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It strikes me at least once a week that my world is pretty much wrapped up in the internet. Especially when I get to church and someone says something about talking to strangers that you come across each day in an attempt to let Jesus shine through you.
Um . . . there are many days that go by without me seeing anyone other than my family. We’ve started doing The Master’s Way DVD stuff about evangelizing, and one of the challenges is to talk to 5 people each day. To approach strangers, even to offer them a smile. For someone who doesn’t see 5 people a day, this seemed like a monumental challenge.
Then it hit me. I may not see people face-to-face every day, but our world really is online these days. I mean, I’ve only met my best friend in person twice. We’ve only spoken on the phone a couple handfuls of times. But we email constantly. I’m talking at least 2, as many as 18 (if I recall our ludicrous record) times a day. And that’s just Stephanie. I email many, many other people each day too. I comment on Facebook. On blogs. I answer questions on the ACFW loop. So you know . . . I really do talk to strangers each day and offer them virtual smiles.
The Master’s Way is going to be leading us up to witnessing to these total strangers, so naturally one of the first things they ask is, “Do you share your faith regularly?” After the obligatory questions of “What do you mean by ‘regularly’? And what do you mean by ‘share’?” (I mean, come on. Do you want to know if I do street ministry? If I’m just open to talking about it? What??), I realized that yes, in fact I do share my faith regularly. I blog about my challenges and realizations. I talk to people online about faith and how it fits in my life, how it leads me.
I’m not sure what Kirk Cameron (who put out The Master’s Way) was thinking about this type of ministry when he pointed out that we’re all called to minister, but I think it’s perfectly valid in this day and age. And more, I think it’s critical that we acknowledge it. I think it’s important that all those other people out there like me, who spend most of their days at home in front of their computers, realize that they’re touching people. Reaching people. Talking to people, ministering to people through their keyboards, their typed words. Their blogs, their Facebook posts, the Loop emails.
We’re in an E-world . . . and you know what? That’s a pretty awesome thing for the Kingdom of God. I may not be pounding the streets every day with Bible in hand, but I’m pounding Cyberspace with BibleGateway.com up in one of my tabs. And that’s not just okay–that’s really stinking cool.
The Master has a lot of ways of reaching people. Which one of them is the one that works for you?
Oh yeah, it's definitely important to be a good example–online as well as in the "real" world. 😉 I do make a conscious effort to set a good one . . . it just doesn't come up very often for me away from my computer, LOL.
Although I'm vain enough to never venture out in public without looking a click above decent. 😉
Um, yikes, big question!
Something that's really struck me recently is that I'm often being watched when I don't realize it. Like I have a friend who's a couple years younger than me, and she said growing up in church, she always watched to see what I was wearing and what I was doing. Which made me think, "Oh, gosh, I hope she didn't see me doing such-and-such."
Since I write for teens, I have a lot of opportunities to be an example for the ones in my world (both the real world and cyberspace). After having that conversation with my friend, I'm a lot more mindful of the example I set. And my fashion choices, lol.