I’m fascinated by Dan Scribner’s article about using Facebook ads to address (directly) unreached peoples. See his article, which was adapted from
with permission, by browsing here…
http://www.joshuaproject.net/facebook-and-the-unreached.php
It’s a fascinating concept and one which deserves a lot more study. Have you seen anything written up on this before (exactly this approach)? If so, can you point us to any resources? If so, please use the comment box that follows the web version of this item at the link below. Thanks in advance for any help, and Dan, thanks for your vision!
I have thought about this concept for a while. I think that there is a way to let many people on the internet self identify by providing the structure for them to communicate with others that are like themselves. You could create a portal of something like findmytribe.me and then point people to it from social sites. allow them to create their own language/people areas for communication. I could envision people who are displaced by college or persecution looking for people who are like them. The site could then have “adverts” for spiritual info. I do like the social info and targeted ads. That may be a quicker way to reach the people in least reached areas.
Global Media Outreach (www.globalmediaoutreach.com) is a ministry that is already doing what is described in Dan Scribner’s article. Some persons from our church have been serving as online missionary volunteers through GMO for several years, and have opportunity to answer questions and pray for persons from all over the world who are searching for spiritual answers and get connected through GMO’s ministry.
GMO’s website shows in real time where people are logging in with questions or responses, and gives a daily tally of how many have heard the Gospel and made decisions to follow Christ.
The persons involved from our church have found it to be a very worthwhile ministry. The GMO website gives more information about how people can be involved as online missionaries. GMO provides training and coaching for those who want to be involved.
This is an intriguing method of getting the gospel to these groups. However, it would be an even more exciting thing if someone designed a way for the new Christian to leave his/her contact information securely so someone doing missions in his/her area could contact them. This would require a lot of careful work to prevent those hostile to the gospel from gaining access to the new Christian, but wouldn’t it be amazing if these new Christians could begin to meet with local missionaries!