Technology And Effective Evangelism

By Mike Riley

There’s no question in this writer’s mind that our world is a much smaller place because of the advances in technology over the past thirty years. We can now instantaneously contact individuals at one click of a computer mouse via email or one button on a cell phone.

​The possibilities of evangelism over the Internet are virtually endless. For example, people around the world with Internet access, had the capability of viewing the 46th Annual Memphis School of Preaching Lectureship via the OABS website. This could not have been possible just a few short years ago.

The Apologetics Press website has both audio and video files that can be accessed by both students and teachers around the world, educating them about God’s truth found in the Bible, counteracting humanist teachings found in the public school libraries of our country, such as evolution and atheism.

The Preacher’s Files website went online in September of 2001, and has since grown into a major resource for Bible teaching on the Internet.

However, there is a downside to technology with regards to effective evangelism. While we can reach more people than ever before with technology and the Internet, the downside of that capability, is that we lose the personal aspect of one-on-one interaction with people.
USA Today human behavior and relationships writer, Sharon Jayson, looks at the possibility of overusing technology to the exclusion of one-on-one interactions with people. Neuroscientist Gary Small, a brain researcher at the University of California-Los Angeles, recently made this comment regarding hand-held computers: “They give us opportunities to enhance our lives, but also to disrupt our conventional lives.”

Mr. Small also makes the following observation:
“Our brains are sensitive to stimuli moment to moment, and if you spend a lot of time with a particular mental experience or stimulus, the neural circuits that control that mental experience will strengthen,” he says. “At the same time, if we neglect certain experiences, the circuits that control those will weaken. If we’re not having conversations or looking people in the eye — human contact skills — they will weaken.“

​The Ecclesiastes writer advises us not to go to extremes (Ecclesiastes 7:16-18 NIV – see commentary; cf. Proverbs 25:16,27), and such is the case regarding our use of technology in evangelism. The one-on-one method of teaching that Jesus used during His earthly ministry (Matthew 16:13-28; John 3:1-21; John 4:1-26; John 13), is still the most effective form of evangelism that we have today. However, using the technology tools we have at our disposal in a wise manner, can enhance our one-on-one teaching efforts.