Take A Mission Trip Online

I'll never forget the day I was browsing in the computer section at Best Buy and I ran into a gentleman telling me about how his Kindergartner was required to have a laptop for school! I was shocked! It was that moment I knew the Internet had a huge impact on our world. I couldn't fathom why a 5 year old would need their own computer, but apparently that's how schools roll these days. Soon after that day, the iPhone came out. Finally, people could have the Internet at their fingertips all hours of the day no matter where they were going.

Before this starts to sound like I'm anti-Internet for all, I would like to add that without it, it would be a lot harder for me (if not impossible) for me to reach all of you with these messages. Although I imagine, printed newspapers would be doing better business. While I'm not thrilled with the dependency of the Internet that people have, I have seen it used for really great things.

Jesus said, "“Go and make disciples of all nations…” (Matthew 28:19).

The Internet simply could not make that any easier. Dozens of churches around the world agree and are planning to participate in a special missions trip that involves bringing Christ and His message to a huge community where the Gospel is not the most popular subject. So far, nearly 2,000 teens have signed up for the “Online Missions Trip” to bombard popular social networking sites with stories about God. The Online Missions Trip is a two week outreach campaign for teenagers and youth leaders to capitalize on the tremendous social opportunities that exist on the Internet and use it to share Christ with unsaved friends all over the world!





During the outreach, participants will upload videos and photos, post links, and use status updates to share what God is doing in their lives to online social outlets such as myspace.com, facebook.com, youtube.com, etc. Participants will also write notes, send messages, post blogs, create invitations to their youth group, and do other things that will help bring God up in a conversation online. It's a two week opportunity to bombard these social outlets with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Online conversations, however, are only the initial step. The goal is to eventually lead people into face-to-face discussions. Outreach events and new-believer follow-ups will start beginning on February 15 and will include a free four-part series from Lifechurch.tv, entitled “What’s Next?”

Here's a breakdown of what's happening:

Jan 11-31, 2009: Pre-trip training.
Feb 1-14, 2009: Online Missions Trip!
Feb 15, 2009: Outreach event/series and new-believer follow-up starts.

If you're interested in joining up and/or getting your church involved, there are fabulous resources on this site to help you. Are you already on Facebook? Add their facebook group and learn more!