|
|
November 1999
Why Use the World Wide Web?
By Phebe Clark Mertes
It is hard for anyone to have not heard the term "World Wide Web" in this day and age. So many are rushing to "get online" with it. From major corporations wanting to do e-commerce, to grade schoolers doing class projects, the term "Information Highway" does a good job of describing it.
What the world is rushing to do is not usually what the Church wants or condones us to do. Why should you get on the World Wide Web (WWW) is actually kind of simple, it is just another voice to be used to spread the life giving Word of Almighty God.
What the WWW can do for you:
1. Become a great resource for information
2. Can be used to communicate using written words via e-mail at a fraction of the cost of Long Distance phone charges
3. Allow shopping right from your home for certain items
4. Promote reading and communication skills
5. Help keep you up to date on topics you want to know about through e-mail 'lists'
What you can do for the WWW:
1. Become a witness for Jesus Christ and any other subjects you wish to
2. Minister the gospel through web sites, e-mail, online news groups and chat rooms
3. Publish information that will be helpful to others
4. Join online groups and help mediate and build fellowship in them
5. Stay aware of certain topics you wish to remain knowledgeable in to help support accurate reporting.
In May of 1995 a computer was placed in my lab that was World Wide Web compatible. I had done many Medline searches for medical journal articles for the researchers I worked for. The Internet was a tool I had used for 10 years previously. But with the creation of the first web browser called Mosaic, I was now seeing the Internet in color and pictures along with the text. I distinctly heard the Spirit of God say "I do not want my people to ignore the Internet as they did television when it first came out". That just set me off to learn how to program web pages and carry out His command to take the gospel to all the world which now included Cyberspace.
Now lets address why you should use the World Wide Web. Last count (and still not fully accurate) is that there are over 100 million people using it around the world. It is now available in almost every country. It reaches into places like Saudi Arabia where Christian Missionaries are not allowed; Malaysia, where a Christian preaching on the street was recently hacked to death by Muslims for his belief in Jesus Christ (Reuters News agency). The web is an evangelistic field- allowing you access to people all over the world without even having to leave your house. The WWW can be a great resource just like your public library is when you need to learn something. Since there are no peer reviews and editorial boards on the Web, you do need to be concerned with the source of the information you are reading, just as you would a newspaper article or TV news report. It can also be a tool for low cost communication.
You should think about the WWW the same way you do the library. I never go to the library and spend five minutes there, it takes at least an hour to look up the subject then find the books that can help me. The Web will cause the same problem, you look up one thing and find information on a dozen other topics you want to know more about. If you know how to manage your time at the library, you are ready to manage your time on the Web. You should consider your purpose to get out onto the web. Mine was to send e-mail and look up my favorite ministers' sites to learn more about God from them. For some it is to minister through chat rooms, a place where several people can send messages they have typed in all at the same time. If you are just looking around, the topics on the Web are infinite, it seems.
The World Wide Web can be analogous to a large shopping mall with bookstores, department stores and adult sexually oriented stores. Before turning yourself loose in a large mall, you need to know what you are after, and what you will not allow yourself to be lured into. One problem with the World Wide Web is that most people access it from the privacy of their own home where accountability may be nonexistent. At the mall you would be concerned that someone might see you walk into the adult book store, but in the privacy of your own home after your spouse has gone to bed you might decide to be curious and see what an adult web site has in it. Because of the ease of use, even small children can satisfy their curiosity if proper supervision is not provided. Being able to publish texts online for people to read has given us access to the taught Word of God. You can read the last three years of John Osteen's sermons on his web site. A pastor in Florida publishes his sermons and outlines for us. I get an e-mail called the "Pastor's little helper" with anecdotes and sermon notes and links to the full texts on their web site.
The WWW is a phenomena of communication that matches our fast paced lives and our use of technology. God knew exactly what He was doing when he started the Internet in 1969. He was putting into place a system that would allow us to communicate around the world. One evangelist, Gerry Davis, took a video camera that hooked up to his computer with him on a trip to Africa. He then broadcast back over the Internet videos of his meetings for all of his ministry partners to watch, and anyone else who happened to visit his web site during that time. How would you like to be able to see what your evangelist is doing with the money you gave him for his trip?
Better yet, how would you like to see the fruits of his labor that God accounts to you because you partnered with him in his work for the Lord? I have so many more testimonies of people in China downloading bibles when bibles were not allowed, a man in Saudi Arabia thanking a webmaster so much for putting up streaming video so he could learn about Jesus Christ whom he had never heard of before and how he was going to show the web site to others so they could get saved too. God is using the Internet for His glory. At the 1998 Inspiration Conference during the seminars about the Internet, several people said they had found their present church through the Internet. They researched a city they were moving to and found out about the churches in the area that had put up web sites. All religious organizations need to realize people are using the Internet like the yellow pages. You would put an ad in the yellow pages of your local telephone directory, you should also put at least a full page ad out on the Internet so people can find your phone number and service times.
The biggest use of the Internet is e-mail. There is a service called Juno mail that allows you to receive and send e-mail without full Internet access. This is a good alternative if you do not wish to be tempted to spend hours in front of the computer exploring all the web sites out there. The WWW is an exciting place to find people of like faith and personal interests. Just like joining a support group in your city, you can find people of all beliefs and personalities. Every organization needs to have a web site to help people at least know how to contact them. With a proper information design a web site can become an extension of every outreach in an organization that can save you and the person contacting you time and money. You can direct them to your documents online where they can read about you and print out any information they want. It is so much cheaper to publish on the Internet and the information can easily be edited to keep it up to date as opposed to having to reprint a brochure because of a typo in it. You should use the World Wide Web just like you do television, the radio, videos and audio tapes. It is now another voice to proclaim the Love of God to all the World.
Phebe Clark Mertes - Mertes Internet Construction Co. http://www2.txcyber.com/~pcmco Tel. 409.690.0338 Email. phebe@web-ministries.org
|
|
