Introduction to Literary Ministry (Part 2):

Internet Ministry

In the first part of this article, we gave an overview of literary ministry as well as introduced the print presentation of the written content. In this second part, we focus on the web presentation—a medium through which the church can share content and communicate with users worldwide.

Why conduct the ministry on the internet?

The internet has a wide reach

There are now over 880 million internet users. That is about 14% of the world population! And the number of internet users continues to grow.

The internet presents a great opportunity for outreach

A study done on American internet users indicates that 30% of internet users in America have looked for religious or spiritual information online. Although the percentage would probably vary if applied to internet users worldwide, it gives us insight into the great opportunity for sharing the gospel on the internet.

The internet is 24/7

Anyone anywhere in the world who has internet access may visit the church sites. In that sense, the doors of the church are always open to visitors.

The internet offers an interactive experience

Users who visit a site can easily pick and choose the content that interests them most. They can also search for a specific piece of content, submit questions and comments, and have a dialogue with representatives from the church.

The internet facilitates information sharing

From the International Assembly down to local churches, members and workers in the church can share all sorts of information online, such as news, prayer requests, reports, guidelines, contacts, and meeting minutes. This greatly facilitates communication, increases mutual support, and reduces duplication of work.

Internet Ministry Program (IMP)

The International Assembly, seeing the importance of the internet as a tool for conducting church ministry, began an initiative in the late 1990’s called the Internet Ministry Program, a.k.a. IMP. The intent of this global initiative was to mobilize TrueJesusChurches around the world to extend their ministries to the internet. In reaching this goal, the IMP team needed to address some challenges and define clear objectives.

Challenges

Lack of unified presence

Within a few short years, the World Wide Web quickly became one of the most popular publishing medium for businesses and organizations. Many fervent and technically savvy general assemblies, local churches, and individual members wasted no time and launched sites to evangelize and to share information about their respective churches. Most of them had similar content but widely different designs. Soon, it became obvious that the True Jesus Church as a whole needed to have one single unified presence on the web to avoid confusion for online visitors and to establish a strong global identity for the church.

Uneven resources

Although churches with sufficient technical and financial resources were able to build robust sites and online tools, churches that had no such means could not even begin building a simple site. Consequently, sites were available only in languages represented by stronger churches (such as English, Chinese, and Korean sites) while language sites that were just as needed (such as Spanish, German, and French sites) were absent.

Duplication of effort

When local teams worked independently, not only did the sites lack a unified identity, much time was wasted. Countless hours of programming and content-creation turned out to be duplication of work because there was no global collaboration.

 A New Generation of Sites

Starting in July of 2004, the IMP team rolled out a new generation of sites with the following features:

·         Unified identity: using a template-driven approach, all language sites can now share a consistent look and feel

·         User-friendly content management: authors with little technical knowledge can now publish and maintain content

·         Audience specific: one set of sites (evangelical sites) for reaching out to the public, and one set of sites (members sites) for nurturing members and empowering them for service

Evangelical Sites (www.tjc.org)

 Target audience

General public and people seeking for the truth of salvation

Languages

Completed: English (completed and launched in July 2004)

In progress: Chinese, Spanish, French, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian

Content

How Jesus meets our spiritual needs; the basic beliefs of the True Jesus Church; personal stories of how people’s lives were touched by God; facts about and history of the church; devotionals, articles, and Q&As for readers who would like more in-depth knowledge about God and the church’s beliefs; subscription offer to the church’s monthly e–newsletter; contact information of churches worldwide

Current Site Statistics of English site

·         Approximately 5,000 to 7,000 unique visitors per month

·         15 publication requests per month

·         30 inquiries per month

·         40 e-newsletter subscriptions per month

Members Sites (members.tjc.org)

 Target audience

True Jesus Church members

Sites

·         Global sites in various languages

·         Country sites (sites for general assemblies and coordination centers)

·         Region sites (sites for regions within a country)

·         Local church sites

Languages

Completed: English global site (completed and launched in July 2004); a number of country sites and local church sites in various languages

In progress: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Malay

Content

Christian living articles, devotionals, testimonies, news, prayer requests, event calendar, church information, e-library of multimedia content

Site Tools

With the appropriate permissions, content contributors may share documents and pictures, create and manage lists, conduct surveys and online discussions, and publish new web pages easily

 The Word Went Out

As the True Jesus Church began to share the complete gospel of Jesus Christ with the world through the internet, God also opened the doors of the gospel. Many came to know about the church and expressed the desire to learn more. We would like to share with you a few stories of God’s blessings and some feedbacks from site visitors over the years.

·         A pastor in Korea belonging to a particular denomination visited www.tjc.org and established contact with the church. The church sent him a copy of the “Essential Biblical Doctrines,” which helped him gain a good understanding of the church’s basic beliefs. Realizing that he had found the true gospel of salvation, he was baptized into the True Jesus Church.

·         Tom, who lived in Oregon, U.S.A, was looking for the body of Christ that preached salvation according to the Scriptures. He was overjoyed when he found out about the True Jesus Church and visited the church site in 2002. After carefully studying the church’s teachings, he contacted us.

            “I came across this web site while searching to confirm some of my feelings about my present walk with the Lord… My wife and I are living in CoosBay, Or. We are very interested in the True Jesus Church because of your simple belief in the Bible. We have just left a large apostolic org. because of our desire to follow Jesus.”

Both Tom and his wife were later baptized into Christ in the True Jesus Church.

·         In 2003, a pastor from Nepal contacted the church by email after visiting www.tjc.org. Through further communication and follow-up, ministers of the True Jesus Church in Malaysia were sent to bring the complete gospel message into that country. The Holy Spirit led people to the Lord, and new groups of believers from various locations also came in contact with the church.

·         In 2002, a Christian group called Église de Jésus-Christ (EJC) in Congo contacted us by email, eager to embrace the complete gospel proclaimed by the TrueJesusChurch. After more than a year of email communication, the church sent a minister into Congo to meet with their representatives and preach the truth to their congregation. After thorough discussion of the truth with our minister, three of EJC’s ministers determined to receive the correct baptism taught in the Bible. The Lord worked mightily during the missionary trip, and over 260 people were born again through baptism into Christ. To this day, the outreach work in Congo still continues.

 Inquiry Excerpts

            “….I have 60 pastors and 115 churches in Pakistan….We welcome you to preach and teach in Pakistan. We can arrange a crusade and seminar….”

            “I wonder if there are TrueJesusChurches located in Indiana?  If so, where are they? I would like to attend one.”

            “Would you please come into Tanzania to minister for conference/
crusade 2004? Also, I would like to welcome you to open your church ministries in our country very soon and I will serve as your host…. May our lord Jesus richly bless you.”

(As a result of inquiries like this one, the church has been sending ministers into Tanzania to conduct evangelical services and baptize converts.)

 Community Outreach

Purpose

What happens when people show interest in what they see on the web sites? Where do they go next? This area would be the job of the community outreach volunteers (COV). Following up with inquiries received through the site is one of the major responsibilities of the IMP, and the church has developed an infrastructure and a set of guidelines to carry out this important work.

People

Computer programs cannot answer questions about faith. So the church needs a global network of COVs—workers who are dedicated to helping seekers find what they are looking for and guiding them to the church. We are currently in the process of building and strengthening a global network of COVs to handle all inquiries efficiently and effectively.

Tools

The IMP has adopted an online system to help route and manage incoming inquiries. The system tracks the history of each inquiry, the people who have handled the inquiry, and its responses. This ensures that each seeker’s questions and needs are sufficiently addressed in the process of communicating with the church.

What is Ahead?

Provide richer content

Whether in telling the public about Jesus Christ, sharing our beliefs with people of other faiths, or providing spiritual nourishment to believers, it is crucial that the church sites continue to have inspiring and timely content. Therefore, literary ministry teams around the world are working to develop richer content for the sites.

Training COVs

As the number of inquiries from the sites increases, we will need more workers who are able to respond to them effectively. The church needs to continually equip new workers for this task.

Develop new tools

If resources permit, so much more can be and should be done through the internet. With the help of volunteers, the church hopes to further utilize the latest online technologies to help the ministry. Online members database, forums, distance-learning, event management systems, project management tools, etc will all contribute to the advancement of church work.

Help Wanted

Prayer

Support this ministry with your daily prayers. Ask the Lord to open doors and lead more people to His fold. Pray to the Lord to touch the hearts of His people to join the ministry and to be built up by the ministry.

Content

We need writers to take part in this ministry. If you have been given the gift of writing, we urge you to contribute devotionals, articles, testimonies, etc, both to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and to strengthen the faith of believers. We also need volunteers who can create, digitize, upload, and index content of all types. If you would like to be involved in this aspect of the ministry, please email us at content@tjc.org.

Development

If you have training in computer programming or IT, the desire to serve in this area, and the commitment to dedicate some personal time to the ministry, you can become a great asset to the IMP.

Promotion

“Faith comes by hearing” (Rom 10:17). People cannot accept the complete gospel entrusted to the True Jesus Church if they do not even know about it. We need you to tell your family, friends, and coworkers to visit www.tjc.org. If you have the skills and knowledge to promote the church sites to the rest of the world, please put them to use for the Lord and let us know that you would like to help.

Finance

The funding for the internet ministry comes from God-loving volunteers who desire to take part in the ministry. We hope that you can also become one of them. Your financial contributions will help expand the ministry and pay for the high costs involved.

To contribute to the ministry, please make your checks and money orders payable to True Jesus Church and specify that the offering is for the purpose of Internet Ministry. You may also ask your local church treasurer to send the contribution on your behalf.

Send the contribution to:

Attn: Department of Literary Ministry

True Jesus Church

314 S. Brookhurst St. #104

Anaheim, CA92804

U.S.A.

Tel: (714)533-8889

Fax: (714)533-0888

Questions? Suggestions?

Do you have questions or suggestions about the internet ministry? Please write to us at lm@tjc.org