A New Battle for Hearts, Minds and Global Redemption By Gordon Marcy

With the Internet becoming increasingly important for nearly everybody, I’m amazed that many Christian leaders and ministries are still reluctant to develop full-time online outreach.

The Internet is not a fad.

Usage continues to soar, and there’s no sign of slowing down.

In 2013, over 2.7 billion people were using the Internet, representing 39% of the world’s population.

Mobile broadband subscriptions have climbed to 2.1 billion.

In the last four and a half years, mobile app downloads have exploded, from zero in early 2008 to a cumulative total of more than 70 billion by year-end 2012.

In 2013, we’ll download an additional 70 billion apps.

2015: What’s Ahead

According to the latest edition of the Cisco Visual Networking Index, global Internet traffic is expected to increase threefold in the next five years, following fourfold growth in the previous five.

The “How Much Media? 2013 Report on American Consumers” indicates that by 2015 we will:

1. Consume media for more than 1.7 trillion hours, an average of approximately 15.5 hours per person daily.
2. Watch the video for almost 11 hours a month, a compound annual growth rate of 24% yearly.
3. Use Facebook and YouTube for a total of 35.2 billion hours annually.

The last victory is at hand.

The world is searching online. Making sure they find Jesus is often called a “Digital Mission.”  Increasing involvement in Digital Missions consists of two decisive factors:

They are recognizing that the future of effective media outreach is at stake. The Internet, in combination with radio and television, presents the Church with a trifecta of weapons to reach people with the gospel from any media source, anywhere they live, at any time, day or night. Traditional media, including TV and radio, still account for two-thirds of U.S. household media time. But, the picture is changing fast as digital platforms continue to grow and majorly affect media consumption.

It knows that we are in a war, and one of its battlefields is the media. A battle to win souls is taking place in the media. Our enemies have been conducting spiritual warfare through the media for decades. Digital technology has intensified the struggle. “Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8, NLT)

What will it take to win the war?

Peter Kreeft says, “All it takes is saints.” Media warrior saints taking the gospel online in the name of Jesus Christ, “In whose name the nations will put their hope.” (Matthew 12:21)

What would happen if twelve leaders read this post, offered Christ 100%, embraced new media channels, and held nothing back?

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 Gordon Marcy has spent several decades of his professional career in Christian broadcasting and is currently the founder and president of Glorystone. TV. Gordon is also an online missionary for Global Media Outreach.

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