I recently sent my Pastor an email with an idea I had about evangelism. As with many churches, one of our main goals this year is to reach more people with the good news of Jesus Christ.
My Pastor thought it was a great idea.
I know I’m not the first person to think of this idea, but I don’t think it’s that common, so I thought I’d share it here.
This is what I told my Pastor in the email:
1. We all know people who are not Christians.
2. Many of these people are looking for answers. Right now, because of the poor economy or other factors, many people are looking for help.
3. Not all members of the church have the capability to witness. They don’t have the communication skills or they’re too new in the Lord to be able to share all that God can offer or they’re just shy.
4. In a lot of these cases, the members will either give the non-Christian the Pastor’s phone number, invite them to church, or unfortunately, do nothing.
What I offered my Pastor was a way to use the church’s website to give the members another tool that they can use to reach their non-saved friends. The members want to help, but just don’t know how.
Here is the idea:
1. Create a link on the church’s home page that lead to a page that’s called, “Hope For You” or “God’s Answers” or “Change Your Life” or something like that.
2. On that page, the visitor can find a video of the Pastor explaining how God can change a person’s life. Who better to give this message than the Pastor of the church?
3. The video would include a short message of hope, leading in the Sinner’s Prayer, and finally an invitation to visit the church.
For those shy members who want to help their non-Christian friend or relative, all they have to do is give them the web address of the church’s website, and the friend could watch the video in the non-threatening surroundings of their own home.
Even if the friend doesn’t receive Christ, at least the seed has been planted, and planted by the Pastor of the church.
So Sam, how do you do all this? How do you get video on our website?
It’s easy.
Here is the simplest way I know to accomplish this. It uses YouTube as the host.
And by the way, you can also have other videos on the website – announcements, scenes from the recent play, a video clip of the praise and worship, etc.
1. Create your video. You can use any camera that records video. Some churches have top of the line, expensive cameras, but you can use a basic digital camera with video capabilities. I recommend using one of the new low-cost, YouTube-ready video cameras at this link like the Flip or the Xi8.
2. Upload your video to YouTube.
3. Once uploaded, get the embed code that YouTube gives you.
4. Insert the code into the page where you want the video to appear. Your web designer should know how to do this. If not, feel free to email me.
That’s it.
Now, your church’s website can be used not only to give out information about your church, but it can also be used to reach the world for Jesus. You don’t even have to advertise. The members of your church will do that every time they meet someone who is in need of what God has to give.
I know a lot of churches already do this, and the best part is that once the members are told about the video page, you have an entire congregation who have now been enabled with another soul-reaching tool. It doesn’t only fall on the shoulders of the Pastor or on the evangelistic team. Anybody can say, “Hey, you should take a look at our church’s website. You might find what you’re looking for.”
What do you think? Does your church already do this?
Send me a link, so I can add it here as an example.
Thank you,
Blessed!
Sam
