Developing an Online Church Planting Strategy – Part 2

Obedience Statement

Application

I will go like Jesus commanded us to go.

This means actually getting online.  They need to have a home base.  For our photographers, this means setting up a blog, getting flickr accounts, and doing a Google search for other photography blogs.

I will not go alone.  I will find at least one other person to go with me.

In this exercise, this part was simple.  We set it up so that two friends would work together.  In other situations, you may have to get started and start talking about what you’re doing.  Along the way you might find someone to join with you.

(As a side note, I’d love to start an ooVoo http://www.oovoo.com group to talk regularly with people who are trying to reach the online generation.  We would talk once a week about what Scripture is revealing to us and what we are doing about it as we seek to reach the online generation.  There is a limit of 5 people and there is no charge.  Email me if you are interested. Pauldwatson at pobox dot com.)

As I go online, I will go to communities or places within communities.

As our friends in this example post daily to their photography blog and put their photos online, they start looking for places online where photographers post their photos, tips, and talk regularly.  They get on twitter and plurk and search for people talking about photography, friend them, and join in the conversation.

They look for indicators of people who have moved their conversations beyond photography and started sharing details about their lives.  They begin conversations with these people and start talking about their own families and, as the conversation allows, the spiritual drive behind their love for photography – Jesus.

I will pray and I will get others to pray that God will send workers into His harvest.

Our photographers realize they are looking for people that God prepared to hear the Gospel, rather than shoving religion down everyone’s throats.  Since this is a God thing, they realize they need to spend time praying for this person.  They also realize that with their full-time jobs and families that they don’t have enough time to pray for something so huge.

Our friends read, http://www.reachingtheonlinegeneration.com/2008/11/19/stop-asking-people-to-pray-for-you/, and decided to do it within their context.  Within a month, they had 120 people praying per month for the communities of photographers who relate online.

I will be on alert and on guard, realizing that God doesn’t want me to be in the safe places of the world.  I will warn others as well.

Understanding that the photography world has it’s own set of temptations and that the internet made pornography so easy to access, our friends get Covenant Eyes accounts and immediately add their wives and close friends as accountability partners.  As they find other Christians working online, they tell them to guard their hearts the same way.  As they meet non-Christians struggling with pornography, they suggest Covenant Eyes and talk about how Jesus can help them deal with their addiction.

As I go, I will focus on engaging people within their communities rather than in false environments outside their community.  I will research the idea of raising financial support outside the communities I engage and see if it is a Biblical model or something I’ve adopted from my church culture.

Our friends decide to resist the urge to start an online church for photographers, even though that would have been fun.  They realize that a Christian photography website will attract Christians.  As they find Christian photographers, they start an online ooVoo Bible study, but they limit themselves to one study – they don’t have the time and they want to spend what time they have with lost people.

Since our friends have jobs, they really haven’t considered becoming full-time ministers.  They do most of their work on their days off and in the evenings after their families go to bed and while watching their favorite TV shows.  At this point, they aren’t mentoring enough leaders to take all their time.  They’ve talked with their wives and asked them to let our friends know if they feel the ministry is taking time away from the family.

They set up an Amazon affiliate account and link to cameras, equipment, and books they like.  They agree that any money that comes in through this account would first pay for their hosting expenses and then go into a PayPal account they would use to meet felt needs of people they encountered as they ministered.

As they read the Bible together, they will keep their eyes open for what they should do financially.  Right now, though, this isn’t a big issue.  They are just starting out, after all.

As I engage online communities, I will look for the smaller intimate groups of people that do life together.   I will also look at Scripture and see if a household is a group of related people or a group of people that relate to one another.

As our friends engage the online photography community, they get a chance to have a meetup with other photographers and their families in their city.  Additionally, they find a group of photographers on plurk who talk about their families and jobs.  They decide to engage both groups.

They also decide to read Acts and see if there are any examples of ‘Sons of Peace’ in the early church.  They also find that Matthew 9 and 10 contains more information about Sons of Peace.

I will bring peace into households.  I will not argue, but announce the reason I’ve come – to bring peace.  This happens once I’ve been invited within a home.

Every once in a while, our friends encounter people who take digs at Christianity.  Our friends respond only to offer themselves and their families as counter-examples to these negative experiences.  They do not engage arguments, but invite people to explore God’s Word for themselves instead of judging a who group of people based on the actions of a few.  When pressed, our friends back away from arguments realize that few arguments ever convince people.  Every once in a while, though, some people text them direct questions about the Bible.  Our friends always respond with an invitation to read the Bible together rather than directly answer the question.

As I go into online communities, I will look for the Son of Peace.  I will research Scripture for more about the Son of Peace so that I will recognize him when I find him.

Our friends begin to live out their beliefs online.  Rather than talking about WHAT they believe, they show HOW they believe it and point to Scripture as a reason for their belief.  They hope that ‘Sons of Peace’ will respond to this approach and identify themselves, like Cornelius in Acts or the Philippian Jailer.

When I find the Son of Peace, I will live in community with his household.

One day, someone emails the friends and says they want to learn more about God.  Our friends are ecstatic.  They say that the best way to learn about God is through His word.  They also say that the best way to read God’s word is in community.  They ask this Person of Peace if he has a group of online friends or family who would want to explore Scripture together.  He agrees to meet in a private chat room for a Bible Study and brings 5 friends.  Our friends start a Discovery Bible study with this first group.  (Email me if you want to see an example of a Discovery Bible study that works well online.)

If the household offers me anything, I will accept it.

One of the people in the new Discovery Group offers to clean the lens of one of our friend’s cameras, since he has a shop that does that kind of thing.  They ship him the lens, fully expecting to pay for the service.  The man ships it back and waves the charge.  Our friends accept the service graciously and eagerly look for situations where they can serve the group.

Once I find a Son of Peace, I will focus everything on him and his household.

Now they have this group, they focus on leading this group through the initial studies.  While they maintain their online presence, they don’t try to start more groups until the group can guide themselves through the studies.

As I find people who are sick, I will pray for them and heal them.

As our friends engage the photography community, they eagerly accept opportunities to pray for people who are sick.  They ask for God to heal them.  They also pray for all kinds of requests and give God glory when He answers their prayers.

I will give God glory as people are healed.  I will tell them why God would want to heal them and care about them.  I will tell stories of the Kingdom.  I will learn more about the Kingdom from Scripture so that I understand what stories in the Bible best illustrate what God means when He talks about the Kingdom.

When God heals people, our friends remind the community that they prayed that God would heal that person and point out that He did.

Additionally, our friends start looking for opportunities to tell ‘What if’ stories.  These stories, like the Good Samaritan, come from Scripture and encourage the group to think of things differently.

They also go and review the Gospels, looking for stories that talk about the Kingdom of Heaven.

When I do not find a Son of Peace within a community, I will move on.  I will pray and ask God about what it looks like to give this kind of warning within an online context.

Our friends agree that if they don’t find a Person of Peace within one community of photographers after 2 months that they would reduce their engagement with that community and move on to another community.

They aren’t sure about the warning and what that looks like, so they decide to pray for wisdom on that and as God to show them what He means and teach them how to obey this verse.