Managing the intersections

As I prepare to teach my course in Internet ministry next semester, I have been meeting with several different individuals to try to get a diversity of inputs into some of the topics that should be covered.  Last week, I had lunch with John Edmiston, a pioneer in the field of using the Internet to share Christ.  John also moderated an online course at Fuller Theological Seminary on Internet evangelism last year, which is how I tracked him down. John currently manages the web site Cybermissions.org, which is a great resource for those working to understand how the Internet can be used to share their faith.

One of the points that John and I discussed was the understanding of using the Internet for what it does well.  The Internet is a nonreligious space, it is not a church-like environment and we shouldn’t try to make it so. The Internet is really good at creating “intersections” where people who might not otherwise meet come together.  So part of understanding effective online ministry is managing these intersections. The question becomes: how do we take advantage of the moments that wouldn’t happen otherwise?

So what does an intersection look like? Traditionally, we think of building our web sites so that someone Googling “What is the meaning of life?” will find our site and have their life changed. This is not an intersection; this is more like a head-on collision! An intersection is something that happens much more informally and cannot always be predicted. For example: someone searching for a local group to go hiking with finds out about your church’s hiking club and joins you for your next hike. Or someone looking for information on their favorite music group finds a Facebook group that you are also a member of.

So how does this fit into Internet ministry? While we may not always be able to predict how these intersections will take place, we can do our best to create the opportunities for them to happen. This does NOT necessarily mean creating new web sites – it really means getting out there and involving ourselves in the lives of others online.  Over at the Internet Evangelism Day web site you can find a good outline of how this strategy might look: the “bridge strategy”.

One warning I might have of this approach is that we must be genuine. I would not recommend trying to create an intersection where one would not naturally exist. For example, it would not make any sense for me to get involved with an online fan club for Celine Dion because, frankly, I am not a fan. My intersections with other fans would be a lie, I would be misrepresenting myself to them. But I am sure there are others who are called to minister to Celine Dion fans. . .

Tags: cybermissions.org, Fuller, intersections, John Edmiston