Web-based Prayers of Commitment and their follow-up - a brief survey

I make no claims that what follows is a rigorous survey, however, I think it is helpful in identifying some of the weaknesses involved in many Web-based Gospel presentations.

The Sites:
Using search terms such as "Prayer of commitment" and "commitment to Christ" , "finding Jesus", "How to Become a Christian," etc. in Google I compiled a list of sites that a "seeker" would be most likely to find. My searches produced 16 UK-based sites, made up as follows:

Church websites (3)
Christian Organisations (7)
Sites run by Christian individuals (1)
Denominational website (1)
Dedicated Evangelistic websites (4)

Results:

Of these all gave a presentation of the Gospel message and 14 suggested specific "prayers of commitment". Nine of the sites (56%) invited people to e-mail someone if they had made a commitment, one recommended that they find a church though www.findachurch.co.uk, one recommended Alpha and two referred peeople to the the US-based Campus Crusade for Christ website. Seven (43%) offered no personal follow-up at all and none offered to send any literature. Only one site specifically indicated that it recognised that its visitors might be international.

Evaluation:

The Internet has made it very easy to find out how to become a Christian. All of the sites presented the Gospel and invited visitors to make a response to it. When it came to the next step, they were far less helpful. Although all the sites were UK-based (as far as I could tell) two referred visitors to a US-based site for further information. While Campus Crusade are able to link American enquirers to local Christians they have more difficulty doing in so for those from the UK. 56% invited people to e-mail someone, but many did not name the person whom they would be e-mailing. One had not been updated site 2003 - was that person still there? It was disappointing that such a high proportion offered no means of personal follow-up at all.

Conclusion and recommendations:

It would seem that Web-based evangelism is missing an important element. While it is true that many people prefer to explore the Christian faith in private, a new Christian needs to make contact as soon as possible with a local church where he or she can be nurtured and taught. Those planning or currently running websites which have a Gospel presentation should therefore consider:

1) Providing an e-mail address of a named person for people to contact within their organisation / church.

2) Providing a link to www.newchristian.org.uk/ which provides material specifically aimed at New Believers from the UK and offers referral to Contact for Christ and www.findachurch.co.uk

3) Linking to the response form located at on the Contact for Christ website: http://www.deo-gloria.co.uk/cfc_request.php. Enquirers completing the form will then receive a free copy of the MTL magazine and the offer of a local Christian Contact.

Suggested Further Reading:

Church websites – a special opportunity