Online Evangelism

A guide to Web Outreach

You can reach the world

Join the team! (Basic Information about Careers and Training)

The Internet has become a powerful tool for us to use in evangelism for His purposes or it can be a destructive tool as many are aware. It is up to the believer, not the world how it goes and how the Internet will be used. We choose to be involved or not. If we as believers do not get involved then we leave it to evil, like all things in that happen in the world. Our Daily Bread, Missions, its members, churches, schools, organizations and ministers use the Internet as an inexpensive yet effective communications tool to educate and connect those that have and desire to share with those in need.

These resource pages explain strategies for using it - principles of communication which often apply equally to other forms of outreach too. You can also easily integrate these pages into your own site with a few lines of code. It is a part of what we offer at ODB. We also offer ways to increase productivity in ministry, reduce ministry debt and increase income, all of which are based on sound biblical principles through Outreach Consulting Services.

S e c t i o n C o n t e n t s
Introduction 1. Old story about the Old Story 2. Push or pull? 3. How people become Christians 4. Web strategy to reach millions 5. Church pages that work 6. Top evangelistic sites	7. Writing and language 8. Page usability/webmaster resources 9. Follow-up 10. Witness without web pages 11. Getting site visitors 12. The future Evangelism resource links

Introduction Top

"An incredible new technology enables the transmission of text on a worldwide basis. It rapidly reduces production and distribution costs and for the first time allows large numbers of people to access text and pictures in their own homes."

You've guessed it. The invention of 'movable type' by Gutenberg - the printing press. It transformed education, learning, evangelism and communication. It laid the foundations for the Renaissance, the arts, sciences, and the world as we know it today. The digital revolution is bringing about a similar huge change in evangelism, Christian discipleship and community, in ways which are only just beginning.

"Using a computer for online religious activity... could become the dominant form of religion and religious experience in the next century."
Professor B Brasher, author: Give me that Online Religion (Jossey-Bass)

Although the Internet first grew in USA and northern Europe, it is now no longer a toy for the rich West. Users in China are expected to reach 100 million in 2003. Only one country in the world bans Internet usage - N. Korea.

There are Christian 'future-watchers' who can help us to see the trends in society, culture, and the Internet revolution: Teaching IT and Web skills is therefore becoming an effective way of sharing the Gospel.

Eministry - newsletter from Andrew Careaga
Future Church - Tom Hohstadt's occasional newsletter on the way the church is changing
Global Change - views of the world from Dr Patrick Dixon
Research links - detailed analyses of the effect of the Internet on the church and evangelism, plus Web Evangelism conference reports

The needs of the world remain as great as ever: needs for food, shelter , those in prison and how a bigger question how to keep people out of prison and how to just get through life. The Internet like life and world can be a powerful and God-given medium to help us fulfill the Great Commission or in many cases be used for destructive purposes. Through this site alone we reach out to more than 50,000 people per month and it increases daily. As a part of ODB'S Outreach Consulting Services we can show you how to do the same, Even its name reflects the nature of the fishing net which Jesus spoke of in Matthew 13:47 and elsewhere.

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1. The old story about the Old Story Top

The "99% problem"

Go into any Christian bookshop. Maybe 99% of the books and videos are written only for Christians, using Christian language, thought-forms and assumptions. Some Christians believe that "because it is Christian, it is evangelistic". But this is not usually true.

The same thing applies to most Christian websites. 99% have been written with only a Christian reader in mind. Of course, some non-Christians will visit them too. And if they already have an interest, maybe they will stay to read. But this is like hoping that non-Christians will walk in off the street into our church services. Some do. But most will not. (And site visitors will usually leave in 5 seconds, if they cannot relate to a page.) So we often find that we are only touching the people who may have a Christian background or interest. We reach the 'once-churched', but we do not touch the 'never-churched'.

The sad thing is that because some evangelism does happen successfully this way, Christians do not realize that we are not touching everyone in the society. And of course, some churches give evangelism and world mission a very low priority in their programs. Yet Wesley said, "You have nothing to do but to save souls."

We can help the wider church to understand the importance of online evangelism so that:

Christian churches will help fulltime evangelistic ministries financially.
they will encourage and support individual Christians to become involved in spare time online witness.
every local church will have a website.
there is a wider understanding of the best ways to reach non-Christians online.
outreach can be less expensive using the Internet rather than print, reach more people, increase productivity, decrease debt and increase income. The Internet can be a true win, win with the proper guidance. As a member of ODB we offer all the tools and the guidance.

You can help achieve these goals by adding the content of this page to your own site. It is easy - just copy/paste a few lines of code. You can also print out this poster for your church notice board.

Because everyone sees the Internet as a 'free' resource, and because those involved in online evangelism produce no tangible 'product', it seems true that the wider church does not realize that online evangelism ministries need support and encouragement. There are surprisingly few Christian organizations actually involved in primary online evangelism.

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2. Push or Pull Top

Why the Web is a different medium

Push
Print, video, radio and TV are mainly 'push' mediums. They communicate by sending out a consecutive ('linear') prepared message, usually only to a single area of the world.

Pull
The Web however is a 'pull' medium. It pulls in visitors - though only on the basis of a defined interest. People usually go only to pages on subjects they are searching for. And of course, the incredible advantage of the Web is that it is global: anyone, anywhere - in China or the Middle East - can find a page in seconds.

Two-way
The other unique property of the Internet is interactivity. Not only are users in control of which pages to visit, they can also send feedback to a webmaster. They can easily ask questions, receive help and advice, leave comments in a guest-book, or discuss issues on a Bulletin board or an email discussion group. This option to build 'community' around a website is very important. It helps people feel wanted and that their opinions are valued. It gives them a place where they can ask questions in a safe way, when perhaps they would not do that face-to-face.

For evangelistic websites, this interaction is very important. Very few people become Christians just by reading something. Conversion is usually a long process, and involves friendly interaction with people who are already Christians. Think back to how you became a Christian. For most people, seeing the life of Jesus in someone else, usually through experiencing friendship, is the most powerful witness.

All mediums are not the same
TV is not just radio with pictures. Print is not just speech written down. So too the Web should not be seen as just another way of delivering tracts or sermons. It is a revolutionary medium which can be used for evangelism if we understand its unique dynamic and develop strategies which understand and 'work with the grain' of an interactive medium where the user is in control.

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3. How people become Christians Top

It is important to understand the process by which people become Christians. The 'Gray Matrix' (proposed by Frank Gray of FEBC Radio) is one very useful way of seeing the process. It is a modification of the 'Engel Scale of Spiritual Decision', produced by the missiologist James Engel in his book What's Gone Wrong with the Harvest, (Zondervan 1975).

The original Engel Scale proposed 13 steps through which people usually travel on their spiritual journey:

         +5 Stewardship
        +4 Communion with God
       +3 Conceptual and behavioral growth
      +2 Incorporation into Body
     +1 Post-decision evaluation
    New birth
     -1 Repentance and faith in Christ
      -2 Decision to act
       -3 Personal problem recognition
        -4 Positive attitude towards Gospel
         -5 Grasp implications of Gospel
          -6 Awareness of fundamentals of Gospel
           -7 Initial awareness of Gospel
            -8 Awareness of supreme being, no knowledge of Gospel

You can see from this scale that perhaps we should present the Gospel differently to people who are at different points. Someone at -7 on the scale cannot be treated the same as a person at -3 who has already understood much of the Truth and is almost ready to place their faith in Jesus.

The problem is that Christian outreach often only touches people who already have an understanding of the Gospel because of previous church background. They know the language and concepts already. So, we can be quite good at reaching the 'once-churched', yet may miss the 'never-churched' completely.

Gray is the color of life
The Gray Matrix adds a horizontal axis to this scale - antagonism/enthusiasm. This very simple picture is very important because it helps us to understand important evangelistic concepts.

The lower-left oval shape represents a group of people who are fairly
resistant and lack knowledge. The challenge is to use approaches which
reach down as far as possible into the bottom left-hand corner!

Conclusions from the Gray Matrix

Effective evangelism is not only about giving people more knowledge. We must help them move from a position of antagonism (or just not caring), to feeling enthusiastic and interested. People will probably not move up the scale, unless they have first moved across to the right-hand side.
Anything which moves people from left to right, is as 'evangelistic' as something which moves them up the scale. This is very important for groups of people who are strongly against the Gospel. They will usually not be willing to move up the scale until their antagonism is reduced. They will probably also have misunderstandings about the Gospel message, which must be carefully explained. Acts of Christian service and friendship can often reduce antagonism. For instance, on the mission field, educational, medical or well-digging projects often lead to an openness to the Gospel. In a local church situation, mothers and baby clubs, youth groups, or hospital visiting do the same. For some people-groups, apologies offered for the past actions of so-called 'Christian' nations are also healing hurts and reducing antagonism to the Gospel.
We can define roughly where a person, or group of people, is situated on the scale. This helps us to choose the best approach to reach them. For instance, the oval shape on the left-hand side represents a person or group of people who are resistant to the Gospel and understand little of it.
Someone who has no knowledge of the Gospel will not understand Christian language and jargon. A big failing of much evangelism is the use of words and ideas which only Christians understand. It is also important to understand what other religions, cults, and the New Age movement believe.
Pressures of society and culture, and the strategies of the Enemy, will tend to pull people down towards the bottom left-hand of the scale. God's purpose is to draw people to the top right-hand side by His Spirit, through the witness of his people.

How the Gray Matrix helps us with online evangelism

We must assume that people have zero Christian knowledge. We therefore need to avoid using Christian jargon words. "Most Christian literature... begins too far along the evangelistic process; it assumes that the reader has at least some basic knowledge of Christianity and biblical concepts," said the director of a very effective literature outreach recently in Interlit magazine. We live in a post-Christian culture. Since most people have never attended church, been to Sunday School, or learned anything of the Bible in school, they have a complete lack of knowledge or understanding, and no biblical framework in their minds. Any 'spirituality' that people have, is usually shaped by New Age ideas.
For people who may be antagonistic or uninterested, we must work hard to identify with their feelings. We must avoid a 'preachy' approach, and instead place ourselves at their level, in their shoes, relating to their interests and language. This is sometimes called "contextualization". It has nothing to do with compromising or watering down the Gospel. Catherine Booth, co-founder of the Salvation Army, said,
"God forbid that I should ever teach any adaptation of the Gospel. But I contend that we may serve it up in any sort of dish that will induce the people to partake of it."

Contextualization is important to communicate with those of other faiths or none. "You never know till you try to reach them how accessible men are; but you must approach each man by the right door." (Henry Ward Beecher)
Sites which are obviously 'Christian' in style, language and graphics, will mainly reach people who are already seeking, who have some knowledge and enthusiasm and probably a church background. This is one of the biggest barriers which prevents sites from fulfilling their true potential and touching people who are 'un-churched'. It is possible to express most Christian truth without using any Christian words other than 'God', 'Jesus', 'Bible' and 'heaven'. Better to use 'God' than 'the Lord', and 'Bible' rather than 'the 'Word of God' because these terms are more neutral.
Christian organizations 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.
Almost every other Christian word or concept can be expressed in non-religious words. If it is essential to use a religious word, define it. When Words Get in the Way explains this well - every Christian writer should print this out.
Of course, even a site which is written entirely for Christians (as is this one) should still offer an explanation of the Gospel for non-Christians who happen to visit. See the meaning of life link in the contents menu, which is also available for you to link to if you wish.

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4. Strategy to reach millions Top

"If you want to make an evangelistic page, don't write about the Gospel."

Are you serious?

But what are most people searching for online? The things that interest them!

Sport
Health
Sex and relationships
Advice on personal problems
Hobbies
Local information
Tourism ideas
Humor
Films
Music
News-related things
Famous people
plus a million other things

Writing yet another presentation of the way of salvation is not going to reach any of them, unless we "fish on the other side of the boat", by using . . .

The Bridge Strategy: "Be what they are searching for"

"Bait the hook according to what the fish likes, not what the fisherman likes." (Hemingway)

Write pages on these secular subjects or felt needs and you can target any group of people. This is often called the 'Bridge Strategy'. Others may use a different name (for instance 'magnet pages'), but it means the same - identifying with the real interests. This does not mean that we make trick pages that are not really about the subject they claim to be. If we write a page about restoring VW cars, or breeding mice, or a favorite musician, the page must truly be 'about' that subject. It must be as good and informative as possible, maybe with many helpful links to other pages on the subject.

How to build a 'bridge'

There are several ways that you can draw people 'across the bridge' to pages which explain the Gospel:

a. Your testimony
Whatever sort of site you have, make a link to 'meet the webmaster' or 'my story'. Here is a chance to share your testimony. (But don't call it 'testimony' - that's a Christian jargon word.) Introduce yourself first, where you live, what you like, etc. Then go on to explain how something happened to you which changed your whole view of life. "People are interested in people." They always turn to the human-interest stories in newspapers first. Short audio or video clips of the person can also add interest to a testimony page.

Angie's Story - how to write testimonies for non-Christians

b. 'Meaning of life' links
On any type of website, you can offer a link such as 'What is the meaning of life?' or 'Finding real fulfillment'. These do not sound preachy or even Christian, yet show some sort of non-threatening 'spirituality' content.

c. Parable meanings
Jesus used stories with a message as his main means of evangelistic communication. And he didn't always explain the meaning - he left people to go away and think! Whatever the subject of a website, it is possible to write a page which brings out a parable or allegory from the main subject. For instance, a site about restoring VW cars can include a page which suggests that just as old cars need new engines, we need something new inside our lives. A site about breeding mice, can include a page about how a mother mouse cares for her young, and this is the same as God's care for people. There is an angle like this for almost any subject. Films, books and music lend themselves very well to this approach. They often contain meanings which the writers never intended.

Read a parable about Parable and Truth - an old Yiddish story.

All these types of pages can also link to a central part of the site which explains the Gospel in meaningful easy terms . . .

Explaining the Gospel
It is actually hard to explain the essentials of the Gospel in a web-page, taking these factors into account:

using easy non-religious language.
clearly explaining that the Gospel is completely free (few non-Christians understand this), yet balancing it with the other truth - that it is not 'easy-believism'.
show that God wants to care and support people through every problem of life - yet there are no automatic promises of health or wealth.

It may better to link to an existing Gospel presentation, instead of writing your own. There are some high-quality presentations available from major ministries, and they often have the advantage of a follow-up system for inquirers. Power to Change is a good presentation in a growing range of languages:

Take time and prayer to find a clear strategy and focus for an evangelistic site. The best sites are usually preceded by months of prayer and online research.
[Cartoon: "How's the Website?"]

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5. Church pages Top

The first thing that needs to be examined is what exactly is a church? The traditional view was that a church was a building with a steeple, but today a church can be any type of outreach including Internet web pages that may have an impact on a community. Less than one hundred years ago churches served many functions. It was the local church, meeting place, school, and a place to get help. The reason steeples were put on church buildings was so travelers could see it as a focal point in the community from a distance. Today sadly enough the church in many areas is no longer the focal point as churches have stopped being a resource for the community. That of course needs to change. We all need to be focused more on serving the needs of others and not just preaching. The same thing can be said about the Internet. Churches in His Love need to work together to reach the needs of all. It is the body with many parts, but the body needs also to learn to communicate with other parts of the body to reduce redundancy, being better stewards of the resources available, and the less redundancy the more productive and the more people can be helped.

On a church page, visitors will expect the material to be Christian! However, most church sites seem to be written only for their members. Outsiders are not always obviously welcome. Few church sites carry any sort of link explaining the Gospel. Even fewer make such a link look enticing and relevant to non-Christians.

From bottom up, before anything is written, plan to:

Make the site for non-Christians too
be welcoming
be non-preachy
give non-Christians a reason to visit

Pinecrest Community Church is a very good example of a welcoming church site which is reaching many very effectively.

Church sites can also use the 'bridge strategy' to draw people in, by making pages on secular topics. A page of secular community links (covering shops, schools, colleges, tourism, local history, etc.) is particularly good for a church site. Churches with pages designed to welcome non-Christians are finding them to be an effective outreach .

Detailed ideas to give evangelistic emphasis to church sites
This comprehensive page of resources is also available for easy syndicated insertion into any website.

An online two-way discussion for inquirers, based on the Alpha evangelistic group Bible study concept, is a strategy with big potential for church sites:

Online Alpha-type courses

And surely all church sites should carry testimonies of some members.

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6. Top evangelistic sites Top

Power to Change

Power to Change from Campus Crusade Canada is an excellent general-purpose evangelistic site, combining a clear explanation of the Gospel, questions and answers on particular problems, and testimony. It is available in a number of languages, and the team is looking for help to translate it into new languages. Consider linking to it, rather than attempting to write your own explanations of the Gospel.

CCC has partnered with other ministries and groups of churches to promote the site using secular advertising on buses (for a regional church-based campaign) and TV advertising.

Using the 'Bridge' approach

There are many good evangelistic pages using the 'Bridge' concept:

a. Sport, hobbies and special interests
Sports have a worldwide following - there are even Chinese-language Manchester United sites! An evangelistic site can be built around a particular sport, team, event, or sports-people. The Goal and To the Next Level use testimony in a very effective way.

Jason Stevens is built round an individual Christian sportsman. But there are few other such sport pages.

Hobby pages and affinity-group interests represent a major evangelistic opportunity.

b. Science
Life's Big Questions is an excellent and thought-provoking presentation of the relationship between science, cosmology and faith, featuring interviews with top scientists. Note how the site does not criticize science or sound preachy. Because of this, and because it interviews top people in their fields, it retains credibility.

c. Health and personal needs
Health sites are the second most searched-for on the Web. (You can guess the number one topic.) There are many opportunities to create support pages around a particular illness. Sadly, although a number of Christians have done this, often they have defined the page as a 'support page for Christians', which seems to exclude non-Christians. But others have realized the importance of building pages that welcome non-Christians, on such topics as heart problems, diabetes, sudden infant death, post-abortion trauma, Parkinson's disease, or post-polio syndrome. There are many opportunities to create other such sites.

People have so many personal needs and desperately seek answers online. Running on Empty is a well-designed site which deals with inner emptiness and needs, without seeming preachy.

The needs of business professionals are addressed in a very effective Priority Associates integrated outreach.

d. Women's interests
Women Today Magazine is a remarkable comprehensive site (1000+ pages) from Campus Crusade Canada. Note how it offers useful information for living, and does not obviously appear to be Christian or preachy on the front page. There is testimony and evangelism in there - when people are ready for it. One of the site team writes: "This strategy has worked well for Womentodaymagazine.com, which receives over a million hits from all over the world each month. By taking a 'value-added' approach to sharing Christ and offering people legitimate products and services, both IamNext.com [see below] and Women Today Magazine are very effective in gaining a hearing for the gospel."

Technical note: despite a complex front page, Women Today Magazine and IamNext work well at any screen resolution, down to 640 x 480 or even WebTV, and do not force irritating horizontal scroll-bars at these lower resolutions. (This is easily achievable by using percentages and avoiding graphics which would force a table too wide.)

A case study on effective communication
Because Campus Crusade also produces Christian Women Today, a site of similar appearance but for Christian women readers, this makes a wonderful opportunity for a case-study comparison. At first glance, some Christians would see comfortable Christian words on front page and inner pages - prayer, Bible, saved, etc., and say, "Ah, this is the best evangelistic site. This must preach the Gospel." But no! Christian Women Today was designed for Christians. No doubt some non-Christians will visit, as with any site.

Editor Claire Colvin writes: "It seems so obvious that a Christian site is not necessarily an evangelistic site. One of the biggest barriers that stops a site from being truly evangelistic is language. One thing you'll notice on the Women Today site is a lack of Christian terminology. You don't see words like 'church, pray, salvation, holy, sanctified, born again, repent'. Instead, you find articles written from a Christian perspective but presented in regular English."

Read the case study - and see how this ties in with the Gray Matrix in Section 3. This short study illustrates one of the most important issues in effective evangelism.

e. Teens
IamNext is another valuable site from CCC. Using the same strategy as Women Today Magazine, this highly effective, non-preachy site can easily engage young people and students. The team writes, "In the first 10 days of April alone, 12 people prayed to receive Christ and eight people re-dedicated their lives through IamNext.com, Campus Ministries' new evangelistic website for university and college students. Site statistics indicate that hundreds more have been exposed to the gospel by going through The Four Spiritual Laws and reading student testimonies. Reports of more conversions and rededications are coming in each day."

Other top teen/student sites:

f. Children
Sadly, most Christian pages for children look very like Sunday School lessons for those with plenty of Bible background. There are few truly evangelistic sites for children who know little of Christianity. What is the reason for this? Here is a big gap to fill!

Games can be a feature of children's websites, and can be easily added to a page using Javascript.

Kidsranch uses the right approach
Kids games: Nadya's Underwater Adventure Game and Mission X Space Game.
Youth Groups Youth Groups and Resources
Other children's pages
Free Javascript sources - how to use Javascript, and when not to

g. Bulletin board apologetics discussion
Many evangelistic sites include bulletin boards for feedback and discussion. 'Apologetics for non-Christians' sites are particularly suited to this type of interaction. Some are designed mainly for discussion, others include additional apologetic material too:

The Debate - Christian/Muslim dialogue
Unravelling Wittgensteins Net - fairly intellectual discussion
Defending the faith - atheism/Christian dialogue
Jesus.com.au comprehensive interaction with culture
More sites

h. Looking at the culture
Almost every culture spends a large part of its leisure time in an unreal world! Where? The world of stories: books, theater, films, video. Why did Jesus communicate almost entirely through short stories? And often leave people to go away and think...?

One of the most popular evangelistic sites on the Web (with many millions of hits) is Pastor Dave Bruce's Hollywood Jesus. He used to work in the film/broadcasting industry and writes about recent film releases, not as normal film reviews, but instead looking for parable meanings from the story-line. Leslie Hand's Movie Glimpse uses a similar strategy - read her explanation of this approach.

A similar strategy can be used for many pop songs and music groups. Music pages receive millions of hits. The words of most songs are about emotions or situations which make a starting point for a parable interpretation. A similar approach can be used with fiction and plays. Yet almost no-one is using this approach - which could touch millions of people.

Shoot the Messenger. analyzes popular culture from a Christian viewpoint: music, film, literature, magazines, TV and cultural trends such as fashion, recreation, New Age beliefs, social, philosophical and political issues. They are excellent non-confrontational evangelistic sites carefully targeting non-Christians.

'Reality' TV is unbelievably popular, with shows such as Big Brother and Survivor attracting millions. UK's official Big Brother website had millions of hits in a week. More British people voted to remove Big Brother members, than voted in the 2001 British government elections. Gospelsearch has used this approach in English and several Scandinavian languages to create the Big Father site.

Understanding our culture
It is very important that Christians learn to understand the post-Christian 'post-modern' culture we live in, so that we can learn to present the Gospel in appropriate terms. These resource sites for Christians are designed to equip us for this:

It is also important to understand what other religions and cults believe.

i. Educational & Informational Needs

Today there is a great need for resources of all types including good information that can be used for many purposes. An example of this can be found here: Links & Resources which offer a wide variety of links to internal and external sites. The other option is to offer a few good information on specific subjects. Here are but a few examples of specific interest:

Family Resources Parent & Family Resources

Food Banks, How to Start a Food Bank

Home School Resources

Home School Homework Sites

"How to Write, Publish & Market Your Manuscript or Book"

Once again these are just examples of specific points of information that may be of interest to a variety of different people for different reasons.

j. Other approaches
There are many other ways for sharing the Gospel online:

Community sites built around resources for a local town or area.
Games - could be very powerful, yet very few games are available.
Cartoons and humor - everyone loves humor - and it can smuggle truth past people's defenses.
A large site based on an expansion of the Kamloopslife.com site is proposed, with many contributing editors, on the same basis as About.com. This could be the ultimate 'bridge' site, combining pages on many secular subjects with a sensitive lead-in to testimonies and an evangelistic section, and also linking together many existing evangelistic pages. Pray for this one - it could be powerful.
Email discussion lists or newsletters based on a secular topic can also be used, such as Rivervalleyweb.
Teaching English offers many opportunities for the several hundred million people who are learning the language.
CD-Roms can also be used in evangelism - as games, interactive presentations, and video (in Video CD or DVD format).

There are thousands of other subjects for evangelistic websites. Hobbies, people, history, tourism. If you have an interest in it, you are equipped to write about it! There is a big need for sites which engage with New Age and occult issues in a sensitive way.

more evangelistic pages - some of the best available in many languages.

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7. Writing and language Top

Writing for the web requires the style and gifts of the journalist, not the preacher. The Press has had more than 200 years to learn how to communicate effectively in print. Learn from them. Read books on journalistic writing. Observe the way newspapers and magazines tell stories. They know the rules for clear communication and keeping a reader's interest.

Read widely, especially secular newspapers and magazines. Cut out and file away stories, illustrations, and ideas, which may be useful as a basis for future articles.

It is harder - and 25% slower - to read print from a computer monitor than on paper. If people cannot easily read a page, they will lose interest and leave. Help them by:

Short sentences
Short paragraphs
Lots of 'white space' around the text, with <P> paragraph breaks between paragraphs
Use 'san-serif' fonts which are 20% faster to read on a computer monitor
Aim for no more than 65 characters per line by using wide margins. Longer lines slow reading considerably
Enticing, sometimes intriguing headings, which are not 'preachy'
Use frequent subheadings to break up text and draw the reader on
Small quick-loading graphics add interest to any page

Taking care of the stranger
Realize that many visitors to an English-language site are from other countries and may be second-language speakers:

Avoid idiom and slang from your country which others will not understand
Explain references to places and situations which only those in your country know
Aim for a simpler writing style. Avoid complicated words and sentence structure. This helps even first language speakers to read quickly. "We are not here to impress, but to express."
Assume zero Christian knowledge

Revise and edit and revise
Never put a first draft of writing online. Revise and edit many times. It is usually possible to cut word-length by 25% or more, and increase clarity at the same time. Ask other writers to critique your pages, and be humble enough to accept their advice.

Kill the typos
Of course you should use spell-check! But this won't find grammatical errors such as it's (only ever means 'it is', never 'belonging to it'), and who's (only ever means 'who is', not 'belonging to [that person]'). Apostrophe with 's' never means more than one of anything - it only ever means 'belonging to' or indicates a missing letter e.g. who's.(Avoid banana's, video's, apple's to mean 'more than one'). This applies to numbers and abbreviations too - 60s and CDs is correct, 60's and CD's (though commonly used) are not really OK. The only time an apostrophe should be used for a plural is when the meaning would otherwise be totally confusing or meaningless, e.g. do's and dont's.There are other easily-made mistakes such as loose meaning 'lose' which rob a web-page of credibility. (One possible trick is to delete these common words from your spell-check dictionary. Then they will always display as errors, so you can assess correct usage.)

Hyphens however are under-used. They can link words together in a logical way. This is important where there are several adjectives which belong together. For instance:

The ticket is first class but The first-class ticket
That fact is well known but The well-known fact

Without the hyphen - and especially if the line breaks after the first adjective - meaning is temporarily lost. For the same reason, it is better to hyphenate 'no-one'.

It is also important to use a consistent style of punctuation. Use our house-style/grammar guide to help you.

Which language to write in?
There is a big need for evangelistic pages in many languages.

English remains the most popular language of the Internet. If English is not your first language and you wish to reach beyond your own country, you may wish to produce pages in English.

Remember, you have an advantage: if you are a second-language English speaker, you know which words of English are difficult to understand, so that you can avoid them. You will also understand the importance of not using English idiom and slang. But it is important that you avoid translating your own idiom and sentence structure into English. Also learn to avoid 'false friends' - words which sound the same in English and your language, yet have slightly, or very, different meanings. If you have the opportunity, ask a native English speaker, who is also good at writing, to edit your pages.

Learning from the Press and copywriters
How to avoid idiom
Write enticing headlines, subheadings and titles
Writing tips - weekly advice from Judy Vorfield

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8. Page usability Top

"Content is what you say, design is how you say it," says Warren Kramer of Gospelcom's Daily Wisdom. Even if the written text is clear and understandable, no-one will read it if the site design is confusing. Here are some tips:

Page backgrounds should be very pale, and normal text should be black. The lower the contrast between the two, the harder it is to read. Those with color blindness or other visual impairment will struggle with low contrast or colors they cannot distinguish between. Be aware of the way that color transmits a message which can enhance or detract from what your pages are intended to communicate.
'Reversed-out' print - i.e. pale text on a dark background - is hard to read, and should not be used except for headings or very short blocks of text.
Most people find that sans-serif fonts are clearer - indeed research has shown that sans-serif fonts are 20% quicker to read from a monitor. If no 'FONT FACE' is specified, most people will read the text in browser-default serif font, as this sentence displays. The following font specification has the advantage that it works on Macs and Unix machines without problems:
<FONT FACE="HELVETICA,SANS-SERIF,ARIAL">
Graphics should be small or they will take a long time to download. Many people in some countries have slow Internet connections and will have for many years to come. Learn how to shrink file-sizes of graphics with minimum loss of quality.
Use lots of 'white space' around text. Break it up into short paragraphs. Text which is narrower than full-screen is also easier to read.
'Splash pages' - those which are nothing but a large graphic plus 'enter' link - have been proven to lose visitors. Indeed, we lose people at every un-necessary click.

As important as the appearance of individual pages, is the way that they all link together. It is very easy to get this aspect of usability wrong. The web visitor does not, like you, know what all the pages contain. He or she is a stranger, navigating 'blind', and needs as much help as possible. However, the visitor wants to feel in control of the browsing experience. It is very important that those visiting your site know where they are, where they have been, and where they can go. This requires:

Navigation links which explain in sufficient enticing detail what each page offers.
'You are here' pointers can help the visitor know where they are.
Each page should be written as a logical entry point for a visitor, who may arrive directly at the page from a search engine, and will then want to know how to reach the rest of the site. It may therefore be wise to have a full set of navigation links on each page, rather than just the homepage.
While it is possible to fulfill these needs with frames, it is much harder to do it well, and many site designers avoid them.

Before designing a website, take large amounts of time to look at other websites and learn from both good and bad ones:

Are they readable? Why? Or if not why not?
Does the page layout distract or help reability?
Are they easy to understand and navigate? Or do you feel lost and confused?
Are the graphics quick to load?

Make notes about good design features to use on your own pages and the bad things to avoid.

Expect that your website will grow - so build in room for easy and logical expansion right from the start.

Site design and usability links

Navigation - how to make your site easy to navigate - and therefore keep your visitors
Usable Web
Jakob Neilsen's Alertbox
Yale Web Style Guide
SitePoint Tribune

A highly-recommended book on designing effective and meaningful homepages:

Homepage Usability: 55 Websites Deconstructed
Jakob Nielsen & Marie Tahir
New Riders ISBN 0-7357-1102-X

Maybe your library will order it for you? It is not cheap, but worth every penny. Online bookstores offer it at considerable discount.

Learn too from showcase examples of bad design and good design.

Webmaster resources - go here for a wide range of newsletters, links and tips.

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9. Follow-up of contacts Top

Any media outreach, using radio, literature, or the Web, has to face the problem of helping inquirers and converts who may be at a long distance. However, the Internet does have the advantage of rapid email communication for online fellowship and encouragement. There are also many good online discipleship/teaching pages for new Christians. For converts who live many kilometers from a church, online fellowship and mentoring may be a very big help to them. Even in southern Europe, there are huge areas with very few good churches. In the Middle East, it may be even harder for a new Christian to meet together with others. Ongoing online fellowship can be a lifeline to such people.

The Web also helps us to locate local churches and other help for new converts. People with particular problems (e.g. alcohol, sex, drugs, health, abuse) may need specialized help. It is important that we are familiar with good help-sites, so we can suggest to people where to find the support they need.

Giving help for problems and support for new Christians

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10. Chat room, Instant Messaging and email witness Top

Online real-time interaction in a chat room can be a highly effective form of witness.It is important to be sensitive and wise without arguing. [What is a chat room?] Some people visit chat rooms together with a friend to help each other and also pray for each other. Bulletin boards and email discussion lists can also be a place to share faith - though it is best when it is appropriate to the topic of the board.

Chat rooms can be built into larger evangelistic sites if they have sufficient visitors. Instant Messaging can be a quick way for site visitors to contact you, if you are frequently online.

Chat rooms are very popular with the young. A church can train its young people to learn how to witness through chat, email and instant messenger.

Learning to witness in chat rooms - especially for young people
Email, newsgroups, and instant messaging - other ways to share the Gospel

You can of course share your faith sensitively by email with anyone you meet in cypberspace. It is important to be aware of good evangelistic sites that you can refer them to, especially pages that explain particular questions they have. It is also possible to send Digitracts to those you are in touch with.

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11. Catching some visitors Top

Understand search engines and other methods of page promotion

Most people find evangelistic sites through links, particularly on search engines. It is important to learn how to get a high 'ranking' on search engines for particular keyword searches that relate to the subject of your site. Understand the way people string search words together, by obtaining good access statistics for your site.

It is sad that many good evangelistic sites do not apply these principles. People may spend days writing a good page, yet not spend the extra few minutes which would help their page to be easily found through a search engine.

These techniques are very easy, and include the writing of meaningful 'Title' and 'Meta description' tags in the 'Head' section of the page, and the use of <H> tags correctly.

Most of your pages should be logical entry points to the rest of your site. So each page should have its own different, carefully written, 'title' and 'meta description' tags.

There are also many other ways to promote your website, including contact cards.

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It is also very important to make your site 'sticky' to encourage return visits.

12. The future Top

Online outreach is proving to be an effective and far-reaching tool.

more stories of evangelistic results

There are many new developments and ideas for online evangelism. You may wish to receive regular news through our Evangelism Bulletin.

or subscribe using the form at the top of the page.

Here are trends that we can already see:

Internet access through mobile phones and hand-held devices - can they be used for evangelism?
Streaming audio and video will have a contribution as the Internet gets faster.
Cross-media outreach which links radio, literature and the Internet will be increasingly used.
It will soon be normal for most churches to have a website.
Template-site editing is helping people to produce attractive sites without understanding HTML at all.

The world will never be the same again. Increasingly, people use the Internet as a starting place for information, help, friendship, fun, and leisure. They can be reached! The opportunities are enormous.

There are many opportunities for big organizations with time, money and expertise, to produce large evangelistic websites. But there will always be a place for the sparetime webmaster, giving his or her evening hours to reach the world. Your fingers - on a keyboard - can be used in the battle for souls.

"Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle." (Psalm 144:1)

Other top evangelism links Top

Evangelism Toolbox - over 1,200 evangelistic, follow-up and discipleship resources in many languages from 50+ of the world\'s top organizations.
First Priority - weekly article about evangelism from top writers.
Fish the Net - large range of resources for evangelism.
DramaShare - communicating the Truth through drama.
Operation World - the definitive resource book/CD on every country in the world.
newWway.org - communicating effectively in today's world.
Jesus Cafe - learn evangelism in fellowship with others.
Rox35 Media - using cartoons for evangelism.
A4C - computer training for the under-privileged.
Free church-planting booklet - from IMB. Gospelcom.net - the biggest online Christian resource - online Bibles, CrossSearch directory, Daily Wisdom, and much more.
Free content - you can add this resource page to your site by copy/pasting a few lines of code.
Free evangelistic literature - in easy-English & other languages.

Credits; much of the content from this page was used and adapted with specific use for ODB with permission. To see entire page Gospelcom.net. We want to thank Gospelcom.net for their help and understanding in spreading the Word.