“Vacation” usually means going somewhere. This year, our vacation was hosting our family in Orlando. We’ve had a great time over the months of May and June as Daniel, Michelle and Abby visited, then Kermet and Novlee, ending with Jonathan, Meredith and Mallory. Jennifer joined us several times and even included her MK friends.
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Last week, you prayed for my presentation to Campus Crusade for Christ’s board of directors. Here is a part of that presentation, where I explained how we are using technology to increase our fruitfulness and to capture an amazing opportunity that God is giving us.
This is a longer email than I usually write, but I wanted to open the door for you to see the amazing fruitfulness God is bringing through the DaVinci Code movie opportunity.
Every 3 seconds someone sees the gospel on a Campus Crusade for Christ website. Every 1 minute, someone indicates a decision for Christ. Every 3 minutes, an email conversation begins with a trained counselor.
On May 19th, the movie The DaVinci Code is being released globally, in 67 countries. The Christian community is embracing this tremendous opportunity to engage people in spiritual conversations. Campus Crusade for Christ is at the very forefront of capturing this opportunity. We’ve developed a powerful and popular Companion Guide. Josh McDowell has written a book, The DaVinci Code: A Quest for Answers.
The Companion Guide is available in 14 languages that we know of: English, French, Latvian, Portuguese,Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Hungarian, Russian, Croatian, Turkish, Bulgarian, Egyptian Arabic, and Finnish.
It’s being printed in about 20 locations around the globe. This global collaboration around a global event was not possible just a few years ago. We are now in a place of increasing fruitfulness through empowering technologies that allow our decentralized movement to work together in a powerful way.
Josh McDowell’s The DaVinci Code: A Quest for Answers podcast has become the #2 podcast on the Apple iTunes site. You may not be familiar with podcasts, but they are an increasingly popular version of an audio book or broadcast. Over 100,000 people have subscribed to the podcast.
The Holy Spirit is not waiting until the May 19th release to begin using these websites. We are already seeing results. Email counselors are already discipling new believers. As of last Sunday on the website DaVinciandJesus.com, we have seen:
• 86,508 visitors
• 8,139 indicated decisions
• 1,623 e-mail conversations
• 986 initiated follow-up
Do you want to be better prepared for The DaVinci Code opening? All signs indicate it will be a blockbuster, both in the movie theaters and in spiritual ministry opportunities. A friend wrote yesterday, ” We are in Kansas City this week and I’ve seen several people reading the book on the airplane, in the airports, and around the hotel. It is ‘hot’ now, isn’t it?”
Other sites that I like:
The battle of The Da Vinci Code, a balanced article on CNN site
The Truth about DaVinci Code, a very good resource in Q&A format
I’m sure there are other good sites. What are your favorites? How are you preparing for the “water cooler” and “soccer sidelines” discussions that The DaVinci Code movie will likely trigger?
I’ve been counseling seekers for several weeks via email from our Campus Crusade sites. Many seekers are writing strongly worded emails. George Barna recently observed, “A survey we completed this week shows that among the tens of millions of people who have read the bestseller, The Da Vinci Code, from cover to cover, the book has influenced their thinking – but it has not necessarily changed their religious views so much as it has confirmed what they already believed prior to reading the book.” Many seekers who are disbelieving of Christianity’s claims find the book gives them additional ammunition. And some are “weapons free” and firing away.
I have found that it is better to not engage directly in an argumentative or correcting manner. I avoid making the argument between “me and him” and help the seeker understand the fight is in his own heart between him and God. Answering directly can keep them engaged in verbal combat. I ask them to read the CNN article (because it is from a non-Christian source) and then write me back with issues it raises in their minds. Then I remain more of a neutral entity versus a target and we can focus the discussion on his or her response to what they are reading.
This is a tremendous opportunity to capture significant spiritual discussions with people. God is giving us an opportunity for tremendous fruitfulness.
We are living out missions in the 21st century, taking advantage of the revolutionary advances in communication to reach out to people seeking peace and meaning that comes through Christ.
Are you ready? You can be!
We are about a week from the global release of The DaVinci Code movie. I ran across this amazing news story from an online news site in New Delhi, India.
While the bulk of the article talks about a move to ban The DaVinci Code movie in India, read the last few paragraphs. This secular news site links to a clear presentation of the gospel, and quotes from the site in a very attractive way. As I looked at this news article, I realized that the only live hyperlink in the entire article is to a clear gospel page, where people can come to know God in a personal way. The only hyperlink!
Reading this, I was reminded of Paul’s letter to the Philippians (see 2:15-18):
It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.
I rejoice because the most important thing is happening. Christ is being preached.
Tonight, I spoke with Surjith in India, James in Australia, and Joshua in Illinois.
Surjith is a new Christian. This was our second conversation through exchanging email messages. We’ve been talking about how to grow, the importance of attending a local church, and having a personal time of Bible study and prayer each day.
James wrote, “I really want to receive Christ into my life, but I don’t know how to go about it.” I shared some basics of opening the door and inviting Jesus into his life. I hope James contacts me again to share that he has asked Christ in.
Joshua wrote, “I have fallen from grace. I believe it was because I was not real close to God. I need prayer for strength that I will not fall again.” I’m helping Joshua understand the promise Jesus makes in Revelation 3:20. I wrote, “Please read Revelation 3:20. Joshua, he says that if you will open the door, he WILL come in. He does not say he MIGHT come in, or if you are good enough, he’ll come in. No, he PROMISES to come in.”
Sitting in my house in my shorts and t-shirt, I’ve journeyed from India to Australia to Illinois as an email mentor. I love being Christ’s ambassador, helping people in spiritual need. This has been an evening with eternal significance, from my home in Orlando.
While in Texas, we shared with some how you, too, can have an online ministry. Today, my colleague Rob wrote a short article about two Campus Crusade locations where you can volunteer to become an email mentor. If you would like to explore how to have spiritual conversations with hurting people, read Rob’s article, and follow one of the links to sign up as a volunteer.
I found an interesting article on U.S. News. Publish or Panic: The credibility of books is in a million little pieces.
It is especially interesting to read of print publishers who are finding the internet continues to bite into their sales, but are finding new approaches that leverage the uniquenesses of the internet to actually enhance sales. I think there is important perspectives in here about how publishers are using complex, multi-level approaches to modern publishing. They talk about the “long tail of the internet”.
Some quotes:
Their goal is to wag “the long tail”–a concept popularized in a widely read article by Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired.
When publishing executives invoke the long tail–and almost everyone interviewed for this article did–what they mean is that if you tote up enough small sales (especially via a low-cost, direct-to-consumer sales tool like the Internet), you can add up a big profit over time.
Oprah isn’t the only way to get readers; he relies on word of mouth (in person or online), pinning hopes on the long tail of the Internet, with interlinked blogs, online literary magazines, and reader- and writer-friendly chat rooms and E-communities. And the chief person he relies on to start the chain reaction is the author.
It’s interesting to see for-profit big-name publishers learning to use the various publishing media that we call the internet. Blogs, websites, online magazines, chat rooms, and e-communities, all working together to generate transactions, called sales.
We’re thinking of trying a similar “long tail of the internet” for outreach surrounding The DaVinci Code movie. We’re thinking of a combination of different media, all part of the “long tail of the internet”, to reach different people. Blogs, websites, evangelistic presentations, apologetics articles, podcasts, discussion, comments, PDF files. The goal is “transactions”, but in this case, it’s the transaction of the exchanged life.