FAQ
Q: How many people are on the internet now?
A: More than 1 billion internet users “log-on” worldwide, expected to become 2.5 billion in the next five years.
Q: How can you reach people through the internet?
A: Over 1 million people a day do a search on the internet for a spiritual term. People are seeking answers. And they are looking for those answers on the Internet. The focus of internet evangelism is to effectively target the diverse range of internet users, including – but in no way limited to – teens, college students, women, men, business leaders, government and military audiences, and executive leadership in multiple languages.
Q: How do you know the internet is working to reach people for Christ?
A: Internet results are measurable on a daily basis. Visitors to every website can be monitored regularly. And since, in most cases, a response to receive Christ includes an email address, a trained volunteer can actually follow-up through email with the new believer.
Q: Can you connect people to the local church?
A: As a tool for presenting the gospel, the internet is one of the most efficient AND effective. But presenting the gospel is only the first step. Connecting a new believer or someone who has recommitted their life to Christ to a local church is key to helping that person grow as a Christian. To help grow disciples, internet evangelism can’t be about a one-time interaction, it must reflect a process of how people grow as Christians, providing the tools and resources to help someone move forward in their journey. The future is the growth of the local church, supported by internet access to content from the best and brightest thinkers in all of Christianity.
Q: How does Global Media Outreach respond to people who make decisions for Christ?
A: Global Media Outreach has developed an online Ministry Response System (named ARC) over the past two years capable of solving this problem. Here is a brief overview:
A response form (tied to spiritual metrics) can be attached to any evangelistic or discipleship site (examples include Student Venture's new www.Meant4More.com or our general one www.GodLovesTheWorld.com ).
When a seeker submits a comment or question, the system automatically routes it through a secure 'box' and distributes it to one of hundreds of trained, online volunteers worldwide. The volunteer has a window of time in which to respond. If the volunteer is unable to do so within a reasonable time, the e-mail can be re-assigned to another online volunteer by his or her Community Team Leader.
The volunteer sees a small preview ‘ARC-Mail’ window which informs them of the date, time and site the seeker visited, as well as a part of their comment or question. The volunteer can click on this “hyper-text” information, and a new window opens providing a fuller description + previous ‘threaded’ history (if any) of the person inquiring.
The volunteer can re-assign the e-mail to a more qualified person if the subject matter deals with a difficult area (such as spouse abuse or a foreign language), but if this is not the case, they can click on "reply" and a final window opens up which provides a suggested template answer + Computer Assisted Ministry (CAM) resources such as Bible search engines, the Evangelism Toolbox, GotQuestions.org, etc. The volunteer can use all or none of the template or resources in responding as they type a reply. The system is flexible, operates from any computer in the world with browser access, is scalable, translatable, and often does not take much time out of a volunteer's busy schedule to respond. A person can be set up to receive as few as one e-mail/day. Most responses can take only 5-10 minutes each.
Volunteers must fill out a form (available through this site), obtain references, be approved and then go through online training before they can answer e-mails.