One of the terms often used in media missions is digital strategies or digital evangelism. It may make sense on the surface, but you may wonder what that looks like practically.
Below is a breakdown of what it means to use social media and video as part of a digital evangelism strategy, which many church planters use these days because so many people are watching videos online or engaging on social media platforms. We want to meet them there with gospel truth.
Digital Evangelism
Step 1
Basically, church planters run ads on social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube –– even Google). The goal is to reach people who are open to the gospel. They are the good soil, as our friend Frank from The Best Possible Idea puts it.
Step 2
The ad may contain a portion of a video we've created or it may just point them to a specific video in a series.Either way, the videos, like Share the Story and He Changed Me, allow them to start engaging with the truth of the Bible.Our goal in creating the videos is to help people imagine being a follower of Jesus in their context.
Step 3
The church planters always develop a way for seekers to respond and get connected with a local believer. This may be a chatbot. (You know those chat boxes that pop up on some web pages asking you if you need help? Yeah, it's like that.) Or it may be a phone number they can contact.Whatever the pathway, the seeker can be discipled in person by a local believer. Face-to-face discipleship is always the primary goal.
Step 4
It's not just about having one person come to faith. The heart behind the way church planters are approaching discipleship is to disciple whole families or groups of friends.
We hope this gives you a better understanding of digital evangelism!