wanted to. Such an attempt will both be evangelical as well as ecumenical
in its praxis. It is essential to encourage churches to develop websites in the regional languages
rather than in English.
b. Interactive Communities
The digital technology, culture, space and virtual communities of the Internet provide a
platform for us, and also many challenges for our mission. There are diverse ways of doing mission
in and through the Internet. One of the best ways is to engage with individuals who are seeking
meanings of the gospel through the net. Through e-groups, e-communities and websites we can
establish contact with those who searching for the meanings of the gospel. At times we have to
establish groups for Christians and non-Christians and be ready to respond to individual questions
from both groups. The kind of pseudo-identity of the participants helps people to ask genuine
questions and try to find answers from others in the groups. The content of the discussion will differ
according to individual or community interest. These discussions can be widened to search for
meanings of life and of religions. We can also establish different groups or communities in order to
32 One of the examples is Jesus Calls ministries where you find a kind of tele-evangelism and internet
evangelism with much emphasis on prosperity and promises of blessings. http://www.prayertoweronline.org/
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