Today’s Christian is bombarded from a colorful palette of media and technology, each one with its own set of benefits and distractions.  It’s the world we live in today, and we can’t turn our back on that influence. The Holy Bible teaches us to become discerning, to know what is righteous and good.  Technology and media can be used to honor God with the right approach.  Today’s younger generations have been exposed to media and technology from birth: tablets for children are teaching them skills earlier than generations before them.  It is foolish of us to condemn the technology or ignore its impact that has become a permanent part of our world.  It’s up to us to teach each other how to use media and technology, not for manipulation of the Word, but for the benefit of reaching the unreachable, of teaching the possibility of millions about Jesus and His salvation.  With media, the quality of the technology, not the quantity, will continue to be a valuable tool in evangelism today.

Reverend Billy Graham began his early years holding indoor and outdoor rallies and using the media of radio and television broadcasts, many of which are still re-broadcast today.  He is estimated to have reached 2.2 billion people including his radio and television audiences.

Books and news print media like magazines and journals are old school but continue to reach another generation as books are converted to digital formats that are more accessible than ever before.  Ebooks, Ejournals, and Emagazines are reaching a new generation of readers searching for answers.  A popular free digital application that is valuable to any Christian is You Version Bible app, a free downloadable application that allows the user to access and read the Holy Bible in a translation of his or her choice anywhere.

News talk radio with hosts like Hannity, Larry King, Limbaugh, Lars Larson, and others provides a mass media, syndicated approach to quick clips, guest speakers, and topics of interest that can be played and replayed on the Internet.  Local Christian radio stations and internet radio stations are also sources of media content that can be live streamed on digital devices.

Movies with Christian content are a growing market reaching out to movie goers looking for uplifting content and answers to questions of the ages.  Movies have become a way to reach masses and educate people in an entertaining medium.  T.D. Jakes is an influential pastor who is using the medium of film making to spread inspirational Christian content.

The Internet has opened many avenues of media and content that is easily accessed and used.  The earliest of these are Web pages for ministries, churches and pastors. These have become a means to show the world what each ministry has to offer, through simple to complex web construction. Links on websites provide access to information within a web site as well as external links to music, software, publications: a means to reach millions of people, just as Billy Graham did with his early rallies and program broadcasts.

A quickly growing form of spreading articles and releases is by blogging, an online forum known as weblog-shortened to blog-that can be created easily.  Blogs appeal to Millennials, promoted in the film Julie and Julia. Blog content can be a review of sermon, an editorial, articles on hot topics, recordings on blog talk radio all provide an endless list of topics with the opportunity to reach millions of young people who are savvy in using this technology.

Video clips online have two avenues of viewing.  Popular YouTube is easy to access, easy to use and can be seen digitally on cell phones, tablets and personal computers.  Recorded sermons can be easily uploaded then viewed at leisure by an unlimited number of congregation members. Podcasts either linked off of websites or produced and uploaded to a server such as iTunes is another means to broadcast video to a wide population.

Facebook and Twitter can be considered the “gossip pages of the world”.  Used with discernment, a pastor can use these resources as an almost instant communication with followers and friends alike.  Posting popular Christian music links, Bible content, and daily devotionals are just a few ways that pastors can reach out and maintain contact with their congregations. The key again is discernment and using it to honor God and Jesus, not to promote personal egos or gossip pages. Ministries and churches can use the pages to promote upcoming events, concerts, revivals, community activities-the list is endless.

There are many other social media sources available that pastors, churches and ministries can use to reach out to the previously unreachable.  They are unreachable for many reasons, work, travel, distance, education, deployment….but we all have something in us that wants to shine through, God put it there and we just don’t realize it.  God Vine, Pinterest, God Interest are other sources that can be used to spark an interest in a hard to reach population in a hard to live day and age.

Evangelism is not about choreographed theatrics with a lot of drama and pageantry followed by an empty message by a canned presentation. Many churches have used media in order to please a population.  At what sacrifice?  It is up to us as pastors, evangelists, church families…all of us…to spread the message of hope that God gave us and has for us through His Son Jesus.  Using technology as discerning stewards is not a sin, but a tool that can reach billions over a period of time.  And isn’t that something that would please God? God bless you all.