A question in John Mark Ministries’ seminar on creativity asks: ‘If
you were to reach more people in the world via one communications
medium, what would you use?’ (Correct answer: Coca Cola containers –
they’re in more places than radio!). What would your message say? (See
below for mine!)

As a teenager, having just made a ‘decision for Christ’, I dreamed
about reaching millions with the Christian gospel. The motivating text
was ‘Preach the word; be instant in season and out of season…’ (2
Timothy 4:2 KJV).

So I put gospel tracts into letterboxes and left them in library
books. Later I wrote a large slogan on a storm-water drain near a
railway line; ‘witnessed’ on talk-back radio; conducted evangelistic
missions in universities and colleges; pastored a church where at least
two people were converted every week for nearly nine years (Blackburn
Baptist Church in Melbourne)… My recent book GROW! is an attempt to
explain the Good News to thoughtful young people and adults.

(My ‘evangelistic hero’ was Billy Graham – who’s probably spoken
face to face to more people than anyone in history).

Some of this I would not do again, or would do differently. The
gospel tracts probably turned a lot of people off; my apologetics was
often simplistic or even plain wrong!

But I still have a strong desire to reach those Jesus and Paul
called ‘lost’. Now anyone can do it, from a home computer, via the
Internet – part of the third great human revolution (after the
agricultural and industrial revolutions). Vast amounts of information –
to and from everywhere – are now moved very quickly: faster than mail
and cheaper than faxes and long-distance phone calls. And ‘cyberspace’
technology is developing at break-neck speed.

What Is The Internet?

These days you can’t read a computer magazine or the newspaper
computer pages with seeing constant references to the ‘Net’.

What is it? Imagine a huge village square, with 30-50 million people
(or more) milling around. Some are in groups – small-talking, arguing,
telling jokes, laughing, buying and selling, hugging, or fighting. Some
are deep into one-to-one philosophical – or romantic – conversations.
(Others are lurking in the bushes doing just about anything you can
imagine – and more). Many groups have a sign indicating they’re a
special-interest club: some have a ‘moderator’ who won’t let you join
unless you meet their conditions. Around the square people are browsing
in shops and libraries, where books and papers on any subject are
offered free!

The Internet is the biggest network of information in the world.

For as little as a few cents an hour, if you have a telephone line
and a computer with a modem, you can get onto the ‘Information
Superhighway’ from home or office, and ‘talk’ about anything that’s on
your mind, or get free information on just about anything.

A friend who is a university graduate plans to have his evangelistic
pieces read by a million people in 1995. That’s quite feasible. One
report suggests that 200 million people have access to some part of the
Net. Almost all U.S. universities and most schools are now ‘on-line’ –
as will most educational institutions in the West in the next few years.
Australia, with a computer in one in four homes is the fifth-largest
Internet-user.

It all started in the 1960s. The US Defence Department wanted a
communications system which could survive a nuclear holocaust. Then the
academic community used it to transmit and access information. For a
while it stayed that way – bureaucrats and technocrats and academics
swapping ideas and software etc.

Then, from about 1990, with cheaper computers and improved software
even the semi-computer-literate are getting in on the act. However, it’s
still dominated by left-brained ‘technos’: gradually more from
Humanities/Literature are coming on-line. And more theologians are
needed, urgently!

What’s On The ‘Net?

Actually there’s no one ‘network’, but lots of them – like Fidonet,
Compuserve’s for-profit network, denominational networks (PresbyNet,
EpiscoNet, SBCNet) etc. The Internet is really a network of networks.

What’s on them?

• Mailing-lists of people who pray for one another (eg. Agapenet);
• Newspapers and journals (Time Magazine, Christianity Today);
• E-mail where you can talk one-to-one to a friend in Zimbabwe or
  Poland or Antarctica or Iceland (some have met and courted –
  and eventually married – via e-mail!).

• You can buy stuff with a credit card (an estimated
  $US600 billion p.a. in goods and services will be bought/sold
  by the year 2000);

• Browse through university libraries;
• Converse in ‘real time’ on the IRC (Internet Relay Chat);
• Exchange ideas in ‘fan clubs’;
• Read the latest US Congress legislation or talk to the US
  president (yes, he’s ‘on-line’);

• Watch movie previews;
• Chat with a monk at the New Norcia Benedictine Monastery in W.A.;
• Get a free e-mail titled ‘How to find the most beautiful women in
  your town!’

• Kids can get help with homework (through Prodigy’s
  ‘Infonaut’s Homework Helper’).

• Or you can argue about vintage cars or atheism or movie stars or,
  well, anything…

Or this: last week on a Christian newsgroup I read an urgent message
from missionaries in Kazakhstan. Their 3-year-old, Nathan, had fallen
into scalding water, and was in a critical condition. Local medical
facilities could not help. They’d e-mailed mission HQ in Oregon, and a
plea was ‘posted’ around the world asking for prayer, and help to get
Nathan air-lifted to a German burns unit. All this within minutes!
Amazing! (By the way, if the cross-cultural missionaries you support
haven’t got a modem in their computer give them the $ to get one. Many
emergencies can now be publicized, prayed for and dealt with almost
instantly).

In fact, it’s almost impossible for a country to be ‘closed’ to the
‘Net. After failing to regulate faxes and TV satellite dishes the
Chinese government has bowed to the inevitable and opened China to the
‘Net, installing two commercial links to the outside world. We learned
first-hand about the dramatic 1989 events in Russia via e-mail from
private individuals in Moscow.

Newsgroups

Let’s look at one Internet facility: Usenet, comprising more than
5000 special-interest groups. They are organized into categories –
‘alt’ (alternative discussion groups), ‘comp’ (computer stuff), ‘rec’
(recreation, hobbies), ‘sci’ (sciences), ‘soc’ (socializing, social
sciences), ‘talk’ (for debates on a range of subjects), ‘biz’
(business), ‘k12’ (for teachers and students), ‘misc’ (topics that don’t
fit anywhere else) – and more. I ‘subscribe’ to about 50: favourite
religious groups include ‘aus.religion‘
and the largest, ‘alt.atheism‘. Others I
like – ‘alt.conspiracy‘, ‘rec.org.mensa‘.

This week I ‘posted’ about 30 messages on such topics as why
churches are a boring for young people, ‘atheism and rationality’,
biblical literalism, F.W.Boreham books I’m after (I collect him – the
most prolific Australian religious author until recently),
homosexuality, worship-styles, why baptism isn’t in the O.T., who are
the Quakers? American evangelicalism, ‘The most powerful person on
earth’, recovery from sexual abuse, etc. etc. Discussion follows –
sometimes heated – with maybe up to 40 people or more joining in. Fun!

And On The Lighter Side…

It’s fun reading the pithy quotes people use with their
‘signatures’. Here are some I like:

• ‘Be paranoid – they’re out to get you!’
• ‘The fourth law of computing: anything that can go wr
• ‘I just met a person who is a nun.’ ‘How do you know she is a
  nun?’ ‘She told me.’ ‘Maybe she was lying.’ ‘Nuns don’t lie.’

• ‘Throw the theologians into the cellar and bring more oysters
  and hot sauce’ (Garrison Keillor, The Book of Guys)

• ‘It’s best to read the weather forecast before praying for
  rain!’ (Mark Twain)

• ‘Abou ben Adam’s name led all the rest because the list was
  compiled alphabetically’ (Isaac Asimov)

• ‘Never criticize anyone until you’ve walked a mile in their
  shoes. Then, if they don’t like it, you’re a mile away and you
  have their shoes.’

• ‘Imagine if horse-racing had no horses… thousands of people
  could go to the race-track each day and save millions of dollars.’

• ‘Everything can be fixed by driving a nail into it. The only
  problem is finding the right sized nail’

• ‘Millions long for immortality who don’t know what to do with
  themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon!’

So Where Do I Start?

Well, get a computer – almost anyone will do, but the more powerful
the better – with a modem, and hook up to a telephone line. Then contact
an ‘access provider’ (eg. Dialix, Apana, Ozemail): these have different
costs, so you’ll need to figure out how often you use the ‘Net. Dialix,
for example, operates from all Oz capital cities, and once you pay a
small start-up fee (I think it’s $25, and $15 for an easy-to-understand
manual), they charge only 1c per minute, plus a small fee for storing
your files. Apana costs about $140 a year, with no further charges.
Ozemail costs $25 registration, $8/hour or $5/hour off-peak.

You need some software – often supplied when you sign up with a
service provider. I find Telix easy to use.

Any computer shop will guide you. Read Ed Krol’s The Whole Internet:
User’s Guide and Catalogue, or the shorter 10 Minute Guide to the
Internet by Peter Kent.

If you want a few hours of free access to the Net, phone Ozemail or
Compuserve and ask! Or join an adult education class: they’re now
offered everywhere.

Some Hints

• Pray about your motives for using the ‘Net: computer users tend
  to have a basic urge to control the world through their keyboard.

• Look over someone else’s shoulder as they ‘surf’ the ‘Net. Learn
  all you can before committing yourself.

• Spend a few months familiarizing yourself with the ‘ethos’ of
  the various groups on the ‘Net. Read newsgroups specially created
  for ‘newbies’. Read the FAQ’s (Frequently Asked Questions) for
  the groups that interest you. There’s help everywhere, once you
  know where to look for it.

• As a ‘missionary’ be sensitive to the ‘Net’s sometimes strange
  culture/s. You’ll learn some new languages (eg. a bit of Unix).
  ‘Net groups and mailing-lists have their own protocols. It’s
  called ‘netiquette’ (for example, it’s not good form to use
  CAPITALS – that’s shouting)!

• Don’t get turned off by weirdness or profanity: U.S. college
  students enjoy shocking wowsers! Some will parade their erudition
  (‘this debate got hijacked by a solipsist’). Others (‘Single mum
  college student…’) ask for money. Because of the anarchistic
  nature of the ‘Net you can’t easily remove the ‘village idiot’.
  Be tolerant, loving – and humourous! Remember Jesus related well
  to all sorts…!

• If you post something to a newsgroup or mailing-list, be brief,
  well-researched, accurate (particularly if you quote an author –
  it’s amazing how many non-Christians have read CSLewis and
  Josh McDowell), and conversational. Be prepared to have all your
  views challenged, by some very clever people. If you put a
  personal testimony or preachy gospel message on alt.atheism for
  example, they’ll chew you up and spit you out, fast! By the way,
  children’s access to the ‘Net ought to be carefully monitored: the
  most popular newsgroup of all is apparently ‘alt.binaries.
  pictures.erotica’.

Finally…

Navigating the ‘Net isn’t easy to begin with. You’ll experience
hours of frustration. It’s like a maze – or a blind person negotiating a
minefield while dribbling a basketball – only more difficult and less
dangerous! Over the next few years it will get more user-friendly.

We at John Mark Ministries want to encourage others to pursue this
strategic and ubiquitous means of evangelism, and in particular link
pastors and Christian leaders via the ‘Net.

My signature message? ‘If you have God and everything else, you have
no more than having God only; if you have everything else and not God
you have nothing!’ (Medieval mystic).

Rowland Croucher