New World of Ministry Opportunity
Dear Friends:
We thank the Lord that October 15th is the sixteenth anniversary of the launch of Network211’s Project 10Million at a Central Bible College chapel in Springfield, MO. The Lord allowed us to fulfill our goal in five years and so Project 10Million became Network211’s Project 100Million. Since that launch, it is with your partnership that we share the Good News with over 59.2 million individuals in 242 countries and territories. Of that group, over 3.4 million people made an evangelism response and over 533,000 then wrote to us to begin a discipleship connection. We praise the Lord!
The landscape of technology in the Church world has changed since our launch. The church has awakened to the fact that the Internet presents a new world of ministry opportunity. Last month, I had the pleasure of representing Network211 at the Lausanne Movement 4th Congress in Seoul, Korea. They said that over 5,000 people from the nations of the world attended. They would classify themselves as “Evangelicals.”
One major emphasis of the meeting focused on technology. The only exhibit space was called, “Digital Discovery Center” as they wanted people to learn how technology is being maximized to reach the lost and disciple the found. The three ministries chosen to be the core of the DCC were Christian Vision, Jesus.Net, and Network211. We were honored to be recognized and to participate.
The Congress produced the Seoul Statement which you can find here at https://lausanne.org/statement/the-seoul-statement . The seventh of seven points discusses how the Church should discern and steward technology.
Michael Oh, the Global Executive Director of the Lausanne Movement, presented a session on casting vision for 2050 and how the Church must be relevant to the next generation. The “3-D Strategy” was disciple-making, disciple-maturing, and digital. He views the use of digital space as an indispensable tool to completing the unfinished task. Also, he said, “It would be to our great detriment and grave danger to ignore digital, either to ignore it foolishly or embrace it naively.” The Christian Post has an article about this at https://www.christianpost.com/news/michael-oh-casts-lausannes-2050-vision-in-digital-age.html. As you can imagine, I agree with all this wholeheartedly!
I presented a paper called, “Spirit-Empowered Internet Evangelism in an Age of Global Individuality” at a Micro Talk session. You can find it here: https://network211.com/spirit-filled-internet-evangelism-in-an-age-of-global-individuality/. I was very appreciative that it was very well received. Many people believed that the presentation opened them to the idea that ministry online can be done well, you can journey with individuals in their spiritual walk, and Internet Users expand their personalities when they participate online.
So, here are three outcomes for me personally as I consider the future of Network211. First, our approach to technology still is the best: Tools are to be servants to content. Network211 is centered on the Message of Jesus Christ. We use the tools to be more effective in reaching individuals and creating interactive online communities. But our core continues to be content. Many ministries have wonderful uses of technology, like great apps, but are weak in presenting the Gospel and/or weak in discipleship follow-up.
Second, our mission is the Great Commission. We evangelize AND we disciple online. A great missed opportunity for the Church will be to become so enamored with how many followers they have on their social media posts that they miss the opportunity to journey with individuals in discipleship. We can maximize the time between the Sundays and feed discipleship content to individuals worldwide who live in an “on-demand” world.
Third, it seemed that every person from India and the surrounding nations with whom I spoke shared with me how vitally important it is for us to present our content in their languages. The starting point will be to offer Hindi and Bengali. Then, we will offer not only the top ten languages of the Internet but also the top ten spoken languages of the world.
My prayer is that the Church will move beyond viewing the Internet as a novelty with which it can dabble and move to the mindset that it is a necessity that must be engaged as a new world opportunity to impact individuals. We must create and develop focus strategies to maximize the medium or we will limit severely our ability to reach everyone, everywhere with the Good News. I was encouraged that the Evangelism world represented in this Congress is awakened now to this fact.
Please be encouraged! Together, we are using the greatest communication tool in the history of the world for God’s glory. People are finding Jesus. They are growing in their relationship with Him. They are being directed from “Searches to Churches!” Lives are being transformed. All is for God’s glory!
May we continue to be faithful to complete the task!
Blessings,
Mark
Dr. Mark Flattery
Network211 President
