After this month I’m taking a break from writing this Everyday Evangelism column. It’s partly so I can focus more energy on reaching out online. This article explains a little of why.
There are 2.5 billion monthly users on YouTube. Three billion on Facebook. If these were countries, they would be easily the biggest countries on earth. How can we be missionaries to these lands?
Perhaps the first thing to say is that these are not foreign lands. Many of us live online now. If you’ve ever recommended a Christian podcast, or WhatsApped someone an article, or shared a video, either on social media or via a text, you are a digital evangelist. In all these examples, your audiences have been flesh-and-blood humans, and you might not have considered the digital nature of the outreach.
On the other hand, when you think of digital evangelism, like Speak Life’s outreach on YouTube for instance, you might think of it only as digital – yet every click represents a real person, really engaging with the gospel. We’re not reaching digital beings in the ninth dimension. All evangelism, no matter the medium, is person-to-person. And if it continues for any length of time, pretty much all evangelism will involve online engagement.
Think of my neighbour. He’s a smoker in rental accommodation, so he’s out on his front porch 25 times a day. This is terrible for his health, but I hope it’s been good for his soul because my wife and I get to speak to him daily. And that’s how our witness began. Funnily enough, the first spiritual conversation on the porch happened while he was watching something on his phone. He was moved by a viral video that sparked a gospel conversation. Within ten days he came to church for the first time.
Our in-person interaction included the digital and it led to more in-person. But also more digital – a lot more. Over the coming months we continued to speak about the gospel, sometimes face-to-face, but even more on WhatsApp. I sent him podcasts, videos, articles, memes and he responded in kind. I’d say the majority of my gospel-sharing was via digital platforms – and this is my neighbour, with whom I share a bedroom wall.
Digital evangelism is not divorced from face-to-face evangelism. It often initiates face-to-face evangelism and it almost always accompanies it as the relationship continues. This is simply a feature of modern life. In 2024, for instance 61% of couples in the US met online. The next most popular route to romance was ‘meeting through friends’ at only 13%.
This tells us at least two things. Online contact is the most common way into modern relationships, but it’s also the number one way on to face-to-face contact. Digital connections are not opposed to physical connections, not necessarily. They are often key facilitators for embodied relationships. And when we connect with people digitally, we are connecting with people, digitally. Our interactions will always be a mixture of offline and on, because that’s the mix of our lives. Consider my relationship with my neighbour – now a Christian.
Last Easter he and I were out on the porch talking about the resurrection. His wife heard us talking about Mary Magdalene’s fear: that grave-robbers had stolen the body: ‘What are you lot talking about grave-robbers for? I thought you were Christians.’ So we told her the story. And after a beat she said: ‘Man! I’m gonna have to read this thing aren’t I?’ We had to agree. So I showed her the YouVersion Bible app and she downloaded it in front of me. I took her to Speak Life’s Bible reading plan which takes you through John’s Gospel with brief commentary that links to the 321 course. She began reading there and then. Once she’d finished her cigarette, she went inside, still glued to her screen. Ten minutes later she banged on my door, thrusting her phone in my direction with John chapter 2 on the screen. ‘Why,’ she demanded, ‘is Jesus calling his mother: “Woman”!’
It was an unexpected apologetics session but I gave it my best shot. After another quarter of an hour of conversation she seemed sort of satisfied – enough to go back to her house and read some more. And that’s the way it is with evangelism. It’s in-person and it’s digital and then it’s back to in-person and then back to digital.
Like with Tom, who got in touch last week. A lifelong agnostic, he binged our YouTube videos, was directed to our 321 course, and then got in touch to ask for a church in East London. He represents many stories from the 17,000 who have logged on to the 321 course – a course that 5,000 more have done in person. Digital and physical are not alternatives. We all live at the intersection. And so does our mission.
Editor’s note: We would like to thank Glen very much for his really helpful contributions encouraging us in our everyday evangelism.
