The Next Frontier of Mission
When we think about missions, we often picture distant lands and unreached people groups. But what if you can participate in the next great frontier of gospel ministry by simply picking up your smartphone? The internet is a great place to do business, blow off some steam, and even build meaningful friendships. Many people today even meet their spouses online. But digital environments are also one of the most effective ways for you to share your faith, and for people who are seeking answers to spiritual questions to find them. While we often think of digital places as “imaginary,” they are where very real ministry happens—where lives can be touched, and hearts transformed.
Why Digital Ministry Matters
While the church sometimes has a reputation for being “behind the times.” While that may be the case sometimes when it comes to updating the décor of a church building, historically the Church has been at the forefront of technological changes, constantly leveraging new technologies to advance the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ. From Paul’s use of the Roman roadway system to bring his letters, to Gutenberg’s printing press allowing for the mass distribution of Scripture, to early pioneers of radio and television ministry like Aimee Semple McPherson and Oral Roberts, the Church has leveraged new technologies to reach people far from Christ.
The internet is no different. In fact, while many churches livestreamed their worship service online for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, the first known online Christian service was held on an early iteration of the internet in response to the 1986 Challenger space shuttle accident. Christians have been sharing the gospel on the web before most knew what the web even was.
The internet offers unparalleled reach. With a single post or video, you and I can share the gospel with people across the globe, including those who may never visit a church. To that end, we must work to support ministries like OneHope, Jesus.net, Palau Evangelistic Association, and Alpha, that have sophisticated digital strategies to reach people with the gospel. But for you and I, our online witness is actually quite simple.
Sharing the Gospel in my Digital Community
It may sound counterintuitive, but research shows that one of the most effective ways for you to share your faith in online environments is to simply be a trustworthy and hospitable Christian online, for your online friends to see. In a time when online discourse is often heated and kindness is often at a minimum, showing the excellence of the fruits of the Spirit in your life and living out a life transformed by the power of Christ is the most effective way to share the gospel. Studies recommend that for every 10 posts on social media, 8 should simply showcase you living your life in Jesus. The other 2 then should be explicitly about Jesus. This helps people see the good fruit that comes with walking with Jesus. It builds trust with people online, which is the first barrier a non-Christian must cross in their journey toward finding Jesus. If you want to see your friends and family come to know Jesus as Lord, digital hospitality is one of the simplest and most effective ways to partner with the Holy Spirit in seeing that come to pass.
Embracing the Digital Mission Field
While the digital frontier presents one of the greatest opportunities to spread the gospel––and it is also where the global Church is bearing much of its missional fruit today––many Christians don’t really take digital ministry seriously. Some view digital community as “not real” or a nice, peripheral ministry that a local church can do when it has adequate budget and staffing to support such an endeavor. But digital environments are the new wells where the majority of the global population spends an overwhelming amount of time, seeking everything from information to friendships, from commerce to answers to life’s grand questions. We must take seriously the call of God to go to wherever people are and do anything short of sin to reach them with the life-changing message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We can, and should, do this through the missional partners we support. But we should also consider what part you and I play whenever we pick up our phone.
Note: This piece was composed for the 2025 edition of Hope Magazine published by Evangel Church in Hanover Park, IL.