THE CHALLENGE OF E-WITNESSING

THE CHALLENGE OF E-WITNESSING 

 BY PASTOR WILLIAM BOACHIE-ANSAH (THE CHURCH OF PENTECOST, NSAWKAW DISTRICT, GHANA) 

"And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen. Mt 28:18-20. NKJV

 E-witnessing is a latest innovation. It simply deals with evangelism through electronic means. It involves sharing the gospel with people through the use of modern electronic gadgets. In other words, it refers to all activities involved in fulfilling the Great Commission through “infotech” innovations. Media for e-witnessing include mobile phones, computers, pagers and other new communication devices. In the Great Commission, Jesus charged all His followers to go and make disciples. The GO element in the Great Commission should always be critically analyzed. Two questions which should always guide us are the following: “Where do we go?” and “ How do we go?” WHERE DO WE GO? 

We should go where the people are. We should go where we would be given an audience. This means that wherever there are people, we, the chosen vessels of the divine oracle should be there. As ministers of God, we have sworn before God and men that we shall live and die for the gospel. The time has come for us to leave our comfort zones and to venture into unknown grounds to win souls for the Lord. The general trend now is that most ministers do not preach anywhere apart from the chapel. What about dawn broadcasts, street evangelism, open air services? We are gradually leaving all these to certain people.. the non-professionals - and people have taken advantage of these laxities to deceive some of the flock with fake prophetic ministration. 

 And now the whole world is shifting towards electronic and infotech innovations! When the radio was invented, innovative ministers of old took advantage of it to proclaim the gospel. TV too came and televangelists took over. We have been utilizing these till now. And now…the internet, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and a host of electronic communication technologies are recently overwhelming us. The challenge for us now is to learn and be abreast with time, because God expects us to effectively use every possible medium to propagate the Gospel. HOW DO WE GO? We must go out adequately prepared. 

We should also be well conversant with the medium through which the gospel is carried around. We should additionally arm ourselves well in order not to ‘get lost’ somewhere along the way. That is why there is the need for all of us to be more learners than teachers, as the Book of James admonished us. In this world, the Christian leaders should always learn … and learn fast! This stems from the fact that every now and then, new things come out. 

The minister of God should be abreast with technology; otherwise the devil will capitalize on our ignorance to continue to dominate the world. All ministers of the gospel should be able to go to the internet and browse freely! 

The Facebook currently is where the action is. The CNN people made a very powerful statement three days ago in a discussion programmme: “…If face book were church, it would be the biggest congregation...” What they mean is that so many people are on it every minute. Most of them have nothing serious to do, but just there for fun and entertainment. If we do not organize ourselves well to saturate the medium with the word of God, Satan will take over. He will dominate the ungodly. He will use it to bait not only our church members, but our biological children too! 

LET'S TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE FACEBOOK TO GRAB OUR SHARE OF THE SOULS. In the light of these, I appeal to every minister everywhere by the mercies of Jesus Christ to embrace the challenge of e-witnessing, .. not only by being ICT-conscious.. but by helping others to get access to the net. GOD BLESS YOU ALL. PASTOR BOACHIE-ANSAH, 8/4/2010