From passages at sea to airplanes, from shortwave radio to tape recordings, from smartphones to social media, the evolution of technology creates opportunities for greater gospel access among the nations.
Now, more than ever before, Southern Baptists are in a time and place to leverage technology to reach more people for Christ. When the International Mission Board tested a new digital engagement strategy during the Paris Summer Olympics earlier this year, the results were thrilling.
“I am so encouraged,” said John Brady, IMB’s vice president of global engagement. “This is a new chapter in the IMB’s effort to reach the world for the Lord Jesus. We have never seen this before.”
Using the Olympics as a springboard, IMB teams explored the intersection of digital engagement with on-the-ground outreach. What they found was that the online and offline strategies fit together seamlessly to provide even greater gospel access.
“It dovetailed perfectly with on-the-ground strategies,” explained IMB missionary Jack Bentley, who serves as a digital engagement strategist for IMB’s Asia-Pacific Rim affinity. “The gospel is proclaimed mouth-to-ear on the ground. Those pins are given out and the QR code is scanned and more gospel truth is shared. Maybe someone starts with a pin and ends up at a Bible-reading plan.”
Brant Bauman, IMB’s global digital engagement lead, said the results demonstrate how God used the collaborative efforts of Southern Baptists around the world to engage people in Paris and beyond this summer. He shared the story of one woman’s cry for help.
God used the collaborative efforts of Southern Baptists around the world to answer Sara’s cry for help. Volunteer digital responders in the U.S., IMB’s digital engagement teams in Europe and Africa, on-the-ground missionaries, and a local church in Johannesburg, alongside hundreds of people praying globally, all had a part in Sara’s story. IMB Graphic
Sara, a South African woman desperate for community, was contemplating suicide when a digital ad on Facebook caught her attention. The ad, one of several posted by the IMB during the Olympics, asked “How can I pray for you?”
The IMB shared Sara’s story earlier this fall.
When Sara responded to the ad, she was connected to a volunteer and then to IMB missionaries who lived close to her. All the while, people around the world were praying. Now, months later, Sara is thriving in community and being discipled by women from her church.
Sara’s story is a testament to the faithfulness of God and the faithfulness of Southern Baptists working together to bring the gospel to the nations.
During the Olympics, almost 9 million people scrolled past one of IMB’s digital ads. “This is not a vanity number,” said Glenn Ansley, who serves as part of Europe’s digital engagement team for the IMB.
“It’s a testimony to the faithfulness of SBC churches regularly giving to missions. We wouldn’t have the resources to put these ads out there without those churches. That’s 9 million opportunities for the Holy Spirit to reach into someone’s life and to move them towards the word of Christ,” Ansley said.
Today the Internet, social media platforms, and websites are all places where people gather to discuss ideas and find community. The IMB uses digital engagement to meet people where they are with the gospel. IMB Graphic
More than 170,000 people engaged with the digital ads and almost 7,500 started conversations with a digital responder. The IMB trained 183 virtual volunteers from 23 states in the U.S. and 26 different countries to be digital responders during the Olympics. As individuals like Sara interacted with IMB’s digital ads, responders shared the gospel and prayed with them.
Some volunteers have even continued responding. Bauman shared his father is still responding to someone he’s been talking with for four weeks, discipling him until he’s able to connect with believers locally.
Most exciting of all, 43 people professed new faith in Christ.
“We’re boasting in the faithfulness of the body of Christ and the faithfulness of our good God,” Ansley said. “We celebrate these numbers because they are a testimony to the faithful service of missionary-minded believers across the world and, more importantly, they celebrate the faithfulness of a God who graciously calls people out of darkness and into His marvelous light. Eternal results are worth celebrating.”
Sara represents many others around the world, people on the outskirts of society who have been unreached by traditional outreach methods. Some are people who live in hard places, hungry for discipleship and community. Others are seekers, people who have never heard the gospel before.
The IMB is excited about the potential for digital engagement to bring the good news to people groups and places that remain closed to missionary presence and still have no gospel access.
“My heart overflows with gratitude to the Lord just to let my eyes see this in my day. I have dreamed about something like this for a long time,” Brady said. “Southern Baptists ought to be proud about what their Lottie Moon Christmas Offering® produces. I can’t think of a better investment of their resources.”
Some names have been changed for security.
The work of the IMB is sustained through faithful giving of Southern Baptists through the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering®.