Click Here, Get Saved?

I recently signed up at Crosswalk.com to receive their "Evangelism Weekly" eMail newsletter. Of course I'm not looking for doctrinal information from them, but sometimes good ideas (that I can tweak, or write about) for reaching out to others can come from places that you might not expect. This morning's subject line caught my attention for obvious reasons:
"Social Media: The Latest Evangelism Tool"

Here's an excerpt from the article, written by Robert Wayne (available here):

"Nearly 2,000 years after Jesus commanded followers to go into all the world and make disciples, an increasing number of gospel messengers are doing their missionary travels by way of social media.

It is the latest trend: build a website by which, with the push of a button or click of a mouse, spiritual seekers from around the globe can hear and read about how to begin a personal relationship with Christ."

Of course I'm all about using new/social media to reach out to the lost. I've been "preaching" that point for the last few years. But as I read through this article, I slowly came to realize that their intentions were vastly different from mine.

Yes, we both want to reach the "lost" with the Gospel. Yes, we both want them to "be saved." But our similarities in usage of social media end there. You see, we have different measures of success.

From the same article, there is a quote from John Essig, a pastor at Fellowship Church in Springfield, Ohio. He states:

“From 350,000 to two million people a day will read the gospel message, with about 15 percent of those clicking a button at the bottom of the page telling us they just gave their life to Christ.”

You see, for many their mission starts and ends on the website. In their (and many's) take on salvation, it's as simple as "accepting Jesus into your heart" or "giving your life to Christ." For them, new media is essentially a "cure all" for evangelism. After all, if obedience to the point of salvation is as simple as a penitent prayer, what need would anyone ever have to meet the person who they intend to help "save?"

The "click here, get saved" method is enough for them. That's because their teaching about salvation is incomplete, and false.

The Bible makes it plain what is necessary for salvation - belief (John 3:16; Mark 16:16; Hebrews 11:6), repentance (Luke 13:3; Acts 2:38), confession with the mouth before men that Jesus is the son of God (Matthew 10:32-33; Romans 10:9-10), and immersion in water for the forgiveness of sins (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 22:16; 1 Peter 3:21) and a continuing faithfulness to God (2 Thess. 2:15; 1 John 5:13; Rev. 2:10). It's not any one of those things - it's all of them in tandem.

I bring these things up to go back to another point that I try to make to people when I talk about using technology, and specifically new media, to reach out to others in an evangelistic sense.

Technology is NOT a cure-all.

At some point, a person will have to sit across from the table of a sinner seeking forgiveness, open the Bible with them, take their confession that Jesus is the son of God, and put their hands on them to lower them into the waters of baptism, then raise them back up again to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3-4).

There is no "click here to be saved" option in God's plan.

Where, then, does technology fit in? How are we, as the church of Christ, to use the tools available to us. I'm afraid that sometimes we miss the point of having such tools as social media, and new media. They aren't there to just "start a conversation." They are tools by which we can make contact with people who we might never have a chance to make contact with otherwise. They allow others to get to know us, and what we believe, to the point that they allow us into their living room, office, or kitchen. They are valuable tools to that point. They are a means to an end, but not the end.

It's for this reason that I encourage you to be more active in your use of new media. Don't just set up "sign post" websites waiting for people to show up. Use the digital means we have to make connections with people. Then follow up on them.

Despite the complex times we live in, the simplicity of the Gospel hasn't changed, the requirements haven't changed, and in the end, if we are to be evangelistic in the way that God desires us to be, we'll have to "finish" the commission the same way John, Peter, Paul, Barnanbas, Luke, Timothy, Titus, and others did - face to face with a soul needing Christ.

-Daniel