Is There An Evangelism App for That? Follow Up

Thanks to Tony Whittaker for his comment on my previous post. I read his links here and here and find the ways in which evangelism is being spread through phone apps fascinating.

Would you see implementing any of these at your church?

Is There An Evangelism App for That?

I'm working on a feature for Presbyterians Today about digital evangelism, and found some very thought-provoking ideas on various blogs and websites.

For example, several bloggers noted the rapid increase in the use of "smart phones" and urged pastors and churches to develop mobile internet strategies. Church IPhone apps? Why not? There probably are some already. And lots of churches use Facebook as a communications tool, which is probably accessed most frequently through cell phones.

Another idea was prompted by the fact that last Christmas Amazon's Kindle sales of e-books were greater than its sales of "hard" copy books. Looking at the growing popularity of e-books and the phone apps that allow users to access them as well, some suggested that churches should cut down on their paper bulletins and seasonal publications and publish them as pdf's or html's on Kindle instead.

That makes some sense to me. I have several translations of the Bible on my IPhone and use it in worship to follow the sermon scripture--and I see others in the congregation doing the same thing.

What kinds of apps would be helpful in evangelism? I'd like to see an apologetics app that had FAQ's so you could quickly find good answers to common questions about the Christian faith.

What would you suggest? Or maybe you have seen some good ones. If so, please share!

As The "Unchurched" See Us

Evangelism to the "unchurched" is a priority for many Christians in the US today, judging by the chat in the blogosphere and in publications aimed at the Christian audience. Recently a Seattle paper sent 31 reporters to visit 31 different churches in the area and write their responses.

You can read all about it here: A Month of Sundays.

Their comments and observations should be included in a Real Life Evangelism 101 class. Most of them could not be classified as "seekers" in any sense, they were just there to do a job and wouldn't have darkened the doors otherwise. Most of them had very little church background and several alluded to unpleasant memories of churchgoing. And most seem to be twenty and thirty-somethings.

One of the most positive comments came from the guy who attended a Presbyterian church. I think he was much more predisposed to be favorable to church in general than the other reporters.

Many of you enjoy reading the church reviews on the Ship of Fools site. This is very different because the reviewers often have no idea what is going on in a traditional (let alone a contemporary) worship service. Their frame of reference is wholly secular.

Hat tip: Decently and In Order.

QG Gets Evangelized

Saturday when I went out to collect our mail, I found two shopping bags at our front door. One was a gift bag from Baptist Mega-Church on the Freeway. Inside the gift bag were two books: How To Find God (the New Living Translation of the New Testament) and Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die by John Piper. Also included were a coupon for a free (with purchase of large drink) Chik-Fil-A sandwich, an invitation to Baptist Mega-Church's Spanish language services, a schedule of their Holy Week events and two peppermints!

The other shopping bag was a request for donations to Baptist Mega-Church's Food Pantry. A list of requested food items was attached. All I need to do to contribute is fill the grocery bag with food and leave it on my front porch next Saturday for pick-up.

Pretty clever, eh? Leave some gifts and ask for donations. Actually, there are a number of non-Christians among our neighbors. Most of them are Hindus, but there are also a few Muslim families. Perhaps the efforts of Baptist Mega-Church will prove fruitful in the long run. Gotta love the Baptists: they aren't reluctant to evangelize.

I skimmed through Fifty Reasons and don't think that it would be very helpful to someone who had no background with Christianity because it seems to assume familiarity with the Bible and basic Christian theology. How To Find God, on the other hand, prefaces the New Testament text with some basic Christian concepts and a "How to Study the Bible" introductory chapter. The NLT text is a modern paraphrase. Its layout seemed "gimmicky" to me, though--lots of little text boxes and asides. I wonder if that type of layout, which looks more like a contemporary magazine than a book, is more inviting to someone totally unfamiliar with the Bible?

Although it is impossible for me to put myself in the place of a non-Christian and evaluate what kind of books on the subject would be appealing, I did start to wonder what books I would include in a gift bag like this if I were organizing this evangelism/service project. I'm thinking that Calvin's Institutes and the Book of Confessions aren't very seeker-friendly! For an introduction to the Bible, you can't beat The Bible From Scratch (OT and NT volumes) by Donald Griggs, but those books are meant to be read in a group setting, not on your own Christianity for Dummies, seems to be for, well, dummies, and not appropriate my well (or over!) educated neighbors. Maybe I would include C. S. Lewis' Mere Christianity or Robin Griffith-Jones' wonderful analysis of the gospels, The Four Witnesses. If I were including a New Testament I would choose Eugene Peterson's The Message paraphrase. It doesn't have chapters and verses and reads more like a regular book.

What would you put in the bag?

Since their Food Pantry serves a lot of needy people in our neighborhood, we'll be leaving a full grocery sack on the doorstep for them to pick up next Saturday. I hope they get a lot of donations.