Matthew 28:18-20 is a couple of verses that most Christians are pretty familiar with. It tells us to "Go ye therefore and preach the gospel to all people..." That is not a direct, verbatim quote from scripture but, it's close.
Those verses are generally known as "The Great Commission." That's our mission statement as Christians. For years, that mission statement has been accomplished via door-to-door visitation, crusades where large numbers of people would be given in an opportunity to believe in Jesus as their Savior and other traditional means. And, those means still work in certain places. However, the world is changing if you haven't noticed. One of the primary ways the world is changing is through the power of the internet.
I was reminded again, last night of the power of the web...
I was in a committee meeting in our church and a young man who teaches at an area school told me that a new coach at his school whom I had met in the gym I am a member of checked out my sermon the web. When he told me that, I backtracked in my mind to the conversation with the coach.
It was about a week ago. I spoke with the coach and we chatted a few moments. We joked a little about the rivalry between the school he coaches at and the school my son attends. I didn't think much about our conversation after that.
Until last night...
I was talking with this committee about the need to possibly spend some money making our church web-site better. And, this young man smiled and said "Yeah, Coach... checked out your sermon last week."
I was stunned... I guess I shouldn't have been.
The way people select churches has changed some. Now, when they move into a community, they can visit your church via the internet before actually visiting the church.
This coach whom I met in the gym had evidently gone home or to work and pulled up our website and listened to a few minutes of one of my sermons. I thought that was neat.
We have opportunities all around us today to spread the gospel. We need to ask the Lord to illuminate our minds and help us think creatively to reach this generation with the love of Jesus.