At the end of this course, you will
1. describe computer accessibility, 2. identify university outreach, 3.
explain nonprofit outreach, and 4. discuss in detail one example of
outreach.
Credit Hours and Fee
3.0 CE Credit Hours with a fee of $24.00
Instructor
Rudolf Klimes, PhD (Indiana University), MPH
(Johns Hopkins University); Adjunct Professor at Folsom Lake
College, Folsom CA.
Welcome to this
3-contact-hour Continuing Education course with instant online processing
and certification 24/7. Study the course below, take the 12-question
multiple-choice
TEST, register and pay online.
If you score 75% or above, you may print your CE certificate on your printer
as soon as you finish. If you have difficulty printing your certificate,
click here.You may retake the test
once.
1. Accessibility Guidelines
1. Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content.
2. Don't rely on color alone.
3. Use markup and style sheets and do so properly.
4. Clarify natural language usage
5. Create tables that transform gracefully.
6. Ensure that pages featuring new technologies transform gracefully.
7. Ensure user control of time-sensitive content changes.
8. Ensure direct accessibility of embedded user interfaces.
9. Design for device-independence.
10. Use interim solutions.
11. Use W3C technologies and guidelines.
12. Provide context and orientation information.
13. Provide clear navigation mechanisms.
14. Ensure that documents are clear and simple.
Source: www.w3c.org
2.University Outreach, an Example
University Outreach and
Continuing Education of the U of Tennessee supports the
university’s mission by promoting lifelong learning and
developing diverse quality educational opportunities for
non-traditional students. These students earn degrees and
certificates, accomplish professional development objectives,
participate in conferences, meet licensure requirements, and
pursue recreational and intellectual interests.
University
Outreach and Continuing Education offers degree programs, credit
and non-credit courses, and on- and off-campus meetings. The
division’s commitment to quality and dedication to service
demonstrate the belief that lifelong learning must be made
available to anyone, anywhere because all people deserve the
opportunity to improve their quality of life through education.
Source:
www.outreach.utk.edu
How
Not-for-Profit and Public Sector Agencies REALLY Use Online
Technologies
Every not-for-profit or public sector organization has two
primary resources: people and their ideas. What the Internet
offers is an easy, immediate, extremely efficient way to
connect with people and ideas. However, visions of becoming
a super-efficient organization, reaching lots of new donors
and clients, raising enormous amounts of new money and
effortlessly administering an agency will not come to pass
with an Internet account. Here's real-life examples of what
agencies are using the Internet for, and links to other
resources offering even more advice and examples. Includes
information about online solicitations and fund raising.
Outreach
Via the Internet for Not-for-Profit or Public Sector
Organizations
It's more than just putting up a Web site; it involves
finding and posting to appropriate Internet discussion
groups, sending e-mails to current and potential customers,
perhaps even starting your own online community.... it's
proactive, interactive and ongoing. It needs to be nurtured
and fully supported, just as with all your public
interactions. Online outreach and online service delivery
should accurately reflect your agency's mission and culture.
The Internet has become
a powerful tool for us to use in evangelism. These resource pages
explain strategies for using it - principles of communication which often
apply equally to other forms of outreach too. You can also easily
integrate these pages into your own site with a few lines of code. This page is for general information and some comments or links
may not represent the thinking of the Bible Dialog Institute.
"An incredible new technology enables the
transmission of text on a worldwide basis. It rapidly reduces production and
distribution costs and for the first time allows large numbers of people to
access text and pictures in their own homes."
You've guessed it. The invention of 'movable type' by
Gutenberg - the printing press. It transformed education, learning,
evangelism and communication. It laid the foundations for the Renaissance, the
arts, sciences, and the world as we know it today. The digital revolution is
bringing about a similar huge change in evangelism, Christian discipleship and
community, in ways which are only just beginning.
"Using a computer for online religious activity... could become the dominant
form of religion and religious experience in the next century." Professor B Brasher, author: Give me that Online
Religion (Jossey-Bass)
There are Christian 'future-watchers' who can help us to see the trends in
society, culture, and the Internet revolution: Teaching IT and Web skills is
therefore becoming an
effective way of sharing the Gospel.
Future Church - Tom Hohstadt's occasional newsletter on the way the
church is changing
Global Change - views of the world from Dr Patrick Dixon
Research links - detailed analyses of the effect of the Internet on the
church and evangelism, plus Web Evangelism conference reports
The needs of
the world remain as great as ever: see the
Unfinished Task counters clicking up. The Internet is a powerful and
God-given medium to help us fulfil the Great Commission. Even its name reflects
the nature of the
fishing net which Jesus spoke of in Matthew 13:47 and elsewhere.
Go into any Christian bookshop. Maybe 99% of the books and videos are written
only for Christians, using Christian language, thought-forms and assumptions.
Some Christians believe that "because it is Christian, it is evangelistic". But
this is not usually true.
The same thing applies to most Christian websites. 99% have been written with
only a Christian reader in mind. Of course, some non-Christians will visit them
too. And if they already have an interest, maybe they will stay to read. But
this is like hoping that non-Christians will walk in off the street into our
church services. Some do. But most will not. (And site visitors will usually
leave in 5 seconds, if they cannot relate to a page.) So we often find that we
are only touching the people who may have a Christian background or interest. We
reach the 'once-churched', but we do not touch the 'never-churched'.
The sad thing is that because some evangelism does happen successfully this
way, Christians do not realize that we are not touching everyone in the society.
And of course, some churches give evangelism and world mission a very low
priority in their programs. Yet Wesley said, "You have nothing to do but to save
souls."
We can help the wider church to understand the importance of online
evangelism so that:
Christian churches will help fulltime evangelistic ministries
financially.
they will encourage and support individual Christians to become involved
in sparetime online witness.
every local church will have a website.
there is a wider understanding of the best ways to reach non-Christians
online.
Push
Print, video, radio and TV are mainly 'push' mediums. They communicate by
sending out a consecutive ('linear') prepared message, usually only to a single
area of the world.
Pull
The Web however is a 'pull' medium. It pulls in visitors - though only on the
basis of a defined interest. People usually go only to pages on subjects they
are searching for. And of course, the incredible advantage of the Web is that it
is global: anyone, anywhere - in China or the Middle East - can find a page in
seconds.
Two-way
The other unique property of the Internet is interactivity. Not only are users
in control of which pages to visit, they can also send feedback to a webmaster.
They can easily ask questions, receive help and advice, leave comments in a
guest-book, or discuss issues on a Bulletin board or an email discussion group.
This option to build 'community' around a website is very important. It helps
people feel wanted and that their opinions are valued. It gives them a place
where they can ask questions in a safe way, when perhaps they would not do that
face-to-face.
For evangelistic websites, this interaction is very important. Very few
people become Christians just by reading something. Conversion is usually a long
process, and involves friendly interaction with people who are already
Christians. Think back to how you became a Christian. For most people, seeing
the life of Jesus in someone else, usually through experiencing friendship, is
the most powerful witness.
All mediums are not the same
TV is not just radio with pictures. Print is not just speech written down. So
too the Web should not be seen as just another way of delivering tracts or
sermons. It is a revolutionary medium which can be used for evangelism if we
understand its unique dynamic and
develop strategies which understand and 'work with the grain' of an
interactive medium where the user is in control.
It is important to understand the process by which people become Christians. The
'Gray Matrix' (proposed by Frank Gray of FEBC Radio) is one very useful
way of seeing the process. It is a modification of the 'Engel Scale of Spiritual
Decision', produced by the missiologist James Engel in his book What's Gone
Wrong with the Harvest, (Zondervan 1975).
The original Engel Scale proposed 13 steps through which people
usually travel on their spiritual journey:
+5 Stewardship
+4 Communion with God
+3 Conceptual and behavioral growth
+2 Incorporation into Body
+1 Post-decision evaluation
New birth
-1 Repentance and faith in Christ
-2 Decision to act
-3 Personal problem recognition
-4 Positive attitude towards Gospel
-5 Grasp implications of Gospel
-6 Awareness of fundamentals of Gospel
-7 Initial awareness of Gospel
-8 Awareness of supreme being, no knowledge of Gospel
You can see from this scale that perhaps we should present the Gospel
differently to people who are at different points. Someone at -7 on the scale
cannot be treated the same as a person at -3 who has already understood much of
the Truth and is almost ready to place their faith in Jesus.
The problem is that Christian outreach often only touches people who already
have an understanding of the Gospel because of previous church background. They
know the language and concepts already. So, we can be quite good at reaching the
'once-churched', yet may miss the 'never-churched' completely.
Gray is the color of life
The Gray Matrix adds a horizontal axis to this scale -
antagonism/enthusiasm. This very simple picture is very important because it
helps us to understand important evangelistic concepts.
The lower-left oval shape represents a group of people who are
fairly
resistant and lack knowledge. The challenge is to use approaches which
reach down as far as possible into the bottom left-hand corner!
Conclusions from the Gray Matrix
Effective evangelism is not only about giving people more knowledge. We
must help them move from a position of antagonism (or just not caring), to
feeling enthusiastic and interested. People will probably not move up the
scale, unless they have first moved across to the right-hand side.
Anything which moves people from left to right, is as 'evangelistic' as
something which moves them up the scale. This is very important for groups
of people who are strongly against the Gospel. They will usually not be
willing to move up the scale until their antagonism is reduced. They will
probably also have misunderstandings about the Gospel message, which must be
carefully explained. Acts of Christian service and friendship can often
reduce antagonism. For instance, on the mission field, educational, medical
or well-digging projects often lead to an openness to the Gospel. In a local
church situation, mothers and baby clubs, youth groups, or hospital visiting
do the same. For some people-groups, apologies offered for the past actions
of so-called 'Christian' nations are also healing hurts and reducing
antagonism to the Gospel.
We can define roughly where a person, or group of people, is situated on
the scale. This helps us to choose the best approach to reach them. For
instance, the oval shape on the left-hand side represents a person or group
of people who are resistant to the Gospel and understand little of it.
Someone who has no knowledge of the Gospel will not understand Christian
language and jargon. A
big failing of much evangelism is the use of words and ideas which only
Christians understand. It is also important to understand what other
religions, cults, and the New Age movement
believe.
Pressures of
society and culture, and the
strategies of the Enemy, will tend to pull people down towards the
bottom left-hand of the scale. God's purpose is to
draw people to the top right-hand side by
His Spirit, through the
witness of his people.
How the Gray Matrix helps us with online evangelism
We must assume that people have
zero Christian knowledge. We therefore need to
avoid using Christian jargon words. "Most Christian literature...
begins too far along the evangelistic process; it assumes that the reader
has at least some basic knowledge of Christianity and biblical concepts,"
said the director of a very effective literature outreach recently in
Interlit magazine. We live in a post-Christian culture. Since most
people have never attended church, been to Sunday School, or learned
anything of the Bible in school, they have a complete lack of knowledge or
understanding, and no biblical framework in their minds. Any 'spirituality'
that people have, is usually shaped by New Age ideas.
For people who may be antagonistic or uninterested, we must work hard to
identify with their feelings. We must avoid a 'preachy' approach, and
instead place ourselves at
their level, in their shoes, relating to their interests and language.
This is sometimes called "contextualization". It has nothing to do with
compromising or watering down the Gospel. Catherine Booth, co-founder of the
Salvation Army, said,
"God forbid that I should ever teach any adaptation of the Gospel. But I
contend that we may serve it up in any sort of dish that will induce the
people to partake of it."
Contextualization is important to communicate with those of other faiths
or none. "You never know till you try to reach them how accessible men are;
but you must approach each man by the right door." (Henry Ward Beecher)
Sites which are obviously 'Christian' in style, language and graphics,
will mainly reach people who are already seeking, who have some knowledge
and enthusiasm and probably a church background. This is one of the biggest
barriers which prevents sites from fulfilling their true potential and
touching people who are 'un-churched'. It is possible to express most
Christian truth without using any Christian words other than 'God', 'Jesus',
'Bible' and 'heaven'. Better to use 'God' than 'the Lord', and 'Bible'
rather than 'the 'Word of God' because these terms are more neutral.
Christian organizations involved in online evangelism may be wise to
choose a
different name to brand themselves for a non-Christian readership, than
that they use for their Christian supporters.
Almost every other Christian word or concept can be expressed in
non-religious words. If it is essential to use a religious word, define it.
When Words Get in the Way explains this well - every Christian writer
should print this out.
Of course, even a site which is written entirely for Christians (as is
this one) should still offer an explanation of the Gospel for non-Christians
who happen to visit. See the
meaning of life
link in the contents menu, which is also available for you to link to if you
wish.
"If you want to make an evangelistic page, don't write about the Gospel."
Are you serious?
But what are most people searching for online? The things that interest them!
Sport
Health
Sex and relationships
Advice on personal problems
Hobbies
Local information
Tourism ideas
Humor
Films
Music
News-related things
Famous people
plus a million other things
Writing yet another presentation of the way of salvation is not going to reach
any of them, unless we "fish on the other side of the boat", by using . . .
The Bridge Strategy: "Be what they are searching for"
"Bait the hook according to what the fish likes, not what the fisherman
likes." (Hemingway)
Write pages on these
secular subjects or
felt needs and you can target any group of people. This is often called the
'Bridge Strategy'. Others may use a different name (for instance 'magnet
pages'), but it means the same - identifying with the real interests. This does
not mean that we make
trick pages that are not really about the subject they claim to be. If we
write a page about restoring VW cars, or breeding mice, or a favorite musician,
the page must truly be 'about' that subject. It must be as good and informative
as possible, maybe with many helpful links to other pages on the subject.
How to build a 'bridge'
There are several ways that you can draw people 'across the bridge' to pages
which explain the Gospel:
a. Your testimony
Whatever sort of site you have, make a link to 'meet the webmaster' or 'my
story'. Here is a chance to share your testimony. (But don't call it 'testimony'
- that's a Christian jargon word.) Introduce yourself first, where you live,
what you like, etc. Then go on to explain how something happened to you which
changed your whole view of life. "People are interested in people." They always
turn to the human-interest stories in newspapers first. Short audio or video
clips of the person can also add interest to a testimony page.
b. 'Meaning of life' links
On any type of website, you can offer a link such as 'What is the meaning of
life?' or 'Finding real fulfillment'. These do not sound preachy or even
Christian, yet show some sort of non-threatening 'spirituality' content.
c. Parable meanings
Jesus used stories with a message as his main means of evangelistic
communication. And he didn't always explain the meaning - he left people to go
away and think! Whatever the subject of a website, it is possible to write a
page which brings out a
parable or allegory from the main subject. For instance, a site about
restoring VW cars can include a page which suggests that just as old cars need
new engines, we need something new inside our lives. A site about breeding mice,
can include a page about how a mother mouse cares for her young, and this is the
same as God's care for people. There is an angle like this for almost any
subject. Films, books and music lend themselves very well to this approach. They
often contain meanings which the writers
never intended.
All these types of pages can also link to a central part of the site which
explains the Gospel in meaningful easy terms . . .
Explaining the Gospel
It is actually hard to explain the
essentials of the Gospel in a web-page, taking these factors into account:
using easy non-religious language.
clearly explaining that the Gospel is completely free (few
non-Christians understand this), yet balancing it with the other truth -
that it is not 'easy-believism'.
show that God wants to care and support people through every problem of
life - yet there are no automatic promises of health or wealth.
It may better to link to an existing Gospel presentation, instead of writing
your own. There are some high-quality presentations available from major
ministries, and they often have the advantage of a follow-up system for
inquirers. Power to Change is a good presentation in a growing range of
languages:
You can, if you wish, link to such presentations through a narrow top frame: [How
to] [Demo]
which integrates their pages within your site, though not all webmasters are
happy with this. (Power to Change team are!)
Take time and prayer to find a clear strategy and focus for an evangelistic
site. The best sites are usually preceded by months of prayer and online
research. [Cartoon:
"How's the Website?"]
On a church page, visitors will expect the material to be Christian! However,
most church sites seem to be written only for their members. Outsiders are not
always obviously welcome. Few church sites carry any sort of link explaining the
Gospel. Even fewer make such a link look enticing and relevant to
non-Christians.
From bottom up, before anything is written, plan to:
Church sites can also use the 'bridge strategy' to draw people in, by making
pages on secular topics. A page of secular
community links (covering shops, schools, colleges, tourism, local history,
etc.) is particularly good for a church site. Churches with pages designed to
welcome non-Christians are finding them to be an
effective outreach .
An online two-way discussion for inquirers, based on the Alpha evangelistic
group Bible study concept, is a strategy with big potential for church sites:
Power to Change from
Campus Crusade Canada is an excellent general-purpose evangelistic site,
combining a clear explanation of the Gospel, questions and answers on particular
problems, and testimony. It is available in a number of languages, and the team
is looking for help to translate it into new languages. Consider linking to it,
rather than attempting to write your own explanations of the Gospel.
CCC has partnered with other ministries and groups of churches to promote the
site using secular advertising on buses (for a regional church-based campaign)
and TV advertising. This approach is very successful: [>more]
Using the 'Bridge' approach
There are many good evangelistic pages using the 'Bridge' concept:
a. Sport, hobbies and special interests
Sports have a worldwide following - there are even Chinese-language
Manchester United sites! An evangelistic site can be built around a
particular sport, team, event, or sports-people.
The Goal and
To the Next Level use testimony in a very effective way. Doug Reese,
webmaster of To the Next Level, shares recent
encouraging feedback.
Jason Stevens is built round an individual Christian sportsman. But there
are few other such
sport pages.
b. Science
Life's Big Questions is an excellent and thought-provoking presentation of
the relationship between science, cosmology and faith, featuring interviews with
top scientists. Note how the site does not criticize science or sound preachy.
Because of this, and because it interviews top people in their fields, it
retains credibility. Fred Heeren reports recent
feedback from this site.
c. Health and personal needs
Health sites are the second most searched-for on the Web. (You can guess the
number one topic.) There are many opportunities to create support pages around a
particular illness. Sadly, although a number of Christians have done this, often
they have defined the page as a 'support page for Christians', which seems to
exclude non-Christians. But others have realized the importance of building
pages that welcome non-Christians, on such topics as heart problems, diabetes,
sudden infant death, post-abortion trauma, Parkinson's disease, or post-polio
syndrome. There are many opportunities to create other such sites.
People have so many personal needs and desperately seek answers online.
Running on Empty is a well-designed site which deals with inner emptiness
and needs, without seeming preachy. Christina Burbeck gets
encouraging feedback.
The needs of business professionals are addressed in a very effective
integrated outreach to business people.
d. Women's interests
Women Today Magazine is a remarkable comprehensive site (1000+ pages) from
Campus Crusade Canada. Note how it offers useful information for living, and
does not obviously appear to be Christian or preachy on the front page. There is
testimony and evangelism in there - when people are ready for it. One of the
site team writes: "This strategy has worked well for Womentodaymagazine.com,
which receives over a million hits from all over the world each month. By taking
a 'value-added' approach to sharing Christ and offering people legitimate
products and services, both IamNext.com [see below] and Women Today
Magazine are very effective in gaining a hearing for the gospel."
Technical note: despite a complex front page, Women Today Magazine and
IamNext work well at any screen resolution, down to 640 x 480 or even
WebTV, and do not force irritating horizontal scroll-bars at these lower
resolutions. (This is easily achievable by using percentages and avoiding
graphics which would force a table too wide.)
A case study on effective communication
Because Campus Crusade also produces
Christian Women Today, a site of similar appearance but for Christian women
readers, this makes a wonderful opportunity for a case-study comparison. At
first glance, some Christians would see comfortable Christian words on front
page and inner pages - prayer, Bible, saved, etc., and say, "Ah, this is the
best evangelistic site. This must preach the Gospel." But no! Christian Women
Today was designed for Christians. No doubt some non-Christians will visit,
as with any site.
Editor Claire Colvin writes: "It seems so obvious that a Christian site is
not necessarily an evangelistic site. One of the biggest barriers that stops a
site from being truly evangelistic is language. One thing you'll notice on the
Women Today site is a lack of Christian terminology. You don't see words
like 'church, pray, salvation, holy, sanctified, born again, repent'. Instead,
you find articles written from a Christian perspective but presented in regular
English."
Read the case study - and see how this ties in with the Gray Matrix
in Section 3. This short study illustrates one of the most important issues
in effective evangelism.
e. Teens
IamNext is another valuable site from CCC. Using the same strategy as
Women Today Magazine, this highly effective, non-preachy site can easily
engage young people and students. The team writes, "In the first 10 days of
April alone, 12 people prayed to receive Christ and eight people re-dedicated
their lives through IamNext.com, Campus Ministries' new evangelistic
website for university and college students. Site statistics indicate that
hundreds more have been exposed to the gospel by going through The Four
Spiritual Laws and reading student testimonies. Reports of more conversions
and rededications are coming in each day."
f. Children
Sadly, most Christian pages for children look very like Sunday School lessons
for those with plenty of Bible background. There are few truly evangelistic
sites for children who know little of Christianity.
What is the reason for this? Here is a big gap to fill!
Games can be a feature of children's websites, and can be easily added to a
page using Javascript.
g. Bulletin board apologetics discussion
Many evangelistic sites include bulletin boards for feedback and discussion.
'Apologetics for non-Christians' sites are particularly suited to this type of
interaction. Some are designed mainly for discussion, others include additional
apologetic material too:
h. Looking at the culture
Almost every culture spends a large part of its leisure time in an unreal world!
Where? The world of stories: books, theater, films, video. Why did Jesus
communicate almost entirely through short stories? And often leave people to go
away and think...?
One of the most popular evangelistic sites on the Web (with many millions of
hits) is Pastor Dave Bruce's
Hollywood Jesus. He used to work in the film/broadcasting industry and
writes about recent film releases, not as normal film reviews, but instead
looking for parable meanings from the story-line. Leslie Hand's
Movie Glimpse uses a similar strategy - read
her explanation of this approach.
Hobbit Lore makes excellent use of the Lord of the Rings story to
present the Gospel.
A similar strategy can be used for many
pop songs and music groups. Music pages receive millions of hits. The words
of most songs are about emotions or situations which make a starting point for a
parable interpretation. A similar approach can be used with
fiction and plays. Yet almost no-one is using this approach - which could
touch millions of people.
Shoot the Messenger.
analyzes popular culture from a Christian viewpoint: music, film, literature,
magazines, TV and cultural trends such as fashion, recreation, New Age beliefs,
social, philosophical and political issues. They are excellent
non-confrontational evangelistic sites carefully targeting non-Christians.
'Reality' TV is unbelievably popular, with shows such as Big Brother
and Survivor attracting millions. UK's official Big Brother
website had millions of hits in a week. More British people voted to remove
Big Brother members, than voted in the 2001 British government elections.
Gospelsearch has used this approach in English and several Scandinavian
languages to create the
Big Father site.
Understanding our culture
It is very important that Christians learn to understand the post-Christian 'post-modern'
culture we live in, so that we can learn to present the Gospel in appropriate
terms. These resource sites for Christians are designed to equip us for this:
i. Other approaches
There are many other ways for sharing the Gospel online:
Community sites built around resources for a local town or area.
Games - could be very powerful, yet very few games are available.
Cartoons and humor - everyone loves humor - and it can smuggle truth
past people's defenses.
A large site based on an expansion of the
Kamloopslife.com site is proposed, with many contributing editors, on
the same basis as
About.com. This could be the ultimate 'bridge' site, combining pages on
many secular subjects with a sensitive lead-in to testimonies and an
evangelistic section, and also linking together many existing evangelistic
pages. Pray for this one - it could be powerful.
Email discussion lists or newsletters based on a secular topic can also
be used, such as
Rivervalleyweb.
Teaching English offers many opportunities for the several hundred
million people who are learning the language.
CD-Roms can also be used in evangelism - as games, interactive
presentations, and video (in VideoCD or DVD format).
There are thousands of other subjects for evangelistic websites.
Hobbies, people,
history, tourism. If you have an interest in it, you are equipped to write about
it! There is a big need for sites which engage with
New Age and occult issues in a sensitive way.
Evangelism Toolbox - over 1,200 evangelistic, follow-up and
discipleship resources in many languages from 50+ of the world\'s top
organizations.
First Priority - weekly article about evangelism from top writers.
Fish the Net - large range of resources for evangelism.
DramaShare - communicating the Truth through drama.
Operation World - the definitive resource book/CD on every country
in the world.
newWway.org - communicating effectively in today's world.
Jesus Cafe - learn evangelism in fellowship with others.
Rox35 Media - using cartoons for evangelism.
A4C - computer training for the under-privileged.
Free church-planting booklet - from IMB.
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